It’s not even about that. I mean just judging by the massive negative response it’s recieved from people still dealing with the news it was certainly a pretty careless thing to post, but none of the humor/attempted humor in the post is malicious or geared towards attacking Scott or his fans. It reads to me as a clear tribute by a fan
I respectfully disagree and believe it was a sarcastic and poorly timed attempt at humor specifically and maliciously mocking the type of clear tributes of which you speak. Agree to disagree.
They’ve done some tasteless stuff with celebrity deaths before, like: https://www.google.com/amp/s/entert...emory-with-tears-in-heaven-par-1819567336/amp https://www.google.com/amp/s/sports...manage-eddie-guerreros-funeral-1819568145/amp But I feel like these were from a more mean era of The Onion and they’ve tried to stay away from that. This strikes me as trying to not make a joke about it, but completely missing the mark. Someone should have told that writer to go back to the drawing board because that’s gross.
Honestly the article is just gross as fuck. Scott was a good man who did good all his life and struggled all his life and died partly because the UK's mental health system is fucked beyond belief by tory policies. The Onion shouldn't be poking fun at the weak. If they really wanted to make an article about this they should be denouncing the broken system and society that failed Scott. Scott's life should be honoured. His life wasn't lived in a harmful or oppressive framework. There's nothing, nothing to make fun of or satirise here about him or the people who loved him.
They are prefectly free to post jokes about whatever the hell they want, the same way you are perfectly free to walk into a funeral for a 2 yr old child who died of an inoperable brain tumor and start cracking cancer jokes in front of the kid's grieving parents.
Where is the joke at the expense of Scott? His fans? Maybe the one bordering on tasteless, but a clear message that his band helped a ton of people battle depression. Not made at his/their expense. Complete honesty, pulling back the curtain of the very thin bit to reveal the writer's true feelings. Both a statement about how maybe this will get more people into Frightened Rabbit and a commentary on the fact that there needs to be more public conversation about depression and mental health. I don't mean to keep arguing as emotions are obviously high in here, but I really find it a stretch to take these posts as insults. As I said before, the fact that so many people appear to have missed the point and are so angry about this just shows that The Onion was absolutely not the right place to make this type of tribute, but I still find it hard to misinterpret what's being said as anything but a tribute. What would the point of the second blurb be if this was meant to be malicious and mocking?
Okay, I'll take the bait, even though I think this is a stupid thing to be arguing about and this isn't usually why I like coming to this site. I think saying "That's too bad, I knew a great Scottish indie rock band that might've helped him through his depression" in reference to the lead singer of said band having just killed himself is making a joke out of the idea that his music may have helped people battling their own demons, possibly even having prevented them from doing the same thing in the past. I think saying "I just hope this sad episode leads to a public conversation about Frightened Rabbit's discography" is mocking the idea that many people are calling for better conversation around mental health treatment and suicide prevention while also playing off the morbid fact that yes, this is publicity and will undoubtedly lead to some number of people checking out their music who had never heard them in the past. To me, they are shitty, immature jokes that are poorly timed. As far as the bad analogy goes, it is true that The Onion is not forcing the link to their article into the faces of his family and/or loved ones, so I'll give you that was a stretch for dramatic effect. There is a chance however that they could easily stumble upon it while browsing through tributes and posts memorializing him in an attempt to ease their pain and suffering and remember the happy times and the good he has done. I would personally hope that a mature adult would weigh that even slight chance against the need to tell that joke at this time and just find something else to make a joke about.
So should The Onion stop writing joke articles about anything that's related to someone's death? Or a real life sad situation? Or anything negative?
I agree with OhTheWater in the sense I don't believe any maliciousness was intended. BUT, due to the timeliness and cause of death, AND the fact it is during Mental Health Awareness month, this did not need to be posted by a website notorious for satire. The "that's too bad, I knew a great Scottish indie rock band that might've helped him through his depression" line is questionable and if I were apart of his family this is not what I would want to see right now. Sure this website is notorious for it and will continue to do so, but if I worked there my name would certainly not be attributed to this kind of post. And I would get his name spelled right in the tweet.
The Onion is free to make jokes about whatever subject they want and some people may not like some of the jokes they make. I'll drop it there. After finding it too emotional to listen to their music since the news broke, today I blasted Painting of a Panic Attack on my way to work today and it was cathartic and got me invigorated for the day. I can definitely see Woke Up Hurting doing that for you.
The Onion article was off putting to me at first too but honestly I think Scott might have thought it was funny? Billy Kennedy posted an old photo of the two of them and made a joke about the first time he saw Scott's ball sack on Instagram. After days of mourning it was a nice little moment of levity.
I fucking love the onion but occasionally I do think they cross a line, and this is one of those times.
Lightbody, now solo on stage, begins the preamble into ‘Don’t Give In’, attempting to dedicate it to his great friend and favourite lyricist, Scott Hutchison, whose death by suicide has just been confirmed hours before. But the awful reality of it is too much. And for a few seconds he stalls, and he starts to weep. And he is no longer the performer but instead a vulnerable young man, who has walked a mile in the same shoes; a pane of glass you fear could shatter. But, with that, guitarist Nathan Connolly comes back onto the stage, wraps his friend in a hug and kisses him on the cheek, to nothing short of thunder from the crowd. And within a heartbeat, the singer seems to remember that, with love like this in his life, it is right, so very right, to fight on. And he is back. That song will possibly never have as much resonance as it did at the Forum – and anyone who witnessed it, and didn’t cry, is either a robot or a liar. REVIEW: Snow Patrol at the Millennium Forum, Derry, Friday May 11 | Derry Now
How is the Mastersystem album? Haven't brought myself to listen to it yet - for all the FR music we hold dear, Dance Music will forever be his final output