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The Onion, Harry Potter & Satanism

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From a story on the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival:

In another session, the writers of the satirical newspaper The Onion explained how their readers also have failed to get the joke. One story about Congress' plans to leave Washington unless a new Capitol was built (a spoof on sports teams demanding new stadiums) was actually picked up and run as legitimate news by a newspaper in Beijing.

Another story ("Harry Potter Books Spark Rise in Satanism") drew a huge response from the Christian right, who believed the story was authentic. "People wrote in and thanked us for printing the truth," said still-astonished writer, Todd Hanson.

And of course the word gullibility isn't in the dictionary.

Comics go behind the jokes

Richard Evans Lee
March 17, 2004 •
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Comments

I'm a happily gay atheist. Lol, you rule. I'm just looking around compiling a list of all web pages that have references to HP & Satanism. Gullibility comes to mind, but also 'stark raving mad' and perhaps a little less strong, 'media illiterate'. On the other hand, it is all strangely inspiring to some of us fanfic writers.

Posted by: Cam | June 14, 2004 11:44 PM

I can't beleive people, not to mention Christians actually fell for a tabloid story about Harry Potter. They should have first checked the credibility of their source. They would have found the Onion is a satire site, not to be taken seriously. And Harry Potter has not contributed to a growth in the occult. A ZENIT news article at cesnur.org says the occult population in North America and Europe is under 0.1%. Also an article on the "Witches Voice," posted much more recently, says that the pagan population in the U.S. is 1 in 500. Still far less than a percentage point. See http://www.witchvox.com/words/words_2004/e_ppf.html Numbers don't lie.

Posted by: Kris Smith | February 2, 2005 2:15 PM

How do you feel?

Feel free to share your feelings about The Onion, Harry Potter & Satanism. Please stick to the theme of the entry. Disagreement is fine. Homophobia, racism, and kindred expressions of hatred will be deleted. This site is one of my hobbies. I genuinely enjoy hearing from people and hate moderating or killing comments. Forthright disagreement is fine as long as it is civil.
My thanks,
Richard

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