The Onion: Satire Analysis

Out of all the genre of writing, Satire is the one that speaks the most to people because it is humorous. Satire is making fun of some aspect of culture, society or human nature, human voice through the use of ridicule, mockery, irony, humor, or other methods to hopefully improve it or inspire some sort change. Satire often uses laughter as a weapon against something that exists outside the world itself. One of the most leading satire website that we have today is The Onion. One of the leading articles that the Onion had published is the best example of satire. The untitled article from the Onion uses many satirical strategies like hyperbole, irony, as well as unfamiliar diction to the consumer, to satirize people’s willingness to believe in well-marketed products even if they are ineffective. The untitled Onion article uses hyperbole as a way to satirize the marketing of this product. The first example of hyperbole is the testimonials. The first testimonial from a land named Helen Kuhn mentions that her twisted ankle seems to be better by wearing a pair of MagnaSoles for seven weeks. It is common sense to any human being that a twisted ankle would have healed earlier that seven weeks. The marketing advertisement use testimonials as a claim that the product really works, when a person would have been fine without it.

The article pokes fun at the gullibleness of the American consumers but proposing something very ridiculous like the MagnaSoles product, a type of footwear that can reduce back pain and heal a twisted ankle in just short seven weeks, in hopes that one can learn from this article that it important to be aware of the products you buy to avoid wasting money and encouraging this type of stupidity in