The Onion News Network Mourns Glenn Beck’s Non-Death: Too Far?
The saying goes “Dying is easy, comedy is hard,” but what about combining the two activities? A new video from the Onion News Network features the kind of dark, irreverent humor and high production values that have become their stock-in-trade, but with an added twist: a quasi-death wish for Glenn Beck. The clip is called “Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck,” and it has some people (including our own Rachel Sklar) wondering if The Onion has crossed even its own far-flung line.
Here’s the video in question:
While The Onion is known for this kind of humor, the video does have a creepy vibe to it. In the past, they have found humor in such questionable subjects as 9/11, pedophilia, baby-shaking, and cancer. One video features Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson being put to sleep after breaking her leg, but the real point of that video was to lampoon the piety surrounding animal euthanasia, and the gymnast took it with good humor.
The Beck video takes aim at local news tragedy cliches, like when the victim’s mother says that it’s a terrible think to have your child outlived by Glenn Beck, but the main theme of the clip is that people hate Glenn Beck, and wish he would die. Hot Air’s Allahpundit fails to see the humor:
If you’re going to wish death on someone, own it. It’s like hitting a guy with a crowbar but wearing a funny hat while doing it to “lighten the mood” or whatever.
On the other hand, The Onion’s news videos are marked by absurdism, which could indicate that this video is mocking the absurd level of hatred directed at Beck, and by him.
One thing is for sure: the video has inspired real-life copycats, as news agencies are continually reporting the deaths of people other than Glenn Beck.
We contacted The Onion and Fox News, and they each declined to comment for this article.
Tell us what you think. Did The Onion’s video go too far?
23 comments
Did they actually know what they were getting into? The man has lost all of his family at the hands of alcoholism or suicide. This takes it way too far – especially the line about drinking himself to death. Hate the guy’s politics, but what the fuck?
Jelperman says: What’s wrong with this skit? Glenn Beck has never responded to the question of whether he raped and killed a girl in 1990.
Rachel Sklar says: I echo Kev. And said so on Twitter a few days ago – death wishes are never cool. http://twitter.com/rachelsklar/status/5399313872
ImNotBlue says: Jelp brings up a good point. When it comes to someone like Glenn Beck, the left doesn’t really care who they have to hurt, if it means they get to hurt him. That other website, which is a complete lie, should be offensive to everyone. But, it’s not… and the people who appreciate it hate Beck so much, they’re willing to exploit rape, to attack their political opponent. Disgusting.
That said… I this is a similar situation. The attack on Beck, TO Beck is something a celebrity has to deal with (I guess). However, to exploit someone else’s tragedy (real or imagined) in an effort to attack someone else (even in jest), is tasteless.
But as I said, and as Jelp illustrates, expect “the ends to justify the means” in this tale. It’s an attack on Beck… so couldn’t be “that bad.” As I said before… disgusting.
Is law enforcement investigating Beck’s alleged involvement in a sex crime and murder? If not, why not?
m says: >When it comes to someone like Glenn Beck, the left doesn’t really care who they have to hurt, if it means they get to hurt him.
Glenn Beck can suit himself. He’s a public figure. A controversial one at that. This Onion piece, just like the rape-murder rumors (?) about Beck, are perfectly fine ways to satire his rhetorical style.
GreyWolf says: Seeing or making fun of someone who is ill, isn’t polite. However, the liberals do enjoy hurting others at someone’s else expense. it just shows the true character of liberals & their mean spirit life.
hkyplayer says: Can you imagine if a skit was done about someone on the left! either way maddow or beck it is not funny!
Crowley says: @Kevin
Hey, to be fair, those family members killed themselves because they foresaw what Beck would become.
Crowley says: In all seriousness though, Glenn Beck is a monster whose paranoia and lunacy have lead to the deaths of at least five people, and he richly deserves whatever hate comes his way.
All this nonsense about “civility” and “tolerance” is the reason Liberalism is in its death throes. You have no obligation to be tolerant of intolerance.
rmbltmbl says: It’s a perfect example of the double standard conservatives have to live up to to whiny cry baby liberals. When people come up with this sort of thing, you have to be curious about what is next.
I’ve seen far worse over and over again on “Family Guy”. I’ll admit , I dig “Family Guy”.
oneifbyland says: Can any reasonable Human Being dispute factually any point of Glenn Becks views on ACORN or SEIU? I read all the blogs on the internet and all I see is hate from the left.
ImNotBlue says: m says:
November 4, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Glenn Beck can suit himself. He’s a public figure.
Well, that’s what I’ve said. Disgusting and disrespectful as the attacks are… he is a public figure, he’ll get over it. But using rape, murder, and a teens death as methods of attacking Beck, is an insult to the real victims of those crimes. It’s essentially the “Hitler” analogy, just on a much more singular level… it insults the victims more than it mocks Beck.
Crowley says:
November 4, 2009 at 8:57 pm
@Kevin
Hey, to be fair, those family members killed themselves because they foresaw what Beck would become.
Wow… what a proudly terrible person you are. A truly disgraceful human being.
DWHarper says: If Glenn Beck wasn’t the a-hole that he is, I would say that Onion News went to far. But sadly he is the a-hole, we have all come to know. How a college drop out, wacky DJ has come to have the power he has is amazing but not surprising considering the stupidity of people.
Crowley says: @ImNotBlue
Well, I was joking, but maybe you’re right. That is a cruel thing to say, and surely Beck doesn’t deserve–
“Indeed, according to the Anti-Defamation League, the alleged killer posted a YouTube clip to Stormfront of top-rated Fox News host Glenn Beck contemplating the existence of FEMA-managed concentration camps. … by co-opting conspiratorial rhetoric from the farthest shores of the right, mainstream conservative talkers can inflame the passions of paranoiacs like Poplawski to a dangerous degree.”
WOOPS nope, Beck is responsible for the deaths of at least three people (I made a mistake in my second comment, I thought the shooter in Knoxville had read Beck, but I was wrong–he was just reading Savage, Hannity, and O’Reilly) and doesn’t deserve any sort of pity.
Nice job being a sanctimonious tool though.
Ted says: Funniest bit ever. Can’t wait for the sequel.
kimtaylor says: “I heard screaming but I thought it was just someone doing a Glenn Beck impression”
ImNotBlue says: Crowley says:
November 5, 2009 at 3:14 am
That’s right… because if someone reads a story, a book, or links to a YouTube video… well, clearly they’ve got their inspiration! Heck, I don’t know how The Beatles were never arrested after Charles Manson sited “Helter Skelter” as a “prophecy.” Clearly, they too were guilty.
But here’s the thing that your warped little mind can’t seem to understand… it’s not about Beck. He’s a celebrity; being attacked by lunatics with no class is part of the job. But to evoke other innocent people who have been victimized by a terrible crime (murder, rape, etc.), so that a group of fanatics can attack someone they POLITICALLY DISAGREE WITH is shameful. See… it’s not Beck, it’s the people you exploit to get to Beck.
You are a classless, disrespectful, terrible excuse for a civilized individual if you think that exploiting tragedy, in the name of attack Beck, is somehow acceptable.
Crowley says: @ ImNotBlue
Ah, okay. I think I might have misunderstood your argument earlier.
I still don’t think it’s inappropriate to be cruel to Beck, but I can see your point about using others for that end. So, yes, I’d be willing to admit that my joke was tasteless (although, in my defense, I was thinking of using an even worse one).
But I was tasteless in a way the video was not: it *didn’t* exploit anyone’s tragedy, just the fictional death of a fictional person. So I suppose one could say that it exploits the concept of death, but that hardly sees tasteless.
And in regards to his influence: there’s a different between a lunatic projecting their own sickness onto your work and actively encouraging people to become lunatics.
ImNotBlue says: The video wasn’t exploiting “death,” it was exploiting the death of a child… a young girl killed. There’s a difference.
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