In other words, says The Onion, if you don’t get that Novak was joking, that’s on you, boo.
4
It Should Be Obvious That Parodists Cannot Be Prosecuted For Telling A Joke With A Straight Face
“This is the fifteenth page of a convoluted legal filing intended to deconstruct the societal implications of parody, so the reader’s attention is almost certainly wandering. That’s understandable. So here is a paragraph of gripping legal analysis to ensure that every jurist who reads this brief is appropriately impressed by the logic of its argument and the lucidity of its prose: Bona vacantia. De bonis asportatis. Writ of certiorari. De minimis. Jus accrescendi. Forum non conveniens. Corpus juris. Ad hominem tu quoque. Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Quod est demonstrandum. Actus reus. Scandalum magnatum. Pactum reservati dominii.”
So The Onion mocks Latin legalese bullshit to make its point. Funny! But the joke “would not have worked quite as well if this brief had said the following: ‘Hello there, reader, we are about to write an amicus brief about the value of parody. Buckle up, because we’re going to be doing some fairly outré things, including commenting on this text’s form itself!’”
Ruining the joke is one thing. But more importantly, explaining that something is parody takes away its teeth, rendering it useless as social commentary. Satire is important! It’s crucial to our democracy! And that’s why “The Onion intends to continue its socially valuable role bringing the disinfectant of sunlight into the halls of power. And it would vastly prefer that sunlight not to be measured out to its writers in 15-minute increments in an exercise yard.”