It's Funny Because It's True

Tim Cavanaugh | September 14, 2004

For years I've been trying to swear off links to The Onion, but this one just says so much about life in these here United States:

Cheney Returns To Camp Crystal Lake

Comments

The Owner's Manual|9.14.04 @ 7:15PM|#

I didn't see anything funny about it, but then I like Cheney.

|9.14.04 @ 7:27PM|#

I'm with Owner's Manual. Not funny.

Franklin Harris|9.14.04 @ 8:15PM|#

I can't stand Cheney, but this was a yawner.

|9.14.04 @ 8:38PM|#

Yeah, I always expect something great of an Reason linked Onion article...but that wasn't funny at all. Actually, Mr. Young's John Kerry/Apocalypse Now piece earlier this week, that sounded like it could have come right out of the Onion...and it was hilarious.

|9.14.04 @ 9:02PM|#

Once again, proof that Republicans have no sense of humor - about their own.

|9.15.04 @ 12:05AM|#

what was funny about that? I have read it twice and don't get it. I tried to substitute other names (Bush, Rummy, Kerry, etc.) in the place of Cheney - still not funny.

am I missing something?

|9.15.04 @ 12:22AM|#

Taste in horror movies?

[It's hilarious, btw.]

sailor|9.15.04 @ 12:33AM|#

wow tough crowd! that piece made me laugh out loud all alone. "Cheney's mother slaughtered nine people under the guise of her son before she was finally slain."

|9.15.04 @ 12:54AM|#

It's funny in its own warped way, but just not in a "funny because it's true" sort of way. Not like the "Revised Patriot Act Will Make It Illegal To Read Patriot Act" article, which could in fact, be true.

|9.15.04 @ 1:26AM|#

Yes, quite funny.

Now, we need Shannon Love to give us a theory as to some find it funny and others don't. Then all we need after that is for Jesse Walker to de-bunk it. :)

|9.15.04 @ 2:17AM|#

That was hilarious. Get a sense of humor, y'all.

|9.15.04 @ 2:36AM|#

what was funny about that? I have read it twice and don't get it

The real mystery is the headline of this post -- "It's Funny Because It's True". I thought I got the joke in the Onion article, but after reading that headline I'm not so sure. What does that mean?

|9.15.04 @ 8:10AM|#

Camp Crystal Lake was the setting of Friday the 13th, if I remember correctly.

|9.15.04 @ 9:05AM|#

Really not funny. I'm sorry, but it was a bit predictable. BTW, it wouldn't have been any funnier with a different target.

Gary, admit it, you love Shannon.

|9.15.04 @ 9:21AM|#

I'll take the middle position: mildly amusing, but not hilarious.

|9.15.04 @ 9:55AM|#

wellfellow,

Actually, no, I don't love her. I would have to know her to love her. As I've never met her, I don't know her. Now, I do love to make light of her comments.

|9.15.04 @ 10:22AM|#

Yes, someone please explain! What about the Onion item -- funny or not -- makes it "true," and how does it say "so much about life in these here United States"?

The piece was mildly amusing, but the joke I got out of it was a kind of absurdist humor -- not satire or exaggeration of some reality.

|9.15.04 @ 10:41AM|#

This is like that "John Ashcroft is a werewolf" article.

It would have been funnier if they had done more to intersperse Cheney-as-Jason passages with Cheney-as-politician passages. Otherwise, it was just a summary of a "Friday the 13th" movie with Cheney's name substituted for Jason.

|9.15.04 @ 10:42AM|#

Maybe it's a poorly rendered take on the whole "undisclosed location" thing?

|9.15.04 @ 11:19AM|#

Quite amusing.

|9.15.04 @ 12:59PM|#

I think Gary not only loves Shannon, but really IS Shannon!

|9.15.04 @ 3:59PM|#

after reading that headline I'm not so sure

dan, that headline is, i'm sure, ironic. no need to worry that someone is questioning tricky dick's sainthood. ;)

(and that emoticon is supposed to indicate that i'm just being farcical.)

it is saddening, however, to observe the bizarre lack of humor on both partisan ends when the holy men are examined. politics by definition must be laughed at; to take it seriously is to invite madness.

|9.15.04 @ 4:36PM|#

The headline was funny, then I started reading the article and it was kind of boring, they should have just kept it as one of the headlines on the side.

|9.15.04 @ 7:09PM|#

it is saddening, however, to observe the bizarre lack of humor on both partisan ends when the holy men are examined.

Whatever that's supposed to mean. I have no feelings about Cheney one way or the other; he could die tomorrow or live forever, for all I care. The joke just isn't funny, that's all. There are plenty of non-partisans in this thread who share that opinion.