Satire can be a fantastic way to stimulate discussion about real issues; often, it can be more revelatory than straight discourse. Laughing at a joke compels understanding and examining why the joke was funny– and in satire, the humor is derived from revealing precisely how ridiculous certain serious subjects truly are. Satirists are frequently an important part of cultural criticism, from Mark Twain to Bassem Youssef; humor is an excellent way to make an unreceptive public care about what you want them to care about. While frequently more ridiculous than incisive, the Onion is one such source; and when I stumbled upon this piece written about the 2010 World Cup, I discovered that many of the premises of the humor of the piece are still distinctly applicable to soccer in the US.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/nations-soccer-fan-becoming-insufferable,17553/
The running joke is that the single soccer fan in American has become insufferable over the World Cup, the humor (and truth) lying in the fact that, of course, while there is more than one, there are far fewer soccer fans in the US than practically anywhere else, despite a deeply entrenched culture of sports spectatorship and participation (particularly, and paradoxically, participation in soccer youth leagues.) The lone fan, Brad Janovich, is “the only American citizen currently aware that the World Cup begins June 11”; the sources quoted in the article are “only peripherally aware of the World Cup,” and are confused and irritated when he strikes up “several extended but one-sided conversations concerning figures such as “Kaka” and “Ronaldinho,” generally mystifying and alienating everyone he has come into contact with.” I won’t ruin the genuinely funny piece by quoting further, but you get the gist. The humor of the piece is predicated on the isolation of the US in its apathy towards the global game, and that the grip soccer has on American audiences is tenuous at best. These are realities that have seen some movement in the last 4 years, but not much; hopefully this World Cup will do a better job of capturing the American imagination (apart from Brad Janovich’s) better than the last one.
