The Onion’s shocking exposé on “Curly Fry Inventor Strikes Out With Curly Veal” went by without notice, but the same can’t be said for a new video on their website, “Sears Extremists Fly Plane Into Willis Tower.” The picture you see above — which does indeed show a Sears plane, which haha Sears, about to crash into the former Sears Tower, current Willis Tower in Chicago — went on the Onion’s Facebook Wall less than a day ago, and it’s already racked up nearly 4,000 comments. By comparison, their award-winning piece on “Hotmail Rebranded Outlook.com” received all of 15 comments. The humorless responses tend to be of this variety:
Poor taste. Am now unsubscribing from the Onion. You undeniably have your right to freedom of speech. However, I retain my right not to support what you say. Thanks for all of the great laughs for so many years, but I have to stick with my beliefs too.
Actually, no, that’s way too civil, if a bit sanctimonious.
Disgusting. Shame on you.
Much better. According to USA Today:
In response to questions about the criticism and using such an image, The Onion marketing director Grant Jones stuck with the newspaper’s tone. He wrote in an email that, “9-11 must never be the fodder for jokes. Perhaps you didn’t see the news that humor died after 9-11.” (Via)
Or maybe people are just really defensive about Sears? I bet the in-flight movie was something like Fool’s Gold.