Dim.

Wasn't there a similar dust-up over an Onion article about Harry Potter being pro-Satanic or something? ANd lots of sites passed around the link as if it were a news article?

Yeah, here's the older Harry Potter Onion thing, from Snopes.

I'd be careful, JT. These folks could have a second affliction, Frisch Derangement Syndrome, and Ducky could be a target. You may want to take those pics of you and Ducky off the net just in case...

/sarcaster [and satire] off

DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS! Especially at their sites.

As soon as I saw The Onion mentioned, I started laughing so hard that I couldn't even read the thing. I *knew* what te guy was gonna say, and I knew that he had absolutely no clue what The Onion is.

Wow. Just, WOW.

Thanks alot, JT.

I could feel my IQ diminishing as I was reading the comments to that post.

I mean, sure, the guy got taken in by an Onion article. That's happened plenty of times.

But I kind of feel sorry for the guy after all of the love, compassion, understanding, and tolerance shown to him by the pro-abortion types commenting on the post.

Well, the Internet is nothing if not educational. I'm sure "Pete" will learn a lot about the definition of "satire" and how he really ought to engage brain before writing.

That said, I've gotta say he seems sincere in his anti-abortion stance.

"jackassery" is my new favorie word.

The comments sort of got out of hand, not surprisingly. I did like the one from the guy suggesting his next article should be on freeing Prince Albert from the can.

Theonion.com also had a "News in Brief" awhile back about "Recreational Abortionists" getting all excited about being allowed to pursue their hobby, with the same underlying message as the article this clown at March Together didn't get.

Did you see the article about Rumsfeld holding a no-holds-barred martial arts tournament on his island fortress? I was all like, "WTF?! No he didn't! He isn't cultured enough!"

Tim Blair had one about a lefty having a dialog with a spambot in his comments.

The lefty blogger posted some screed (I think it was a Bush is the embodiment of all evil variation).

The spambot sent a "Great post, by the way buy some [Viagra, 21 year old ukranian bride, used books or whatever] from me.

Lefty blogger then thanks spambot for comment and re-starts his screed.

Finally those able to buy a clue point out that he is having a conversation with a spambot.

http://timblair.net/ee/index.php/weblog/comments/journalist_makes_a_new_friend/

My favorite Onion article was "Pope recinds Blessed status of the Meek." Memorable lines like "Screw the meek. They've had two millenia to inherit the Earth and aren't holding up their end of the bargain. I hereby declare "Blessed Are The Rich, for they, Truly, have inherited the Earth."

I cried I was laughing so hard.

I have on (I think) one occasion bitten on a satire piece but from the Onion???? MAN that takes the cake.

I think it's safe to say the writer has led a pretty "sheltered" life...

(My favorite Onion was still the terrorists ending up in hell, the virgins sounded like Helen Thomas clones tho)

Wow. Be sure to read his recent posts after getting bombarded with ridicule. He still believes there is a woman named Caroline Weber who writes for the Onion, and while she may not have been serious about her abortion, she's still "a woman who supports the murder of over 3,000 babies/human beings every single day." First of all, wow, she's busy. Secondly, wow, he's stupid. My favorite was this:

The hate mail continues to flow in like water. The "intellectual left" continues to throw every cuss word in the dictionary at me. (yes, I said "cuss", not "curse", that drives them nuts too...past experience, believe me)

Oooh, I hate when people say cuss instead of curse. Makes me want to have 50 abortions!

Thanks Jay, that was hilarious.

I think the guy is having a joke at everyone else's expense.

Look at the crazy traffic he got for pretending to think that Onion article is real!

He was pretending, right?

It is his reaction that makes this worse. Instead of simply saying, "Yeah, I got fooled. Sorry about that," he continues on attacking the fictional Caroline Weber and the Onion for using satire to make a political point. Can I go back to the 80's for a second? Duh!

I'm a very pro-life and probably agree with this guy in virtually everything, but he is a moron for not knowing what the Onion is and for not owning up to the mistake.

He's written like three or four posts touching on the controversy and not once does he say he screwed up - he pulls a page from the left's play book and blames everything on the "intellecutal left" with their fancy satire and all that.

He really is a disservice to the pro-life cause.

So I guess that guy at the "esoterically" blog thinks Jonathan Swift advocated baby-eating.

I seemed to have gotten "len" to close his comments.

I should continue to use my power for good.

I've seen a lot, but this leaves me stupefied.

Told ya we shouldn't have appeased that little sumbeeotch:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/27590?issue=4228&special=2003

Now we're going to have to suck up to the Zentraedi as well as the Russians and Chinese to contain this psycho. Dammit!

Ken McCracken is right. No one as clueless as this joker pretends to be makes a point-by-point rebuttal. The Onion is too obviously satirical for anyone born after 1930 to miss it. Pete is giving your chain a great big jerk.

He thinks THAT article is bad ... uh ... how about:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33586?issue=4228&special=2003

I mean ... come on ... doesn't love some good bathroom pornography? phbft ...

The last line of the Snopes article linked by johnAA pretty much sums it up:

If The Onion's parody has demonstrated anything, it's that we should be worrying about adults not being able to distinguish between fiction and reality. The kids themselves seem to have a pretty good grasp of it

No one as clueless as this joker pretends to be makes a point-by-point rebuttal. The Onion is too obviously satirical for anyone born after 1930 to miss it. Pete is giving your chain a great big jerk.

I think you overestimate your fellow man. Have a look at his posts prior to the Onion debacle, and for that matter his blogroll. He's not kidding, he's just incredibly stupid.

Okay I confess, it took me a couple of visit to realize that Scrappleface was satire.

I seemed to have gotten "len" to close his comments.

Your name is "rwilymz" and you put my name in quotes? (My real name, by the way.)

I thought y'all had pretty had much your say and we might be ready to move to other things. Obviously not. If you have something to say, by all means come back and say it.

I love the Onion. Everytime I go over there I laugh.

This person obviously got taken, but methinks the commenters protest too much.

Also, I think she's right that underlying the satire there was a jab being thrown at pro-lifers. I don't read the site enough to know if it's satire usually leans this way, but it certainly did in this case.

Your name is "rwilymz" and you put my name in quotes?

Could be initials, I don't know.

I don't know you.

And rwilymz is my real name too -- just phonetic. And unique. None other like it. I've used it for over a decade now with no contention from anyone else over who got to be the first one with the site login of, say, "len".

If you have something to say, by all means come back and say it.

I just had a chuckle that as soon as I pointed out Carlin calling for drivers on our roadways to kill each other as a form of irony you closed comments. That's all. Figured it suddenly dawned on you that first-impression indignation is sometimes overblown.

But maybe dawn hasn't broken after all. Or you just like driving with your headlights on during the day.

Okay - my head just exploded.

Again.

Everybody has to discover The Onion for the first time, and those people with better things to do with their lives than read that un-funny piece of crap can be forgiven for being taken in. Remember that GOOD satire is also FUNNY. When it's not funny - as is the case with 99% of the crap in The Onion, good people with good intentions can be forgiven for not "getting" it the first time they see it. Fake reporting that lacks humor isn't satire, it's... well, it's the New York Times. This little episode reveals as much about how bad The Onion sucks these days, as it does about the blogger's inability to tell satire from reality.

Once upon a time, The Onion was funny. The last funny thing I read on there was years ago, and it was one of those headlines with no story behind it: "Chinese man still writing 'horse' on checks." Scrappleface and Iowahawk long ago left The Onion in their dust.

I don't like eggs. Is that politically correst, or do I need anger management?