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Bad Astronomy
« Area man interviewed, quoted
Hubble mission moved to October 10 »

Darwineidolia

The Onion really went over the edge on this one: Evolutionists Flock To Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain.

Darwin’s stainOf course, this is totally silly. Clearly it’s not Darwin, it’s Randi!

Bonus: at the bottom of the Onion web page was a link to an article with one of their best headlines ever.

Bonus 2: Randi talks DragonCon on his podcast, The Amazing Show.

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September 5th, 2008 11:15 AM by Phil Plait in Humor, Pareidolia, Skepticism | 23 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

23 Responses to “Darwineidolia”

  1. 1.   Dennis Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 11:42 am

    I actually thought their video about Obama being an elitist seen as a step forward for African Americans was perhaps their funniest. But this was a good one too. And, it does look like Randi.

  2. 2.   madge Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 11:48 am

    Are you people BLIND? It’s Chewbacca! Laugh it up Fuzzball!
    :)

  3. 3.   Ken B Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 11:55 am

    No! No! No! How can anyone claim it’s Darwin? It’s clearly Chewbacca!

  4. 4.   Chris Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    Wrong, you all are. Clearly Obi-Wan, using the Force, it is.

    :D

  5. 5.   AFakeGuy Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

    This is satire, right?

  6. 6.   Christine P. Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    And thanks to Fark, here’s a short article about a woman seeing the Virgin Mary on a GRAPE. At least she wasn’t taking it too seriously.
    http://www.nbc5i.com/food/17382387/detail.html

  7. 7.   Michael L Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 12:37 pm

    @AFakeGuy:

    No, The Onion is America’s premier source for news that other media sites fail to cover. It’s very serious, and is not, definitely not fake. You must be thinking of Fox News.

  8. 8.   john Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

    That bonus is a great headline, but my all-time favorite is: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38673

  9. 9.   PsyberDave Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 1:18 pm

    This one is just plain poignant and it’s even astronomy-related:

    http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39512?issue=4228&special=2005

  10. 10.   Chris Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 1:26 pm

    I usually get my US-sourced news from the Daily Show. I laugh too hard when I watch Fox “news”!

  11. 11.   rke Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    Damn you Onion! I was seriously planning to do this joke on YouTube. Couldn’t decide between a cheese sandwich or a stain on my jeans. It was my sure ticket to be interviewed on SGU…

    Damn, damn, damn!

    Ah well, back to the drawing board…

  12. 12.   Gary Ansorge Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 5:08 pm

    Ah, youse guys is blind. It’s obviously Jerry GArcia. I can see his guitar,,,

    Gary 7

  13. 13.   Gary Ansorge Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

    PsyberDave:

    Hah, Intelligent Falling. I love that but,,,it’s obvious gravity is due to the Devil holding on to its minions, since the closer our astronauts get to Heaven, the weaker his grasp,,,and it’s an inverse square relationship,,,

    ,,,or perhaps the decrease in gravity with altitude is because God is trying to Suck us into heavennnnnn,,,,

    GAry 7

  14. 14.   Mark Hansen Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 5:32 pm

    {Myers moment}
    Of course, there is not a speck of Darwin in that picture.
    {/Myers moment}

  15. 15.   Jivlain Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 6:59 pm

    No, no, no! That’s Captain Jack Sparrow, that is.

  16. 16.   Justin Olson Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 8:52 pm

    Speaking of Darwin, has anyone here (Phil?) heard of the Darwin biopic that’s going to start filming later this month in England? It stars Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin and Jennifer Connelly as his wife, Emma. They have yet to cast the part of their daughter Annie.

    The movie is based on Randal Keynes’ book “Annie’s Box.” Anyone here read it?

    The director is John Amiel (“Copycat,” “Entrapment”) and the screenwriter is John Collee who adapted “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” for director Peter Weir back in 2003. If you recall that movie, Bettany played Russel Crowe’s doctor and part-time Naturalist who is seen visiting the Galapagos Islands (before Darwin) and cataloging various species.

    http://www.darkhorizons.com/news08/080905h.php

  17. 17.   News From Around The Blogosphere 9.5.08 « Skepacabra Says:
    September 6th, 2008 at 1:15 am

    [...] First, from this funny piece from The Onion: [...]

  18. 18.   [links] Link salad, mostly politics edition | jlake.com Says:
    September 6th, 2008 at 4:17 am

    [...] Evolutionists Flock To Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain — Hahahahahahah. (Snurched from Bad Astronomy Blog.) [...]

  19. 19.   Shoeshine Boy Says:
    September 6th, 2008 at 6:07 pm

    My personal favorite Onion headline is:

    Gay man tearfully admits he is governor of New Jersey.

  20. 20.   Mike Says:
    September 7th, 2008 at 4:46 am

    A day and a dollar too late I think

    http://www.theonion.com/content/news/shaq_terrified_of_phoenix_suns

  21. 21.   mln84 Says:
    September 7th, 2008 at 9:07 am

    It looks more like Cthulu to me.

  22. 22.   John Baxter Says:
    September 7th, 2008 at 12:38 pm

    Sadly, we will all be smitten in the end.

  23. 23.   DennyMo Says:
    September 8th, 2008 at 12:20 pm

    Usually the Onion is pretty funny, but I’m rather disappointed that a parody of 9/11 gains Phil’s admiration as the greatest Onion headline ever. I see very little humor in using 9/11 as the butt of a joke. Did you also make “crispy critter” jokes after Challenger?

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