Now, Now, Don't Cry: Foolishness and the Onion's TV "Segments"

Gymnast Shawn Johnson Put To Sleep After Breaking Leg

I think the wry folks at The Onion will certainly win more Webbies for this: The "Today! Now!" TV-news spoofs. Some of the gut-bustingly funny segments include "Gymnast Shawn Johnson Put to Sleep After Breaking Leg" and "FDA Approves Depressant Drug for the Annoyingly Cheerful." These are not appropriate to watch anywhere where you shouldn't snort. Consider yourself warned: Hiccups are a distinct possibility.

From the just-so-slightly overdone makeup of the show's hostess to the potted dark-red orchids, to the overwrought music, a-bit-too-loud chuckling and dramatic zoom-out camera effects, the resemblances to real TV news coverage are many. So much so that, if you watch these clips on YouTube and venture to read the reader comments, you'll almost feel bad for the viewers who think the clips are real.

For the Shawn Johnson "story," one hapless reader wrote, "is this real? can anyone confirm this? if it is, it really p***** me off!" (sic). The back-and-forth that commenters get into are sometimes entertaining in and of themselves. But all in all, they reveal the pathetic state of media literacy in our country. C'mon people. The extraneous punctuation on "Today! Now!" wasn't a big-enough tip-off?

The amazing use of ex-CNN anchor Bobbie Battista in some of The Onion News Network's breaking-news segments might be one factor adding to the confusion, but overall, the percentage of watchers who get fooled is downright scary. For the sake of our country's future, let's just hope that a lot of those who are fooled are actually trying to fool us into believing they've been duped. One can hope, at least.