Blog 3

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/new_heart_device_allows_cheney_to

To me, the funniest thing about this article is the tone. The Onion continually does a fantastic job of using a serious sounding tone while implying heavy sarcasm at the same time. Often, this is a very hard thing to do; the writers are not overly sarcastic (which would undoubtedly take away from the humor of the piece), but they certainly get their point across.
This particular article is about Dick Cheney undergoing minor heart surgery and suddenly beginning to feel love after he regains consciousness. By using words like “stunned” and “mysteriously”, the writers begin implying that Cheney has never felt love before in his life. Then, in the second paragraph, they destroy any shadow of a doubt by stating that it is, indeed, the first recorded incidence of Cheney feeling compassion. This creates humor because the first paragraph hints at the lack of love in his life, while the second paragraph refers to compassion in general. Love is something one feels for family, friends, perhaps one’s nation in the case of a political figure. On the other hand, compassion refers to hope for the well being of a person or of people as a whole. By making this contrast, the writers highlight Cheney’s apparent lack of compassion for the entirety of the nation that he helps run.
Another thing I noticed was how feelings of love and compassion were categorized as “unexpected side effects”. The writers purposely “medicalize” normal emotions and turn them into symptoms in order to dehumanize Cheney. This is funny because it is, again, poking fun at the idea that Cheney does not feel compassion. It goes even farther to imply that Cheney is inhuman, or at best an abnormal human.
It is also mentioned that the “medical breakthrough” Cheney experienced could “…aid other Americans who suffer from acute mulishness and generalized misanthropy…”. The transformation of these terms into medical sounding terms, again, create the idea that Cheney is abnormal and is “suffering” from those particular “symptoms”. Also, I found it funny that they didn’t directly state that Cheney is a mulish misanthrope, but instead the writers used the phrase “…and other Americans”. It would have been very bland if the writers had just said “Cheney is mulish and he’s a misanthrope”, but talking around the subject made it funny.
In the fifth paragraph, the writers talk about how the defibrillator he had placed in his chest was working properly and that Cheney did not exhibit any physical abnormalities. This takes away any other possibility, other than Cheney’s mentality or soul, that could explain his feelings. The idea that he had a defibrillator implanted implies that something was wrong with his heart to begin with. It may be a stretch, but there is some symbolism in this. When someone acts without compassion, a common response would be, “Where is your heart?” or “Do you have a heart?”. The defibrillator figuratively induced feelings of compassion in a “shrunken and ulcerated black heart” (para 16). It is humorous that it took a mechanical device to create feelings in Cheney.
Other things that create humor in this article are things that have been exaggerated. An example of this is the description of Cheney taking off his shoes, rolling up his pant legs, and walking around the lawn barefooted. This idea was mentioned in order to create a new-found sense of kindness, happiness, and even normality to a degree in Cheney. Another example is Cheney mentioning in a speech that we are all, “…entwined in an unbreakable braid of human brotherhood”, which is extremely uncharacteristic of anything that Cheney would say, given his political background. The funniest thing to me was the photo near the middle of the article and the caption, which read, “Cheney with "new BFF" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) at the Capitol Tuesday”. The quotes indicate that Cheney called Reid his “BFF” (which is a term that is commonly used by teenaged girls), which is hilarious. An old, withering man calling another man, especially a democrat, his “BFF” is an extremely exaggerated situation that one would never find in real life. This fact creates the humor.
The irony in this article revolves around the idea that political leaders should be role models, since they are constantly in the public eye. Cheney, portrayed as a cold-hearted inhuman “thing”, is anything but a role model, especially to the liberals who are reading this leftist publication. The use of sarcasm and exaggerations, along with this irony creates humor.