The right to satire: is making fun of the police really a crime?
The Onion is defending the right to parody in the US Supreme Court
 
The Onion claims to be “America’s finest news source”, said Dave Pell on NextDraft. And it is, if you’re after satire. Its news parodies “hit the mark like nothing else”. The classic example is its famous headline on the subject of US school shootings: “No Way To Prevent This, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”
Now the publication itself is in the news: it has gone to the Supreme Court to defend the right of everyone to poke fun at officialdom. Last week, it filed a court brief in support of Anthony Novak, an Ohio man who was arrested and jailed for four days in 2016, after he created a spoof of his local police department’s Facebook page.
The page suggested that the department had outlawed the feeding of homeless people, and discouraged job applications from minorities. Novak later sued the city for damages, claiming his First Amendment right to free speech had been violated. A federal judge dismissed his lawsuit earlier this year, and an appeals court upheld that decision.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
 
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Onion’s Supreme Court brief is, as you’d expect, not entirely serious, said Jacob Sullum in Reason. In it, the publication claims to have “a daily readership of 4.3 trillion”, and to be “the single most powerful and influential organisation in human history”. But the humour is being deployed with a purpose.
Novak was prosecuted under an Ohio law that forbids using a computer to “disrupt, interrupt, or impair” police services; one of the issues in his case is whether people might reasonably have believed that his spoof site was the real thing.
The courts cited the fact that he had deleted comments describing the page as fake. But, as The Onion points out, parody often relies on first “tricking people into thinking it’s real”, then revealing the joke by piling on absurdities. To demand that people “pop the balloon in advance” by attaching “parody” labels to their work would, argues the brief, neuter satire as a political tool.
This is an important debate, given the key role humour plays in US politics today, said Nicole Hemmer on CNN. “Americans have come to expect politics to come wrapped in parodies, punchlines and primetime pizazz.” Since the 1980s, comedy has become “a primary mode of political expression”; young people get much of their news from programmes such as The Daily Show.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
At a time when politics itself has grown increasingly absurd – one Republican congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has publicly mused about whether forest fires were started by Jewish space lasers – parody has become harder to pull off.
As The Onion noted in its brief: “Much more of this, and the front page of The Onion would be indistinguishable from The New York Times.” The need for parody is greater than ever: to shine a light on ludicrous claims and to keep people engaged in politics. America must guard against any curbs on it.
- 
 How Mike Johnson is rendering the House ‘irrelevant’ How Mike Johnson is rendering the House ‘irrelevant’Talking Points Speaker has put the House on indefinite hiatus 
- 
 Lazarus: Harlan Coben’s ‘embarrassingly compelling’ thriller Lazarus: Harlan Coben’s ‘embarrassingly compelling’ thrillerThe Week Recommends Bill Nighy and Sam Claflin play father-and-son psychiatrists in this ‘precision-engineered’ crime drama 
- 
 Dutch center-left rises in election as far-right falls Dutch center-left rises in election as far-right fallsSpeed Read The country’s other parties have ruled against forming a coalition 
- 
 Voting Rights Act: SCOTUS’s pivotal decision Voting Rights Act: SCOTUS’s pivotal decisionFeature A Supreme Court ruling against the Voting Rights Act could allow Republicans to redraw districts and solidify control of the House 
- 
 No Kings rally: What did it achieve? No Kings rally: What did it achieve?Feature The latest ‘No Kings’ march has become the largest protest in U.S. history 
- 
 Bolton indictment: Retribution or justice? Bolton indictment: Retribution or justice?Feature Trump’s former national security adviser turned critic, John Bolton, was indicted for mishandling classified information after publishing his ‘tell-all’ memoir 
- 
 Chicago: Scenes from a city under siege Chicago: Scenes from a city under siegeFeature Chicago is descending into chaos as masked federal agents target people in public spaces and threaten anyone who tries to document the arrests 
- 
 Young Republicans: Does the GOP have a Nazi problem? Young Republicans: Does the GOP have a Nazi problem?Feature Leaked chats from members of the Young Republican National Federation reveal racist slurs and Nazi jokes 
- 
 Push for Ukraine ceasefire collapses Push for Ukraine ceasefire collapsesFeature Talks between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin were called off after the Russian president refused to compromise on his demands 
- 
 Trump eyes regime change in Venezuela Trump eyes regime change in VenezuelaFeature Officials believe Trump’s ‘war on narco-terrorism’ is actually a push to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro 
- 
 Marjorie Taylor Greene’s rebellion: Maga hardliner turns on Trump Marjorie Taylor Greene’s rebellion: Maga hardliner turns on TrumpIn the Spotlight The Georgia congresswoman’s independent streak has ‘not gone unnoticed’ by the president