The Onion's Quvenzhané Wallis Tweet Sets Off Firestorm On Oscars, Race & Misogyny

Kids hear and say a lot worse these days.... What appalls me more is her nomination. It's a slap in the face to actresses who have put in years of hard work, training and talent.... to insist that a 9 year old is on par with them is a travesty.

http://mattkirshen.tumblr.com/post/44013195192/the-onion-the-outrage

The Onion hasn't gone far enough. Damned CUNTS!

That's GREAT. A makeover "consulting" service chimes in. Just what this debate needs. A symbol for superficiality and reckless consumerism, not to mention inauthenticity has an opinion. How novel!

Wasn't even remotely funny. Or satirical. Total miss. So much better material available at the Oscars. Glad they took it down within an hour and offered a public apology!

LOL! This whole thing is ridiculous.

How dare they say "cunt!" They should've said "twat."

Hey Cameron, learn to use words properly. And I mean that in the most genuine, compassionate, heartfelt way. When you use words incorrectly you reflect poorly upon yourself. You can do better, man!

Hey Charlemagne ..stop being such a pretentious cunt. And I mean that in the nicest deconstructionist state of contemporary communication possible..thanks.

It doesn't matter what word they use. It's satire. You can't censor satire in any way. Stop trying to make the Cunt a bad word. It's not a bad word. As a black man I would have been totally cool if they used "the N word" And I'm only saying "the N word" instead of the actual word so that this doesn't get deleted by LAWeekly. It's satire. That's the point.

And don't forget to delete the TMZ app from your iphone once you send the letter.

Yeah, I'm the problem because I approach societal issues analytically instead of blindly thrusting around my finger at whatever doesn't smell right. Listen, if you really mean what you say, send TMZ a letter right now demanding an apology for how they treat child actors. Demand that they share their profits with all of the children they have exploited. I mean, that's the next logical step to your philosophy. Go ahead. Write out a letter and take a screenshot.

Well, the thing is, just because something was *meant* to be funny doesn't mean it was funny. The expression The Onion used is something you hear people say humorously to each other all the time, yet there are others, like myself, who can't being themselves to use that word. I think it's a terrible word, but that's just me. I don't think the Onion writer behind it thought through the idea of using that particular word in association with a 9-year-old girl or considered the backlash it would have. Jokes flop, and that's what we have here, but misogyny — I think that's being a little hard on The Onion.

Keep excluding yourself from the problem and using brash generalizations like "how society ended up in this place." That will solve a lot.

Yeah, intelligence is pretentious. Keep going with that one. That's how society ended up in this place.

I think we've gone off topic. There are a million different political scenarios which this could dictate; however, I was addressing your attack on those who express their disgust at a comment like the Onion's and your immediate assumption that we all must be knuckle dragging beiberlovers who can't process concepts of satire--that was pretentious at the very least.

Really too far. They should have just gone with "arrogant bitch."

Really!? The fact that this is even being questioned is dispicable!

This girl should be happy that she can help in the fight against exploitative media. A fight that will benefit her in the long run. The Onion is fighting FOR her. Onion writers aren't going to be the ones victim to crotcharazzi.

It's not pretentiousness it's real life. What the national media does to children is ONE MILLION times worse than what The Onion did. And The Onion only did it in order to present to you people what the national media does every day with Carte Blanche (immunity) .

Charlemagne, you can read Foucault, love A Modest Proposal, and still understand the implications of a national source reaching thousands of eyes calling a nine year old a cunt. Please don't generalize on the collective intelligence of those with a sense of empathy, compassion, or kindness. It is just pretentious.

Also, LA Weekly, I'm still pretty fucking pissed at you for your stupid fucking article PRAISING Justin Beiber. You people need to get you fucking shit together.

I guess I'm going to be the first person to say it. Anyone who thinks that what The Onion did was "tasteless, wrong, inappropriate, whatever" is simply not an intelligent person. Those are the same people that listen to pop music, can't understand complex movies and have an extremely pedestrian understanding of science. While The Onion's tweet was "wrong" per say, that's the whole fucking point of The Onion. Their publication exists only to mirror the existing state of media in the country so as to show the less intelligent people how wrong it is. Ironically, the people who are criticizing The Onion are the same people who are glued to TMZ, E!, The Insider and other irreverent gossip factories. If you have even a basic understanding of Media Ecology, Jungian and Freudian philosophies of psychology, and the deconstructionist state of contemporary communication you would understanding that every time TMZ takes a picture of some child star eating a fucking hot dog, or drinking out of a red solo cup, or god knows what, they are essentially calling that person a "cunt." They are derogating from that person's right to his/her own agency and turning them into an object of subjectification for the sake of their financial motives. The difference between TMZ and The Onion is that TMZ is legitimately trying to degrade that person so that they can make money. The Onion is trying to mimic TMZ in order to show you people how wrong TMZ is. (And I know that it isn't just TMZ, but for the sake of simplicity I'm using TMZ in synecdoche [a part representing the whole.]) The people who are upset at The Onion are the same people who would be upset at Jonathan Swift for writing A Modest Proposal. You people are simply not intelligent. I would recommend a formal education but even that is failing these days. I don't know, go to the fucking library, read a book, read some fucking Foucault, or Baudrillard, or Lyotard, OR SOMETHING, ANYTHING. You can't continue being this stupid.

MMMM celebs love that righteous indignation... They went too far with the C word, should've used a tamer word. Coming from them it was a little bit too far. Get over it. Or no! wait! oh my god! let's analyze this further, I hope Keith Olberman has it in him to elaborate! Help me form my opinions! I'm so upset!

It's good that they (The Onion) redacted this, but I think this vitriolic backlash is evidence that too many people in this world haven't been to a staging of the Vagina Monologues.

Race has nothing to do with it, but people will use it as ammo. I can where they were trying to go but that's a private joke among close friends where anything is acceptable. Those that can't understand why people are mad are not parents.

it was an obvious joke due to the fact that shes adorable and was up for an oscar. people are to fucking sensitive. it wasnt a direct message to her.

I don't see how race plays a factor in this.

The onion is suppose to be funny , and clearly this is what it was doing with that tweet.. I don't know why it's such a big deal .. That little girl doesn't care about that tweet.. She is rich at 9 years old and after this she will probably be more famous because of this big deal they are making.. Oh I actually saw the interview with her .. Yeah she's been totally brainwashed by someone .. God you guys have no sense of humor !!

Of course -- NOT FUNNY -- totally offensive. Bordering on child porn.

I love the Onion, and I get the intent of absurdity behind this one, but this is one of those jokes that would be funny only privately between two people and the one hearing it knows the absurdity it's delivered in (a "controlled environment"), but for this to be a public joke, too easily misinterpreted (NOT a controlled environment), and for a NINE-year-old to have to process, especially as the butt of the joke? Nope, too far. Even the Onion needs an edit button.

All the people who think this was acceptable because it "was a joke" need to imagine how they would feel if their kid was called this, or their mother, grandmother, best friend, etc.

I'm still laughing...

HILARIOUS! This is the Onion 'keeping it real' as they say. Love it.

no

I do think we should remember this was intended as a joke and not all jokes come off as funny or PC in the end. However sometimes just better to err on the side of caution? Kristen Stewart makes a perfectly acceptable butt of jokes after all.

She's a little girl & I find it disturbing on their part that they would sink that "low" by calling her that word for a few "hahahas".

She a cunt so her mama

Personally, while the tweet wasn't funny, I would have just said, try again Onion, and move on. I'm not easily offended. However, you also have to know your target and audience. Many female followers I follow felt it was in bad taste and unfunny. My feeling is this, if someone like Sarah Silverman said the same joke it would go over better. She's a woman and that's the kind of joke she might make. Her being a female gives her some capital to make joke using the C- word. Yet, if Bill Maher made the same joke, I think again, it would cause outrage, and he would have been called sexist and worse.

I'm usually a good sport when it comes to humor/jokes, but this was simply lame. It fell like a thud, just like Seth MacFarlane's jokes last night. :Yawn:

Is it at all possible it was an auto correct booboo..perhaps they were saying she's kind of cute isn't she? Last night I was writing the word sin and it popped up as dumb....not one letter was right. Just sayin

I wish this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2013/02/24/jaws-oscars-life-of-pi-_n_2756380.html would've been an Onion story instead!

Regarding the tweet, which was intended for the Onion's followers, not the general public: The joke may be tasteless for most people, but in comedy writing terms, it was an exercise in saying the most ridiculous thing possible, a combination of shock value and something nobody would expect (which is a definition of comedy): dissing a cute little girl. Say it is crude, boycott the Onion, plug your ears, that's fine, but it is certainly not misogynist or racist. To the question: too far for the general public, not too far for people who understand the irreverence expected of the Onion.

People & words & comedians. As a man who was arrested helping a crippled comedian promote her website & dealing w a 5 month court battle & the media for saying the word crippled, it is what it is. Leave humor alone. High or low brow, it's a choice to find offense in anything. Anybody worried about the psychological well being of children zombies in the walking dead? Can we worry about & get upset over real problems facing humanity?

Foul and no kid should be called a word like that. What a way to end an night being nominated for an Academy Award. But those dragging race into it are idiots. It's not more wrong because she's black; wouldn't be less wrong if she were white.

Yes, the Onion went too far. But I'm sure her boobs will one day make it into the show's opening number.

Why is causing offense celebrated as being funny. When alarms are raised about such offenses everyone runs under the umbrella of 'Its a joke get over it'. Are there no boundaries anymore to what is deemed offensive vs acceptable free speech?

Satire is an ugly way to tell the truth ...That tweet was no where near satire ...offensive, insensitive, irresponsible ...the Onion finally made us cry

Of course not