If another person tries to explain satire to me as if I didn’t learn that in middle school, I will scream. We get it: The Onion is a satirical website, a funny one that this writer used to visit frequently. No one and no topic is off limits in their brand of satirical comedy. None of that excuses the site or the tweet’s author for calling nine-year-old Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis the c-word. There’s no satire or comedy in degrading a child who, by the way, was making history at last night’s Oscars as the youngest nominee ever.
Rightfully enraged tweeters were on fire last night once the “word” spread about The Onion’s tasteless “joke.” It’s also worth noting the tweet was shortly after Oscars host Seth McFarlane joked about the nine-year-old getting with George Clooney, which has also been criticized. The site’s sexist tweet which some also argue has racial undertones (you have to wonder if Dakota Fanning would’ve been treated in such a way, asked Elizabeth Hawksworth ) was deleted an hour after it was sent out to it’s 4 million followers. This morning the Chief Executive for The Onion issued an apology via Facebook seeing as thousands of people called them out on their distasteful judgment. We will continue stanning for Quvenzhané–she’s so adorable, how could you not?–while smiling at the tweets from celebrities like Holly Robinson Peete and The Wire’s Wendell Pierce who were outraged right along with the everyday public.
[Photo: Getty Images]