Onion photo used as propaganda

April 8, 2004 9:11 AM

This would be funny... if it weren't so very, very sad.
posted by pizzasub (24 comments total)

"We knew it was a gay paper and we hold that even as a joke, the gay community is proud of their advancements into the safe schools program in the U.S.," she said. "We don't think homosexuality in schools is a joke."

Um... Wow. That's just... I don't know what to say.
posted by me3dia at 9:18 AM on April 8, 2004

Here's the Onion article and photo in question.
posted by Tin Man at 9:48 AM on April 8, 2004

"handed out pamphlets and computer disks with a 300 page book of research" that "isn't worth the paper it's printed on".

um... so was there a book, or was there just a copy of the book on a disk? in which case it wouldn't be worth the magnetic or optical media it was printed on.

anyway the onion, taken seriously, never fails to be more amusing than when taken as satire in the first place.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:03 AM on April 8, 2004

OMG Tin Man, I just read the article in your link. How long has this perversion been flourishing in our schools?

Anyone know where I can find out who my congressman is so I can write him and let him know how outraged, OUTRAGED I am?
posted by Swifty at 10:04 AM on April 8, 2004

So we're now in a culture where promoting tolerance and peace is seen as a fucking agenda?

* boggles *
posted by xmutex at 10:08 AM on April 8, 2004

This is not the first time I've seen people take an Onion article a little too seriously. At Snopes there's a good summary of the Harry Potter recruiting young satanists saga.
posted by Jugwine at 10:12 AM on April 8, 2004

I'm with swifty! Why isn't there more of an uproar over this? Those teachers are actually promoting homosexuality! Time to break the glass and get my ruler out! (Family Guy reference).
posted by crazy finger at 10:14 AM on April 8, 2004

So we're now in a culture where promoting tolerance and peace is seen as a fucking agenda?
xmutex, you ARE young. It's been "an agenda" as long as opposing tolerance and peace has been an agenda (which I can personally trace back to the 1960s, but has historical roots going WAY back).
posted by wendell at 10:19 AM on April 8, 2004

One wonders if they are aware of the dangers of Dihydrous Monoxide, too.
posted by briank at 10:21 AM on April 8, 2004

Also, I've found some of the Onion's "gay humor" to be among their most agressively over-the-top and least funny, and therefore most likely to be taken too seriously and repurposed by those without a sense of humor.
posted by wendell at 10:22 AM on April 8, 2004

Other headlines on the archival page are: Antique dealer sick of appraising smurf collections and Orgy a logistical nightmare.

Excellent. What's that old saying - better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you're an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt?
posted by widdershins at 10:23 AM on April 8, 2004

Speaking of photoshop jobs presented as fact. At the bottom.

(If you're in doubt, save the image on the left and play with the Photoshop curves.)
posted by Mayor Curley at 10:24 AM on April 8, 2004

Hey we all know the homo still burns with lucifer, doesnt matter if we gussy our argument up in the living world, am I right?
posted by Keyser Soze at 10:34 AM on April 8, 2004

Is it me, or is this more evidence of a widening gap between idiots and the rest of the world? (i.e. creationism in schools, profession wrestling, killJesus movies, abstinence only education?)
posted by ewkpates at 10:34 AM on April 8, 2004

ewkpates, what is this "rest of the world" of which you speak?
posted by chicobangs at 10:36 AM on April 8, 2004

you and me chico baby, you and me.
posted by ewkpates at 11:53 AM on April 8, 2004

Hey! Don't look down your nose at my professional wrestling! Gah, there is nothing wrong with low-culture entertainment.
posted by andreaazure at 12:24 PM on April 8, 2004

Where were those vocab words when I was in school!! I was in college before I knew what half of those meant.
posted by archimago at 12:25 PM on April 8, 2004

Mayor Curley, after several minutes of fruitless curve tweaking, I'm still in doubt. Could you please spell out what we should be looking for?
posted by mw at 12:27 PM on April 8, 2004

A suggestion: i like to see some indication in text of the FPP as to what it's about. i think maybe others would too. i don't click on everything on Meta. A little more description would make your posts better.
posted by Miles Long at 1:54 PM on April 8, 2004

Thanks for the suggestion, Miles. I tend to be less verbose than I perhaps should be in my posts...
posted by pizzasub at 2:08 PM on April 8, 2004

mw- bring the bell waaaay down and watch the edges of the heart on the sign. It's not spectacular, but you'll see it.
posted by Mayor Curley at 2:12 PM on April 8, 2004

Mayor Curley -- so what does this mean? It appears to be a consequence of the red/white contrast, since the stop-sign shaped sign in the back left behaves the same way.
posted by Krrrlson at 3:02 PM on April 8, 2004

I'm getting to this a bit (okay, a lot) late, thanks to the long weekend, but I just wanted to add that I went to university in London, and I can state from bitter experience that it is one of the most conservative, hidebound towns in Ontario...especially considering that it's a university town, and fairly large (350,000+) to boot.

Students felt safe enough in that environment to write into the school paper (the Western Gazette) and complain about "fags" and "gay porno" when local gay and lesbian groups posted (completely innocuous) ads around campus, and the mayor resigned to avoid having to sign a Gay Pride Day into existence...and then ran in the next election, without campaigning, and won in a landslide, presumably because she'd stood up to all those gross fags.

London. Nice city. Pity about the citizens.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:49 AM on April 13, 2004