The Absurdity of Actual Events Is Eclipsing Parody*

It’s seldom a laughing matter when reality mimics parody

Playing Doctor or Bless Their Little Hearts, Watercolor, 38.5" x 48.5", Richard J Van Wagoner, Courtesy of Van Wagoner Family Trust**

The Onion self-identifies as “America’s Finest News Source” and “the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events.” It claims to support “more than 350,000 full- and part-time journalism jobs in its numerous news bureaus and manual labor camps stationed around the world, and members of its editorial board have served with distinction in an advisory capacity for such nations as China, Syria, Somalia, and the former Soviet Union. . . . The Onion’s keen, fact-driven reportage has been cited favorably by one or more local courts, as well as Iran and the Chinese state-run media.”

The Onion recently filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging a ruling by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. According to the Sixth Circuit, parody retains First Amendment protection only if parodists “explicitly say, up-front, that their work is nothing more than an elaborate fiction,” stripping “parody of the very thing that makes it function,” not unlike explaining the punchline of a joke before it’s delivered. The Onion said:

“Americans can be put in jail for poking fun at the government? This was a surprise to America’s Finest News Source and…