50 Times People Fell For Fake Satirical Articles And Made Fools Of Themselves Online
Satire is usually meant to be funny. However, it often serves a greater purpose too, providing constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society.
In the digital age, The Onion is probably the most prevalent satirical publisher—it produces articles on international, national, and local news. Even though The Onion ceased publishing its print edition in 2013, it has survived online where the company has been operating since the spring of 1996.
Occasionally, the serious, straight-faced manner in which The Onion "reports" on non-existent events, happenings, and ideas has resulted in people mistakenly thinking the stories are real news.
In fact, this started happening so often, it even gave birth to a subreddit, collecting screenshots of these gullible folks' reactions. Continue scrolling and check out some of the top posts of r/AteTheOnion, which currently has over 509K members and has started featuring reactions to satire created outside of The Onion too.
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One of the moderators of the subreddit, TheCats_Bananas, thinks that satirical news is now as important as any other form of comedy. "News outlets have always favored tragic events over uplifting ones so in a way, I think satirical news helps people see the bright side. Or at the very least it makes them consider that there might be a bright side and not everything is as terrible as it is presented on the news," they told Bored Panda.
Robert "Bob" Mankoff, an American cartoonist who was the cartoon editor for The New Yorker for nearly twenty years, agrees with this statement. To justify mockery that is political satire, he goes back to Aristotle: "By holding bad behavior up to ridicule we might, as it were, 'laugh folly out of existence.' Syllogistically, a la Aristotle, it might be put something like this: 1) Politicians behaving badly will be mocked; 2) Politicians don't like to be mocked. 3) Politicians will stop behaving badly."
However, is that what really happens? Not really. But more than two millennia later, political folly is still as much with us despite the fact that political satire reaches more of the populace than ever before, as part of the entertainment industry. "There's now a veritable satiric-industrial complex. Furthermore, that populace is no longer just a passive recipient of Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Onion or an occasional New Yorker cover or cartoon, but is actively participating by blogging, Twittering and Facebooking their own material. Don't get me wrong, I like political satire and would like to think that it has some effect other than tweaking the mighty and getting laughs. But I think that would be confusing appearance with reality."
The Onion’s Bias Is Showing Again
TheCats_Bananas believes there are two main reasons why people fall for fake political satire. "The first one [is] that people are used to seeing news on their feeds so when they see a satirical headline, they don't even consider that it might be satirical unless it's extremely farfetched, so they just comment on it without much of a second thought," they said. "The second reason is that in recent times, actual news headlines have gotten so unexpected and ridiculous that people have just accepted the fact that most of it is real so there's little reason to doubt anything anymore."
Their insights really make sense—I think r/AteTheOnion isn't laughing at the people in the pictures; it provides multilayered commentary on political communication and mass media. And that's why the subreddit is awesome.
I’m Done
This one actually could have been cool if real. Auction off the first doses to help pay for the rollout for us normies.
Dont Worry I Told Her It Was Satire
While this one is satire it wouldn't really surprise me if the much more militant and extremist segment of vegans would actually make such an argument.
You Know Who Else Didn't Fight In Vietnam? Obama! Thanks Obama
Every time I read news about Trump, I am genuinely not sure if it’s satire or not
Please Help This Girl
"And then she said sir... I like it when they say sir... please help this girl. You're the only one who can. And I told her I'd love to help her. But she has to do something for me first..."
Paw Patrol Gets Too Real For This Atetheonioner
Didn't he have to reload a couple of times? Sounds like the black Lab was just asking for it.
Spray My Kids In The Eyes With Vinegar? I’m Open To It
I would agree this one seems dangerous, way too many people that take things like this seriously.
I'd say it's just natural selection at that point....but sadly it's the kids of the morons that would suffer.
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Its not good for eyes. Don't try it, it'l make you go blind. BUT its very good for a safe, clean detergent. Kills 95% of all germs, including Covid-19. But it is horrible for eyes, don't try it, even for a tiktok.
Sometimes it's hard to believe that any of the comments really exist and are not fake. But you make me get rid of all my doubts. I've been laughing way more at your comments than at the actual posts 😂
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The account is called "Woke AF About Cancer", the hashtag is Hungry Eyes for Pete's sake AND it says vinegar gets rid of "eye measles". How on earth could anyone think this is anything but satire. I hope she doesn't breed, the moron gene will stop with her >-D
People also eat detergent pods and lick toilet seats, soo.......
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But I'm open to new methods it's what you say before drinking blech to prevent corona virus.
You do know that you can make a nice set of contacts from one of those Listerine breath strips...
Ooooh, I'll try it tonight! If it's in writing it must be true.
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This one is dangerous and there's a lot of stupid people out there believing it...........
This is actually the recipe for an excellent kitchen cleaner.
I feel like people should have to pass a basic intelligence test before procreating. Their poor children!
If anyone contemplates doing this to their kids, they should never have procreated.
I think what scares me the most is the fact that they said "But I'm open to new methods" as a response to this lmfao
These are the people who cut English Lit class. They have no idea what satire is.
Hahaha "I'm open to new methods" . People will believe anything. Scary.
One Giant Leap For Apekind
Haha if you think animals haven't been launched into space to die before you've got another thing coming...
Since Posting, Someone Tried To Tell Her In The Comments And She’s Still Arguing
Not a James Bond fan? Then why, pray tell, are you so invested in commenting on something about James Bond?
Is There Any Part This Guy Can't Play?
At Least She's Not Wrong
Found One Today
The IQ of the statue of Yogi Bear is 4 times higher than any of those guards.
Dear Old Sarah Here Has Some Interesting Opinions About This Particular Movie Detail
Will Do Anything For Clicks
How Can You Seriously Think This Is Real
"How can you seriously think this is real"? By living in the UK, for starters. He doesn't want to be seen banning things, that's the only part that gives it away --- the deep feeling that it's wrong that kids get something for nothing was there for sure; these urchins should work in the mines or something.
Shared This On Facebook And All Of My Friends Are Freaking Out And Sending Me Frantic DM’s
Please Be A Joke
Oh crap, I too am married to a former teenager. Hope the feds don’t find me.
She Might Actually Be Vegetarian Based On How She Ate That Whole Onion Raw
Yes, I'll have the baby back ribs, and make sure it was a white baby.
Americas Team
if they chopped him in half, that would bring a new meaning to "halftime show"
If I Worked At The Onion, My Office Would Be Full Of Framed Screenshots Like This
I Finally Found One
That Sweet Sweet Babylon Bee
R.I.P. Big Show
Note: this post originally had 94 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
Nowadays Onion articles have to be ridiculous to look like satire because articles that sounded satirical 20 years ago became reality.
The best is still the “‘No way to prevent this’ say officials in only country where this regularly happens” article they put out every time there’s a school shootings (or mass shooting?) It’s always the exact same article with the location name changed. It’s only funny in a sad way, but it gets the point across.
Lexi Mitchell no
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XD I hadn't seen that before, love it!
About half of these posts reminded me of this.
There are WAY too many people out there who don't 'get' sarcasm or satire... unfortunately, these same individuals are those who will believe bold faced lies, told by someone they idolise, even when these fallacious facts completely defy logic.
The main problem is that we don't seem to teach critical thinking or the scientific method anymore. People can't appreciate satire because they have no internal mechanism to differentiate between logic and humor, so they simply believe everything they read.
It can be quite hard for autistic people to understand sarcasm and satire.
Oskar vanZandt yes
Not everyone who doesn't get sarcasm or satire, believes all lies.
To be fair, many real headlines nowadays sound like a joke, as are many people. Wouldn't be surprised if anyone consider those serious.
Like idiots dressed as cavemen storm the Capitol building....?
Calling others dumb when they should have said that in a mirror. 🙃
What happens when you cross the credulous with the the eager-to-be-offended? Onion writers laugh even harder.
Al Christensen love
I literally laughed out loud to a lot of these because I recognized them as being satire. What is scary is that people are either completely uneducated or unable to grasp reality and believe these as factual. It's a statement of how easy it is to persuade people to grasp onto a non-truth and run with it. Anti-vaxxers, flat earthers, Covid deniers.... they're believers in a non-truth because someone on the internet convinced them. It's sad that people can't differentiate fact from fiction with common sense.
Imagine if some of those commenters were joking as well...
The Onion posted an article where this happens because 86% of American mothers drink turpentine while pregnant to make sure their babies aren't born possessed by demons
Gonna be a debbie downer here: I get satire as a form of humor but I don't think it's worth it. The risk of it being interpreted by a large audience as real is too damaging. If they don't understand the satire, it just feels like lies and misinformation seeding distrust. All for a joke.
Kelly Tinker easy