The Onion apologizes for the Quvenzhané Wallis joke that went too far
Credit: Reuters
Inappropriate jokes, while they make can make us cringe, are often times funny. We know they’re bad, but we laugh regardless.
The comment The Onion made about Quvenzhané Wallis last night during the Academy Awards went too far. You just can’t call a 9-year-old girl the c-word. At such a young age, we doubt Wallis even knows what the c-word is.
Around 9:10 p.m. last night The Onion tweeted the below comment.
Who knew that with Seth McFarlane as the host, the most controversial comment of the night would come from The Onion?
The tweet was live for approximately an hour before it was taken down due to the backlash.
By Monday afternoon, The Onion took to its Facebook page to offer an apology of the tweet. The full apology is below:
Dear Readers,
On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive—not to mention inconsistent with The Onion’s commitment to parody and satire, however biting.
No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire.
The tweet was taken down within an hour of publication. We have instituted new and tighter Twitter procedures to ensure that this kind of mistake does not occur again.
In addition, we are taking immediate steps to discipline those individuals responsible.
Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry.
Sincerely,
Steve Hannah
CEO
The Onion
In an industry that forces young actresses to grow up fast, be sexy and act much older than their age, why can’t we let a 9-year-old just be a 9-year-old? Wallis, who was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work in ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ is just a kid. There’s plenty of time in her future for The Onion to call her names.
Follow Mary Ann Georgantopoulos on Twitter @marygeorgant
