The
Onion isn't
completely parody. Something which
everyone seems to
overlook is their quite
good inside section (called
The AV Club), where they have really good
reviews of
movies,
books, and
music, and several
regular features such as
Savage Love,
Justify Your Existence, and
Pathetic Geek Stories. They also have
awesome interviews, and have recently interviewed
Nick Park (of
Wallace and Gromit fame),
Craig MacKracken (creator of
Powerpuff Girls), and
Phish (who completely
grok MP3s and are also
nothing like their obnoxious
pseudo-hippie "
phans").
It's disturbing how many people overlook this, and as a result, look at me incredulously when I say, "Oh, yeah, The Onion gave that movie a great review," or "Yeah, I heard about that book... The Onion's reviewer didn't think too highly of it though."
I guess this is one of those things - there can be a whole bunch of layers, and even so, people assume that something's the same on the inside as on the surface, and so most people don't bother to go deep. Just like an onion - people just assume it's the bitter flesh, not realizing that some life may have sprouted inside.