The Onion apologizes? Who knew? America's favorite satire newspaper, The Onion, has been celebrated for years as a bastion of intelligent, absurd, caustic and edgy cultural and political writing, but it has recently become the subject of public outcry and backlash in regards to a humorous tweet, posted as part of their flurry of Oscars posts during the 85th annual Academy Award on Sunday, Feb. 24.
The tweet in question was a tongue-in-cheek jab at Quvenzhané Wallis, the youngest actress ever nominated for the category of Best Actress in a Leading Role at the Academy Awards. The tweet read as follows: "Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a cunt, right? #Oscars2013." The Onion appears to apologize after all, having since removed the tweet, though this instance of rescinded humor was likely spurred to do so given the backlash against their particular, if satirical, contempt towards a child.
It is worth nothing that, yes, The Onion apologized, but it is important to consider first why they made the tweet at all. Clearly, it was intended as an absurd commentary on the scrutiny and sensationalism that surrounds the cult of celebrity, and not about the young and beloved actress herself. After all, it is nearly impossible to dislike young, prodigal Quvenzhané Wallis, whose performance in "Beasts of The Southern Wild" was jaw-dropping and emotional. The tweet offended people across the media and Internet, regardless, and, feeling the heat, The Onion apologized. As Laura Hudson at Wired explains:
Ostensibly, The Onion's tweet points out the toxicity of the language our media, politics and culture use toward women by directing that same sort of gendered contempt toward a female that most people would agree doesn't "deserve" it: a child. (The corollary being: Why do we think adult women "deserve" it?) That's what often makes art and comedy useful, after all -- their ability to point out the absurdities in the things we never question, in new ways that make us see them differently or feel differently about them.
The problem -- as The Onion quickly realized, deleting the tweet within an hour -- is that in the process of trying to satirize the media's cruelty toward women, they ended up accidentally perpetuating it. Worse, they did it at the expense of a child, violating one of the cardinal rules of good comedy (and good humanity): Don't punch down.
The Onion proceeded to issue a public apology through Facebook to Quvenzhané Wallis and the rest of their readership. A transcript follows below:
Dear Readers,
On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive-not to mention inconsistent with The Onion's commitment to parody and satire, however biting.
No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire.
The tweet was taken down within an hour of publication. We have instituted new and tighter Twitter procedures to ensure that this kind of mistake does not occur again.
In addition, we are taking immediate steps to discipline those individuals responsible.
Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry.
Well, it's better than nothing, we suppose. We are sure that the indomitable Quvenzhané Wallis will continue to triumph as an incredible young performer. Quvenzhané Wallis lost out on the Best Actress Award to Jennifer Lawrence for "Silver Linings Playbook," but did so with a remarkably mature gracefulness; She has just been signed on to play the role of Annie in the upcoming remake of the hit musical, "Annie," produced by Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Jay-Z.
View a trailer for "Beasts of the Southern Wild," starring Quvenzhané Wallis, below.
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