Strollerderby

There's just nothing funny or entertaining about a child being tortured and dismembered.

There was nothing funny about it at all. I usually like the Onion, but this was in very poor taste. I think there is something wrong with the person who wrote that. I am offended too.

I agree.  I sent an email to the Onion after reading this.  Honestly, it's baffling.  Usually, they are great.  Why would they post something like this?  What is wrong with them?  

Yeah - I was put off by this story, too.  Another one that rattled me (although I could see teeny elements of humor just in the absurdity of it) was one titled something like "My Dead Child's Charity is Better than Your Dead Child's Charity."  Every once in a while I do wonder if most of the Onion people are single nerds who are smart/witty, but don't really have a "life" so to speak.  Generally, though, I love it.

i did too.

read it yesterday, was instantly  offended, also wondered if I was being humorless and old.

I know a couple of people at the Onion actually, and they for the most part, are single/childless/thirty somethings.

Just sayin'

I sent them an e-mail too.

I'm the only person in my group of friends who doesn't find the Onion hee-larious.  This is a great example of why I don't read it.  

Yeah, I was disgusted. They may get most parts of humor, but the little part where you suspend emotional connection to the person being made fun of isn't funny when it's a child.

Totally off. I mean, the ending line? WTF? Thick viscous fluid leaking out of his mouth? There are less egregious ways to cross lines (like "Man Loses Cowardly Battle With Cancer," or "Actually, Suicide NOT Easiest Way Out for Area Quadriplegic") but this one was so perverse I really think something is wrong with its author.

I just sent them a sternly worded email myself. That article made me heart sick.

I sent them an email too. The story isn't funny in any sense, and worse for a magazine, publishing it will drive away more people than it will win over. Truly an execrable piece of work from a writer who probably thinks he or she has a lot of imagination, but actually doesn't have enough imagination to grasp the meaning of what they've written. Someone should send this to their mom.

I thought I was the only one who thought this article was extremely offensive.  There was also a video about a 19 year old missing girl presumably raped in the same online issue.  I also thought that was also in bad taste, and I'm rarely, if ever, offended.

I usually love the Onion, but was floored to see this article today.  I sent them an email as soon as I read it.  The first article I've ever found offensive from them, it's unfunny and not even creative - just sickening.

I'm glad I'm not alone.  I thought I was the only person who read this and thought what the hell is this?  It's truly sad and quite in poor taste to write this as if a poor kidnapped child being held in captivity was imagining his being set free.  The child is imagining running to his father and feeling joy at escaping and yet the whole story is not about that.  it's about this captive boy imagining that as he's face down on a concrete floor.

I thought at first it was trying to call attention to the obviously horrifying child abduction problem in the US but while on the same page writing satire and humor articles about our nation's collapse and the bush administrations lies, this was especially sad.

As a father I could barely hold back tears imagining some other father out there reading this who may have been the victim of such a horrible act.

Poor taste Onion.  I'm still a fan but this "article" make absolutely no sense.

i agree, that is zero healthy humor in that. Nothing funny at all. I am pumping at work as I read that, and it actually made me tear up.

i noticed there is nowhere to comment on the Onion, which is unfortanate.

For anyone who want to email the editor: editorial@theonion.com

I just sent a note

God, this story is hilarious!!!! I couldn't stop laughing from start to finish, these guys at The Onion.... Brilliant!

I am not a mother but when I read that article I was puzzled that they thought anyone,childless or no,would find it funny. I was repulsed and saddened. Usually The Onion makes me laugh out loud. Not this time.

Normally I enjoy the irreverent humor of the blogosphere, but the title and subtitle of your website really crossed the line.

Maybe you think the bloody and disturbing 1970s film "Rollerderby"—starring James Caan playing an ultraviolent bloodsport in a dystopian science fiction future where human life has lost all value and murder is glorified as "entertainment"—is an appropriate topic for a breezy pun, but I for one do not.

The metal image of infants, strapped into strollers and helpless to escape, being rammed, battered, and toppled over by leather-clad, spike-wearing sadists is not one I find to be humorous in the slightest. I cannot imagine that any readers—especially not ones who have children of their own, as I do!—would find the thought of babies being tortured and abused in Roman-Coliseum-style display of pain and death to be anything less than offensive in the extreme.

What's worse, your subtitle, "The Mother Of All Parenting Blogs," adds insult to injury. To make light-hearted reference to the Gulf War of 1991—in which untold numbers of civilian children lost their lives as "collateral damage" during one of the most ferocious carpet-bombing attacks of modern air warfare—is beyond sickening. And I am sure the orphaned children of the soldiers who lost their lives there would not be amused by your lack of basic common decency in even considering—let alone actually choosing—this "joke" as your catch phrase.

I hope you are all deeply ashamed of yourselves, and will refrain from engaging in such crass vulgarity and tastelessness in the future.

Concerned Parent-- the film is named Rollerball.

I also found the Onion article highly disturbing.  I don't see how it could be funny to anyone.  I've never been offended by any of their humor before, but this article was just sickening.

Concerned Parent, you're missing the point. You had to invent your straw man while the lack of taste in laughing at a dying child is clear to any adult, at least, and even most children.

Your point is apparently, "everything is offensive to someone," and point taken. But I guarantee you that almost nobody found the original article funny.

I found it funny. That's one.

Guy-

Finally. Someone to interview. So, you found it funny-- why? I'm also curious, do you have kids?

-Jay

Why is having kids even relevant?

Everything's relevant. But since this one is about kids, having kids is more relevant. I'm wondering if having kids makes you more or less likely to find it funny.

It's not an accusation of anything, I'd just be curious if there's a correlation-- I'd suspect if you do have kids you're less likely, but probably not by much, because few people find it funny. But this guy said "I do find it funny," so I want to know more about him.

I can explain slightly why its relevant-- let's say I write an article about baseball players doing drugs. If I don't play or watch baseball, I'm less likely to find it funny because I won't get it. Digging deeper, if I'm a drug addict, I also might be less likely to find it funny because it makes me feel uncomfortable. But if drugs haven't really affected me and I'm a casual baseball fan, I might find it hilarious. And if I know nothing about baseball or drugs, the whole article is likely to just stare at me blankly.

That's the fascinating thing about humor: the audience.

I was pretty turned off by this one; I'm a huge onion fan and also sent an email to complain about this one.

And here's why; I'm sure it's possible to write a funny article about a kidnapped child; it's just that this one isn't it. I'm sure the intent was to draw chuckles from the disparity between the child's imaginations and the reality of the situation; instead, it just reads like bad torture porn of the "Saw"/"Hostel" variety. The details are too specific and sad. There's no insight into the human condition here; just pointing and laughing at someone in immense emotional distress.

I'd be curious to hear someone who found it funny explain their reaction.

Sorry Onion, but IMHO, this is one epic FAIL on your part.

It's just not funny. Period. For me, nothing is sacred in comedy. Everything is fair game. The only sin is not being funny, and this was not funny. And of course, part of the reason that it wasn't funny, besides being badly written, is that there is no humor to be extracted by child abductions. None.

You people are pathetic.  So it's not funny to you.  OK.  But you boycott the publication for one unfunny article?  Hmmm.

I don't think boycotting the publication for one unfunny article is fair or even necessary. But it's perfectly fair to let a publication know when they've screwed the pooch, as, IMHO, the onion did here.

Interesting question-- what does "boycott" even mean for a free web publication?

What I find interesting is that the Onion, this bleeding-edge net institution, doesn't have a message board or any way to discuss their work anywhere on their site. I think this is because they're figuring that humor doesn't need feedback other than what they can get looking at their Webtrends reports. The problem is that also makes them fairly backwards and 20th-century as a publication: we publish, you read.

A boycott of a free website would be incredibly effective; they're making most of their revenue from advertisers. If their page views drop, their advertisers would demand lower fees.

Well, I won't go so far as a boycott. That requires organizational skills we could probably use elsewhere. I think for my part I'm just realizing that I'm not the Onion's market anymore, so I'm less likely to go there in the future.

I've got to say I did laugh at the headline (the headlines are usually better than the succeeding article in The Onion) but the story just tried a little too hard to shock, particularly in that final line (which doesn't quite make sense). I do have kids.