Reality has been busily satirizing itself for a decade. The Onion tries to keep up but real life is so embedded into clown world now that things that were obvious satire a year ago are now believable.
We are at that point now. That point where you can’t even make jokes anymore because there are no jokes stupider than what’s actually happening.
The Onion, of all sites, does not need anyone’s excuses when they fumble a punchline. If people aren’t sure you’re joking - that’s a bad joke.
I used to work with a guy that was like that. Older guy that was an agent finding me contract drafting work back in the 90s. I could never tell if he was serious or not. He’d say some real borderline shit, but eventually I realised, or just decided, that he was always joking, and reacted accordingly, usually by trying to extend the joke. Seeing The Onion header is enough to know it’s a joke.
I suspect you just worked with an asshole who thought you were a fellow asshole.
If the only indication that something’s a joke is who’s saying it, that’s like people defending Dave Chappelle’s anti-trans bigotry, because ‘he’s a comedian.’ Like what makes it funny or benign is that he was onstage for an audience. Ha ha.
If satire has to be labeled as satire, it is shite.
