By Erica K. Landau
To kinda quote George Bernard Shaw (or possibly Oscar Wilde -- the origins are shaky), if you're going to tell people the truth, you'd better make them laugh; otherwise they'll kill you.
If there ever was a way to describe what satirical news source The Onion does, and how and why its deconstruction of current events resonate so widely, the aforementioned apothegm comes pretty damn close.
Hardly a day goes by that you don't see a recently posted Onion story without a bazillion Facebook shares and Tweets.
There are the serious. Take the headlines after Adam Lanza shot 20 elementary children: Fuck Everything, Nation Reports: Just Fuck It All to Hell and NRA Sets 1,000 Killed in School Shooting as Amount It Would Take For Them to Reconsider Much of Anything.
(Dark humor? Yes, but appropriate because it captured well the horror and confusion we all felt that day.)
The not-so-serious: Biden Says Life Better Than It Was 4 Years Ago But Nothing Can Touch Summer of '87
And there are, of course, Florida moments. (Seriously, how could there not be?): Florida Marlins Delay Game Until Fans Show Up
In fact, ripping on our state will be a major part of the upcoming "Evening with The Onion," a live show at Parker Playhouse March 10, featuring Onion staff commenting on news of the day, presenting a live "news" broadcast, and, again, an entire section dedicated to what Jon Stewart refers to as the dong of America.
Sponsors Blindspot Productions, Radio-Active Records, and Salty Eggs Media invite readers to compete to win a pair of tickets to the event by posting Onionesque music-related headlines in the comments section below. A few sentences for context also welcome.
Headlines may lampoon local or national musical subjects. Here are a few published examples of what we're looking for:
The best headline posted by 6 p.m. Monday, February 11, will win. Only three headlines per person, please.
An Evening with The Onion. 7:30 p.m., Sunday, March 10, at Parker Playhouse, 707 NE Eighth Street, Fort Lauderdale.
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