The Onion · 6 July 08 by Heather Voss Barta
Henry and I watched The Onion movie together on vacation. Almost all very funny. Some things were a little not funny, but everything moved quickly enough to just move through those on to something else. Definitely worth the rental time. Henry called it all low-brow, and while we were listening to The Onion podcast today, I figured out why – they have excelled at being clever with words. You can do that in print or by voice – but when you have to add picture, it’s often just the basic humor that one starts with. It’s hard to get funny with something that might be considered “high brow” – or at least to fit into the Onion’s way. Maybe I’m wrong – maybe the second time around they’ll be able to figure it out.
Before viewing, you definitely want to be familiar with The Onion – either through the paper or the podcast.
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I think one of the problems may be that The Onion is known for little bits of witty sarcasm in short articles. Trying to stretch that into a 2-hour movie and add an actual plot may not work for their style. A new-style show would fit their model better, but it’d be hard for them to not look like a copy of The Daily Show.
— Henry 7 July 08 #