Should The Onion fire whoever posted its controversial Oscar tweet?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

As I reported in the Oscars thread: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57571025-93/the-onion-deletes-offensive-tweet-about-child-oscar-nominee

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

No.  If you get offended easily don't subscribe to their tweets or read their website.

Using an extremely vulgar and offensive insult against a completely innocent 9-year old goes far beyond anything they've posted before.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The other problem is that the tweet wasn't the slightest bit even remotely funny.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Uh, what would you think if one of our brilliant blue avatars called Sandra Fluke that during those threads about it? And in this case it was against a 9-year old girl.

I doubt it was even the word, if it was against Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann no one would care

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Just a theory, but the fact that the Forum is overwhelmingly male might have something to do with the fact that not many people here found the tweet offensive.

This. And somewhat ironic that two of those who did (me and memphis) are also two people frequently called out as sexist by a certain white knight.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

BRTD, had McFarlane made a joke like this you would have said nothing.  He's made jokes about kids and women.  A lot of people are very upset about his boobs song. Rabble rabble let's take this sexist pig off the air.  This is a stupid, manufactured controversy. Jokes are going to offend people.

That's not true. I've always said that Not All Dogs Go to Heaven is a terrible terrible episode except for the pretty good B plot with Stewie kidnapping the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast. Singing about boobs is quite different from using this type of derogatory dehumanizing language, which he doesn't do. As noted, if anyone posted something like that about Sandra Fluke during those oh so delightful threads on her, they'd probably be banned or at least on a final warning of "Say something like that again and you will be banned" like Al implied is the case with Link.

Jokes are going to offend people.

I never understood the logic behind saying that if something is a joke, it should be exempt from the rules of what we would normally consider offensive. Nor do I understand why the funniness of that joke is morally relevant in any way.

The other problem: This "joke" was not funny.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

So at least patrick disagrees with the 8 death points I once got for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSZosqXOyc0

For the record I can't think of anything I've found both offensive and funny. I didn't find Seth's boobs song to be too particularly funny but not offensive either. The overreaction? Funny. But talking about a 9-year old like this? Not at all funny and quite offensive. There's a reason it's basically the first thing ever The Onion has had to issue an apology for.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm not familiar in English enough to know exactly how offensive the word is (though judging from what I've heard from other Americans, it seems to be really bad). In any case, I really fail to see what was supposedly funny about that tweet.

The rough French equivalent is "chatte", though that doesn't seem to be as bad as the word is considered in American English (more equivalent to "pussy"). As Lief noted, it's not considered as bad in non-Canadian Commonwealth countries, (reminds me about how there are certain Spanish words that are considered only mildly crude or informal in Spain, but are considered to be at least mild profanity in Latin America, and this made for some awkwardness when some channels in South America started airing children's shows from Spain and didn't bother to edit out those words.) but in the US is probably considered the worst profane word there is. Probably because in North America it's not really just a crude term for genitalia so much as a gender equivalent of a racial epithet. It's about on the level if they had called the girl as she's also black a "n**ger" or a Jewish actor/actress a "k**e".

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'll just also point out that if The Onion had the tweet say "Jennifer Lawrence" instead there would no doubt be a lot of anger but they probably wouldn't have had to have deleted it or issue an apology. Because you know, it's quite a bit different about a 9-year old.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Maybe people are finding it funny and defending it because so many here are South Park fans. It's the same style of "humor" South Park uses after all.

OMG OFFENSIVE! LULZ SHOCK VALUE LULZ!

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Why is it odd that I don't like misogyny, attacking kids, and stupid shock value "humor" that takes no talent to write and is on the level of internet trolls (that The Onion usually stays far far away from)?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

That Chris Brown/Rihanna joke would be pretty standard on Family Guy. But seriously, Family Guy doesn't rely on stupid shock value for humor, nor does it adhere to the "It's offensive, so clearly it's funny" style of "humor". It makes actual jokes about touchy subjects, which is not the same thing.

And also can you imagine how stupid and unfunny it'd be if the South Park idiots ever hosted the Oscars?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Things are relative Inks. I bet you found that Family Guy Vietnam War Memorial joke more offensive than any joke on South Park that makes fun of liberals. It's pretty obvious which of those I find more offensive.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Things are relative Inks. I bet you found that Family Guy Vietnam War Memorial joke more offensive than any joke on South Park that makes fun of liberals. It's pretty obvious which of those I find more offensive.

If that's genuinely the case then you are really an amazingly oversensitive person in some ways. And this is coming from me.

Not really since I didn't find the Vietnam War Memorial joke the slightest bit offensive, so anything I found in any way offensive no matter how mild I would consider more offensive. This episode is the only time I've ever been offended by Family Guy.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Inks, I just posted a Family Guy episode above that I was offended by.

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Because Seth was bashing Christians and portraying all Christians as bigoted and/or stupid. Also the logic he used was pretty ridiculous and absurd (God can't exist because Meg is the way she is...except Meg is a cartoon character) and the premise of the episode was a giant plot hole (It makes no sense for Brian to be an atheist because Brian has actually met Jesus Christ.)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The other big difference between this and the Rihanna joke (besides that Rihanna is an adult.) is that she was actually sitting with Chris Brown at the time.