ADVERTISING: The Onion presents Vishnu as call center operator

Here's a recent ad from the Onion's website, for yet another Onion book of fake news.

Funny? Not really, right? Kind of un-funny, isn't it? And I say this as an Onion fan. Here's what Vineet Chander had to say:

I usually find the Onion's stuff funny enough that, on more than one occasion, I have actually had to place a hand over my mouth and stifle my laughter to stop myself from making a scene while reading the print edition on the subway.

Still, I just don't find this Vishnu "Please hold..." ad funny. There is plenty of fodder for good, smart humor relating to the Indian subcontinent or to Hinduism. The malaria reference and lampooning a multiple-armed deity seem to go for easy, cheap laughs instead. Instead of finding something that we could all laugh along with, the Onion seems content in giving us something sufficiently exotic that some of us can laugh at. What a shame!

True, no?

Comments

[FN/Frederick Noronha]

Just echoing bias.

[RG]

As India grows in importance on the world map, all things related to India will be addressed, either attacked or praised. It's not funny but it's also not unusual for a major religion to be attacked by a newspaper.

[bhuvana]

might appeal (appease?) to the "Indians are taking away our jobs" groups.

[Dan Nainan]

Ordinarily I would say "Come on, lighten up, it's just humor" but this really is not only not funny, it's offensive to even me. I think they could have thought of a much better line because seeing the multiple arms holding multiple phones is hilarious. But the reference to dying of malaria kind of makes me feel like whoever wrote that is your typical ignorant American who thinks that everywhere but the USA is Third World. Probably the type of person who might ask, "Are there really cars, buildings and hot and cold running water in India?"

[Sam Rao]

Ummm! Where are the outraged "South Asian" activists and Op eds??
(a no brainer) Wonder if the Onion would do a similar spoof on Islam or Prophet Mohammed?? :-0

Sam Rao
www.indian-american.org

[Jaya Kamlani]

I don't think people should make fun of any religion.

And what has malaria got to do with call centers or religion?

Poor taste in advertising. Have the advertisers run out of ideas?

Jaya Kamlani

[Jyoti]

Poor taste! Email editorial@theonion.com and ask them to remove.

[J.Radhakrishnan]

It is highly detestable. It is only Hindus who are maligned this way. If only ONION had published a cartoon or even a message of Prophet Mohammed holding a telephone, the publishers and the whole white world would have to face hell. ONION should apologise for this outrage and withdraw the same forthwith.

[Sadanand Dhume]

I think it's brilliant. Desis in America need to find better ways of fitting in than mimicking the perpetual outrage of other minorities who can't take a joke.

[Mukesh]

Leave alone Mohmmed or Islam, what will be the reactions of so-called liberal Christians in western world, if similar distasteful ad showing Jesus appears in Indian ad. Every major western media will get lose.

[AnArch]

Don't get so uptight - its funny, and all religions are crap anyway

[Nicole]

I don't think it was meant to be laugh-out-loud funny, but it's a brilliant commentary on India's economy today. As India's call centers and IT sectors provide services for the Western world, the vast majority of India's population still suffers from poverty and preventable diseases at alarming rates... the Onion captured that in one image and just eight words.

[RJ]

I partly agree with Dan and Nicole.

Dan - "whoever wrote that is your typical ignorant American who thinks that everywhere but the USA is Third World."...in this particular case that's what it seems like. Because that person hasn't really understood that deaths by malaria have reduced a great deal in the last few years and it's very negligible compared to poverty, lack of health-care in general and so many other cases of people dying in India annually etc. So to quote malaria in the joke is kind of, perpetrate a stereotype, because the author has taken a very easy way out.

Nicole - "As India's call centers and IT sectors provide services for the Western world, the vast majority of India's population still suffers from poverty and preventable diseases at alarming rates"...Yes, as hard as it sounds it's so true because I've seen so many cases of people stricken with poverty right beside those big BPO operations. Happy smiling BPO youngsters with deep pockets against a backdrop of people living on the roads, etc.

See, I for one, don't like the Ad. Bringing in religion into the Ad is...uh...I don't know, but not my kind of funny. Even though you may talk about freedom-of-expression-bullshit it still disrupts people's harmony is terms of faith...religion (being one of the prime causes of disharmony in society, you don't wanna disrupt it further, widen the gap, give people a reason for conflict). But in essence, it's fodder for deeper contemplation.

[Dipankar]

I wish the media in India had the courage (and skills) to publish such bold and funny comments. But our media are far more interested in publishing stories on whether or not building a trade corridor between India and Sri Lanka will hurt 'Hindu religious sentiments' (to give just one example), than on the rampaging malaria epidemic in India, which continues to kill in unacceptably high numbers.

Congrats Onion!

[Vishal]

So you stifle your laughter on everything else that Onion puts out eh??..When it ridicules the fat americans, the overspending americans, the dumb president americans, the socially inept americans, the arrogant americans, the gun toting school shooting americans, the 9/11 struck americans, the inefficient "we can't get our towers back up" americans....that's when you laugh?

I am in Indian and one of the things we Indians lack is laughing at ourselves the way we laugh at others. I'm not saying we are rotten hypocrites......ok maybe I'm saying we are hypocrites (but who isn't). If you take everything else on Onion in the right spirit (and they get pretty obnoxious sometimes)...take this in the same vein.

[unmesh]

Some genius actually congratulated the Onion for this? I like much of what i see in it. And there's plenty of grist for humor in Indian culture and religion. But this is simply not funny. It's just juvenile. Lazy. Drooling dumb.

[MG]

I think Indian readers are placing too much emphasis on the use of a Hindu diety. The real criminal offense here is the current plight of India's poor, rural majority being left out, and in some cases, steam rolled by the country's surging economic growth. perhaps some of us have gotten too comfortable here in the US to truly understand what is happening back home and instead respond with the cliche "offended minority" reaction. we should be putting pressure on the gov't and middle-class in India to truly stand up and respond to the poverty instead of ignoring it the way we all do each time we visit.

[MG]

ps. this is the real offense involving the use of a Hindu "diety" in India.. what a colossal waste of money in the face of so much poverty and it sends the wrong message.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/india-plans-a-new-colossus-of-its-own/index.html?hp

[Vivek Gupta]

It's typically Onion funny and intelligent. I personally don't have a problem with this at all because I dont care about religion. But those (Indians) who do, when have they ever tried hard enough to stop "ignorant" Americans or others from making fun of our deities? Heck, we have so many hundreds of Hindu gods and goddesses, that if I ridicule one of the lesser known ones, you wouldn't even know. And as it will turn out, it may be some avataar of Krishna!

Anyway, if you are really offended, why are you not protesting the reprinting of this ad on this very website??? It's so typically us. :-)

[Jaya Kamlani]

Vivek Gupta,

I am not an overly religious person, but I do believe in God, and I do believe we should show respect for the Gods and all religions. Just like politics and religion don't mix well, so too satire and religion don't mix well. I also believe another posting on a similar subject is in poor taste.

"SIKHS: Golf Digest apologizes for depiction of Guru Arjun Dev Ji"

Did you notice how many bloggers on this posting have referred to poverty in India? Instead of talking about malaria and the Gods, the Onion could have juxtapositioned poverty in India with BPOs or the millionaires. One has to be very careful with humor. It can rub off the wrong way.

Jaya Kamlani

[Vikas]

I've come to expect funnier and more incisive editorial content from Onion and that's why this image is offensive to me. C'mon desis, chill!

[Jaya Kamlani]

Vikas,

Any other time, we could all chill about such humor. But these times are different. Only about a week ago, the Danish Embassy was bombed in Pakistan because of the Danish painter's portrayal of Prophet Mohammed. Also, Indian artist M.F. Husain is living in exile because of his portrayal of the Hindu Gods. There are wars raging in the world because of religion. Taking that all into consideration, I think people should be sensitive about how they portray prophets and Gods of any religion. Some respect is in order.

Jaya Kamlani

[Vivek Gupta]

Hi Jaya,

I agree one has to be sensitive because none of us lives in isolation. Our actions and reactions have direct or indirect effect on other people's lives. But why should this be restricted to religion? By this token, making fun of someone's ethnicity, colour, accent, habits.. and zillion other things should also not be done... because someone somewhere may be getting offended.

Still, people could do well to lay off somebody's religion because there are many fanatics in the world who are ready to do crazy things in its name. But can't the educated ones among us overlook such expressions?

Religion and politics don't mix. In fact, religion doesn't mix well with anything, except may be religion, but many a time even that's a rarity. Yet, politics and religion are inseparable anywhere in the world.

Don't think blasts outside Danish embassy in Pakistan were because of the cartoons. I mean how long after the cartoons were first published did the terrorists want to wait before responding? Also, some say Musharraf was the target.

p.s. I don't follow any religion, but I do believe there's one power that controls all, called God.

[Raj Malhotra]

Dude Venugopal - you should know to distinguish between Vishnu and Krishna. This picture is of Krishna. Check the peacock feather.

[Vineet]

Hi Raj,

Not to nit-pick, but Arun is right to identify the deity as Vishnu. Although Krishna is perhaps most associated with the peacock feather, other Vaishnava forms (visnu-tattva)are also depicted or described as wearing it. The excessive ornamentation and four arms in this image are more consistent with Narayana (Vishnu) than with the typically two-handed, flute-playing Krishna.

Take Care,
Vineet