The Onion and Philosophy: Fake News Story True, Alleges Indignant Area Professor

Popular Culture and Philosophy #54

by Sharon Kaye (Editor)

The Onion, with its unique brand of deadpan satirical humor, has become a familiar part of the American scene. The newspaper has a readership of over a million, and it reaches millions more with its spin-off books and The Onion News Network. The Onion has shown us that standard ways of thinking about the news have their grotesque and silly side, and this invites philosophical examination. Twenty-one philosophers were commissioned to figure out just what makes the Onion so truthful and insightful. Are the Onion writers truly cynical, or just cynically faking it? Does the Onion really have a serious point of view on religion? On sex? On politics? Who cares what Area Man thinks? If everyone’s so dumb, how come so many Onion readers keep on laughing at how dumb they are?

Genres: Philosophy, Humor, Pop Culture, Nonfiction, Essays

286 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

Sharon M. Kaye, PhD, is a professor of philosophy at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. She’s also the author of Big Thinkers and Ideas: An Introduction to Eastern and Western Philosophy for Kids.

Reviews

[Will]

Area Reader Pissed-Off By Pseudo-Openminded Snobs Who Think They're Funny

[Arjun]

Bookmarks in comments

[Ellison Rhea]

This could've been so flipping cool, but as far as I'm concerned, it tanked. I love how the Onion is that it is playful but usually on-point when it comes to cultural nonsense. I thought this project would do the same for pop philosophy. And it had a few moments like that. But the further I read, the more it grew into a direct, asshole-ish, and FLAT tease of Theistic-minded people in general, interspersed with bouts of bewilderingly pointless crudeness. I'm choosing to believe this isn't what's actually in the background of all of the background of all of The Onion's great content. I'm sticking with the blog for now!

[Ron]

A strange book, and strangely unfunny. I thought it would be an Onion-esque romp through philosophy. What it was was a series of essays on how various philosophical concepts or schools of philosophical thought are used to make jokes. The explanations were tedious, and by and large not at all funny. The only connection to Onion-esque writing was the liberal quoting of Onion headlines to illustrate the essayist's interpretations of philosophical ideas.
I plowed through it as bedtime reading, and now and again chuckled. But it ended up largely forgettable.
I will remember one giggle-inducing headline: "Study: Most self-abuse goes unreported."

[Claudio Slamovits]

Ups and downs, some chapters are interesting, give you some food for thought, others are rather shallow but funny and a few are rather forgettable. My balance is positive, good book unless you are a conservative and religious person, in which case you'll feel pissed.

[Monica]

Some chapters are way better than others.

[Maddisen]

Ahhh, I believe we would've been better off leaving "The Onion" to it's world of satirical humor and hope that the idiots of world don't bash each other's heads in with baseball bats.
Was this interesting? 100%! I think it's a great read if you want to challenge your brain to new pathways of thinking or exercise your thought processes.
It's funny at times while staying true to its serious outlook, and I especially enjoyed the commentary on region and sexuality.
The middle 100 pages are a slug to get through, and I found my mind wondering more often than not, which isn't a good sgin when you hope to learn something new. . .

Finished 9:50pm

[Word Muncher]

I love the Onion. It reminds me of Chapelle and his philosophies because a lot of times their sarcasm is to make people realise their own beliefs and the ridiculousness of what is being said. It highlights what could be foolishness / assholery on spectrums to make logic reign on another end. And it's funny as only the truth can be. Every word is well thought out and expects a reaction. Some brilliant views, sarcasm and satire. But so clever, witty and sometimes scary because it is, after all, the truth.

[William Schram]

The Onion is a satirical newspaper that gets the point. The Onion and Philosophy is a series of essays that use The Onion to demonstrate their ideas.

I enjoyed this one. It reminded me of a lot of the greatest hits from The Onion.

[Meli Jones]

3.75⭐

Overall I found this quite clever and thought-provoking. A few chapters fell flat, but regardless this was definitely a worthwhile and compelling read.

[Faith]

Loved it, very tongue in check and sarcastic look at today's world.