“The Onion” is a satirical news website that creates ridiculous stories in order to prove a point. The website looks and functions just like a normal news website, except all of the news is fake and is meant to be funny. But beyond being funny, each story points out a different problem in society. For example, in the article titled “New HGTV Show Builds Unhoused Families A Kitchen Island”, it says that HGTV debuted a new show where the host finds homeless families in Seattle and “situates them around a fabulous marble countertop island”. Although this is funny because it sounds ridiculous, it also serves a greater purpose, which is bringing awareness to the problem of homelessness. By putting it in a satirical way, it is more dramatic, so it catches the readers attention to make them think about how big of a problem this really is. Along with the housing issue, it also brings attention to the superficial and selfish ways of big companies. This article brings light to how shows like HGTV entertain people with homes, but some people don’t even have homes at all. Altogether, satire can make people think about things in a way that they haven’t thought of them before. This can be harmful depending on how it is done, but I think “The Onion” brings up issues in a powerful way.
Story Power 