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James Joost

Professor Gonzalez

ENC 1102

30 April 2024

Peeling the Onion: Understanding the Rhetoric of Satire in Discourse

Introduction
Satire as a genre is essentially a rhetorical methodology for generating critical discourse
around a subject. It often expresses a strong opinion directly contrary to its real intent in order to
highlight or exaggerate the absurdity of the counterargument, or even to mock the absurdity of
having the argument at all. The classic example of the latter is Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest
Proposal" in which he mocks the discourse around Ireland’s orphan problem by proposing the
solution that they simply eat unwanted orphans (Swift 1).
Satire has always played an important role in American media and political discourse.

Defined by its dual nature as both serious and comedic, satire has a unique ability to critique its

own context and seriously promote social change by participating in it nonseriously (Caron 157).

An excellent example of this is when the satirical newspaper, The Onion, filed an amicus brief to

the US Supreme Court in defense of satirist Anthony Novak, who was being sued by the State of

Ohio for creating a fake Facebook page mocking the Parma City police department (Van

Stemport et al. 13). The Onion made their point about restricting free speech on the basis of some

people not recognizing satire by mimicking the tone and writing style of the Supreme Court

themselves.

In this essay, I will explore the rhetorical methods used in satire and peoples’ responses

to it. Satire’s ability to generate constructive discourse around a topic is in part due to the fact

that satire itself is a form of rhetorical analysis. It relies on mimicking the rhetoric of the subject

to turn a rhetorical situation on its head. This accomplishes its purpose by getting audiences to
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think more deeply about the rhetoric of a topic and exposing the framework in which a topic is

being discussed.

Literature Review

In “Satire, Analogy, and Moral Philosophy”, Nicholas Diehl talks about how satire uses

analogies to make an implicit moral philosophical argument. He believes the literature does not

fully explore the close kinship between satire and moral philosophy, citing Northrop Frye’s

research on satire and Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal (Diehl 1). This is a viewpoint held in

common with Andrew D. Gutshall, a writer for York College, who posits that satire is a useful

tool for engaging with politics, especially in the case of interesting younger generations in

political movements (Gutshall, p.1)

Diehl’s writing on the purpose of satire and the broader context of philosophy of

complex issues is far from the only voice on the topic. James E. Caron’s proposition that satire

uses a paradoxical structure, simultaneously fulfilling serious and comedic goals, expands on the

same idea that its primary goal is to create social change.

Some would argue that satire’s dual goals of entertainment and serious philosophy can

create confusion as to its actual purpose. Caron talks about the ascendance of satire in modern

media and how it has more ubiquity now than ever before. He discusses “discursive integration”,

which is the idea that as mediums have changed in the modern era, our perception of politics and

entertainment have become intermingled with each other. He argues that satire overly focused on

entertaining can be confusing and lose sight of its original goal (Caron 158). This could be

considered detrimental to people’s perception of the genre as both serious and non serious satire

utilize similar rhetorical choices but to different ends, creating vagueness of intent and requiring
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a more critical eye to discern the difference. In this same vein, Charles Knight argues in “Satire,

Speech, and Genre”, that satire can be problematic because its criticism of historical and political

figures takes a non-historical perspective. He says that satire would not be necessary as a genre if

it had either legitimacy or originality, as it would instead be considered historical (Knight 23).

The assertion that some authors of satire use the genre’s indirect and non-literal rhetorical

approach as a means of avoiding responsibility for the lack of thought for the underlying

message presented is in keeping with Caron’s thoughts on the dual nature of satire and the idea

that the genre’s occasionally vague commentary can cause confusion.

The sources I’ve talked about provide a useful background of information for the genre

and mostly agree on what satire is, while offering diverse viewpoints on its role in society and

cultural consequences. For example, Charles Knight and Nicholas Diehl agree that satire can be a

difficult genre to pin down and vague at times (Knight 31)(Diehl 312). But they do not agree on

the consequences of that. Diehl would argue that satire is a very useful, if not necessary, tool to

critique society and that its ambiguity is what allows it to make subtle points about moral

philosophy (Diehl 313). Knight would say that its lack of clarity creates confusion and can make

history difficult to discern from satire when looking back (Knight 22-23).

In an interview with Matt Swayne of Penn State, Sophia McClennen – professor of

comparative literature – points out how satire is distinguished from other humor because it

“demands critical reflection on the part of the audience” (Swayne p.3). Satire is more useful than

it is confusing for these reasons. While Knight’s point about creating confusion in history is

valid, I would argue that most people have an intuitive understanding of when something is

satirical and that satire’s value as a tool for analyzing discourse around current events is more

useful than it is detrimental. This also aligns with the perspective of Jean Weisgerber. In “Satire
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and Irony as Means of Communication'', Weisgerber concludes that satire is usually simple to

understand (Weisgerber 171). The contradictory nature of satire as a genre inspires critical

thought about the rhetoric of its subject.

Methods
In this essay, I will be looking specifically at the satirical newspaper The Onion. I will
analyze the rhetoric employed in 5 articles on their website. They will be selected from the most
recent entries on the “latest” tab of the website as of April 26, 2024: theonion.com/latest. I will
be looking especially for instances of how they create a tone that sounds credible while saying
something that undermines it. The goal is to see whether this is an effective satirical rhetorical
style, or if it creates confusion as Knight suggests (Knight 22-23). Since The Onion posts each
article on Instagram, I will also read the top 10 comments on each of the corresponding
Instagram posts to gauge whether The Onion’s communication was more effective or confusing.
I will give each comment a score of “understood”, “confused”, or “ambiguous”. The
“ambiguous” category exists mainly because it can be difficult to empirically determine if
someone is responding with dry sarcasm or genuinely misunderstands, especially in the comment
section of a satirical newspaper that amply employs the same dry tone.

Results
Based on the 5 articles and 50 comments, it was found that 70% of top comments could
confidently be said to have understood the point of the article. Very few comments clearly
misunderstood the article. It was found that the majority of comments understood that the articles
were satire and not literally true. The raw data is shown in Figure 1 below.

Instagram Comment Statistics of The Onion

Library Diamond Shareable e- FDA
Give Us $1 Demolition Plot cigs Oranges Total
Understood: 6 8 7 6 8 35
Confused: 1 0 1 0 0 2
Ambiguous: 3 2 2 4 2 13
Fig.1: Raw data from instagram comments sections for 5 Onion articles
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Fig.2: Pie chart of data from instagram comments sections

Figure 2 shows the cumulative data represented by a pie chart. It shows visually that the

majority of commenters understood the article. The next largest group was “ambiguous” at 26%,

then “confused” at 4%, or just two comments out of fifty. It’s important to note that the

“ambiguous” and “confused” groups overlap considerably because many comments that seemed

confused may have been satirical as well. Anything uncertain was labeled as “ambiguous”. So

the most useful result is that 70% definitely understood the articles because it has the highest

confidence in its grouping.

Discussion
The raw data seems to suggest that, at least in the discourse community surrounding The
Onion, most commenters seem to understand the satirical nature of the articles. Very few
comments clearly misunderstood the articles – fewer even than I expected – however, I found
that those that were confused shared a common misunderstanding, seemingly brought on by the
self-contradictory tone and message, as Charles Knight worried (Knight 171). The comment
sampled in Figure 3 below serves as an excellent example.
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Fig.3: Sample comment from “Give Us $1 Or ‘The Onion’ Disappears Forever”

The article “Give Us $1 Or ‘The Onion’ Disappears Forever” parodies publicly funded
news organizations’ pleas for donations. It begins by mimicking the tone and rhetorical choices
of such a plea – using phrases like “readers like yourself” (The Onion, Give US $1) – then slowly
turns into a demand letter, framed as if the entire news organization were taken hostage. It
contrasts these two very different rhetorical situations by using language associated with both, to
comedic effect. Other than for comedy, the purpose of this rhetorical choice is to give insight
into the rhetoric of asking for donations. By contrast to the silly content of the article, the pathos
often employed in the situation is highlighted for the audience to see more explicitly. Donation
pleas often make it sound like you, specifically, as the reader, are responsible for saving the
organization by donating, and this article is parodying that by sounding even more melodramatic.
In Figure 3, @ttttonnyyy points out the joke in the first line of the article stating that The
Onion has “billions of readers like you” (The Onion, Give US $1). It implies that they expected
the article to be credible in the first place. This shows how the dry tone contrasting with
nonsensical claims can cause some people to be confused. All recorded comments that were
clearly confused by the articles had a similar reaction to this particular situation: The Onion used
a familiar writing pattern to create a perceived ethos, then undermined it by saying something
that doesn’t align with it.
While those misunderstanding the articles seemed to have the same misunderstanding, it
was found that there are several ways that commenters reveal that they understand that the
articles are satirical in The Onion’s discourse community. The most common of these involves
playing along by adopting the rhetorical strategy the Onion employs in its articles by mimicking
the tone of common comments on similar, but serious posts.
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Fig.4: Sample comment from “Harvard Demolishes Library Covered In Human Skin”

In Figure 4, @gmaxaa extends the article’s parallel to the discourse around removing

confederate statues by using the common logic of the statues’ defenders that they are historical

and that it was ‘completely normal back then’, to the more ridiculous situation presented by The

Onion. This shows how satire can be used to expose the rhetoric and logic common to a

discourse community by treating an exaggerated version of the topic with the same dry tone.

@gmaxaa ’s comment is an excellent example of effective communication through satirical

rhetoric.

Another common way of revealing knowledgeability of The Onion’s discourse

community is to comment a rhetorically similar headline to the article at hand, but with a
different situation.
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Fig.5: Sample comment from “FDA Announces Their Fingers Smell Like Orange After
Evaluating Some Oranges Earlier”

In Figure 5, @reid6298 took The Onion’s premise of a government agency obliviously

announcing something obvious and unhelpful to create a similar headline saying that the FBI
report found that the collapsed bridge collapsed. @reid6298 showed the discourse community
that they understood the headline by using the same format as the post’s headline.

Conclusion
In conclusion, it seems that most people are able to detect that the articles are satirical.
However, satire can have the shortcoming of confusing some of the audience when its ethos is
anticlimactically counter to its content. By mimicking the rhetoric of tonally dry news
organizations and scholarly writing, The Onion conveys its real meaning through the
juxtaposition of its tone and content. Effective rhetoric creates an ethos by following the
conventions of its rhetorical situation. Satire, however, can be rhetorically effective by breaking
this rule to create a discord between the expectations of the audience and the actual content of
the writing. As James E. Caron said, satirists can seriously participate in discourse communities
by being nonserious (Caron 157). Based on my research, I would suggest that this discord is a
major reason why satire can communicate effectively by carefully following and then breaking
conventions. It can allow the audience to isolate and analyze the rhetoric of the situation more
clearly by juxtaposing it with unserious or exaggerated content.
I found that this rhetorical style – as Charles Knight would suggest (Knight 22-23) – can
cause confusion. People can be taken in by satire’s initially dry tone and thus become confused
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when it takes an unexpectedly unconventional turn. However, for the majority of its audience
The Onion accomplishes its intended goal of taking a deeper look at the rhetorical situation.

Works Cited

Caron, James E. “The Quantum Paradox of Truthiness: Satire, Activism, and the

Postmodern Condition.” Studies in American Humor, vol. 2, no. 2, 2016, pp. 153–

81. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/studamerhumor.2.2.0153. Accessed 28

Feb. 2024.

Diehl, Nicholas. “Satire, Analogy, and Moral Philosophy.” The Journal of Aesthetics

and Art Criticism, vol. 71, no. 4, 2013, pp. 311–21. JSTOR,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/42635868. Accessed 23 Feb. 2024.

Gutshall, Andrew D. “Satirical news and the ‘real’ news: Viewing satire as serious

media”, YCP Department of History and Political Science, May 2019

https://ycphistpolisci.com/satirical-news-and-the-real-news-viewing-satire-as-

serious-

media/. Accessed 28 Feb. 2024

Knight, Charles A. “Satire, Speech, and Genre.” Comparative Literature, vol. 44, no. 1,

1992, pp. 22–41. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1771166. Accessed 29 Feb.

2024.

The Onion. “Give Us $1 or ‘the Onion’ Disappears Forever.” The Onion, The Onion, 25

Apr. 2024,

www.theonion.com/give-us-1-or-the-onion-disappears-forever-1851436787.
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Accessed 26 Apr. 2024

The Onion [@theonion]. “Give Us $1 or ‘the Onion’ Disappears Forever.”

Instagram.com, 25 Apr. 2024 https://www.instagram.com/p/C6NAaXqMiZx/?

igsh=MXByZ3VnOTByODc3dw.

Accessed 26 Apr. 2024

The Onion. “Harvard Demolishes Library Covered In Human Skin.” The Onion, The

Onion, 24 Apr. 2024,

https://www.theonion.com/harvard-demolishes-library-covered-in-human-skin-

1851422780. Accessed 26 Apr. 2024

The Onion [@theonion]. “Harvard Demolishes Library Covered In Human Skin.”

Instagram.com, 24 Apr. 2024 https://www.instagram.com/p/C6JvWm9O8bY/?

igsh=MTY1ZmhoY3c3em4wcQ

Accessed 26 Apr. 2024

The Onion. “Janet Yellen Unveils Plan To Boost Economy By Stealing World’s Largest

Diamond.” The Onion, The Onion, 17 Apr. 2024,

https://www.theonion.com/janet-yellen-unveils-plan-to-boost-economy-by-

stealing-1851407111. Accessed 26 Apr. 2024

The Onion [@theonion]. “Janet Yellen Unveils Plan To Boost Economy By Stealing

World’s Largest Diamond.” Instagram.com, 17 Apr. 2024

https://www.instagram.com/p/C54c6WgOFHm/?igsh=aDc3cXpubXhjaWt5.

Accessed 26 Apr. 2024

The Onion. “New York City Launches New Shareable E-Cig Program.” The Onion, The

Onion, 17 Apr. 2024,

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https://www.theonion.com/new-york-city-launches-new-shareable-e-cig-

program-1851406969. Accessed 26 Apr. 2024

The Onion [@theonion]. “New York City Launches New Shareable E-Cig Program.”

Instagram.com, 17 Apr. 2024 https://www.instagram.com/p/C54Clu0sQlw/?

igsh=MW0wMGdycjRmMmduNQ

Accessed 26 Apr. 2024

The Onion. “FDA Announces Their Fingers Smell Like Orange After Evaluating Some

Oranges Earlier.” The Onion, The Onion, 15 Apr. 2024,

https://www.theonion.com/fda-announces-their-fingers-smell-like-orange-after-

eva-1851382559. Accessed 26 Apr. 2024

The Onion [@theonion]. “FDA Announces Their Fingers Smell Like Orange After

Evaluating Some Oranges Earlier.” Instagram.com, 15 Apr. 2024

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5zggFZvo7D/?igsh=MWQwenI5aTYzcTlneA.

Accessed 26 Apr. 2024

Swayne, Matt “Satire is shaping the next generation of American citizens”, Penn State

University, July 2017,

https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/satire-shaping-next-generation-american-

citizens/ Accessed 28 Feb. 2024

Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745. A Modest Proposal. Champaign, Ill. :Project Gutenberg,

1997. Accessed 10 April, 2024

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Van Stempvoort, Stephen J. “In the Supreme Court of the United States, Brief of

The Onion as Amicus Curiae.” supremecourt.gov, Oct. 2022,

www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-

293/242292/20221003125252896_35295545_1-22.10.03%20-%20Novak-Parma%20-

%20Onion%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf.

Accessed 9 March, 2024

Weisgerber, Jean. “Satire and Irony as Means of Communication.” Comparative Literature

Studies, vol. 10, no. 2, 1973, pp. 157–72. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40246147.

Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.