SPOOF PROOF…Squid thinks of Oscar night a bit like Catholics think of Easter: It’s a Holy Day of Obligation, one in which guests are invited to attend, but discouraged from talking so as to better concentrate on the matters at hand—the best and worst dressed and the party food.

And so it was going in the lair Sunday night—with Squid and Squid’s pals nomming “crabby snacks and homemades” (from Silver Linings Playbook), sipping Champagne (Amour) and doing a little light waterboarding (Zero Dark Thirty), when the spoof website The Onion sent out a tweet that stopped the joie de vivre dead in its tracks: They used the c-word (yeah, THAT c-word) in reference to 9-year-old Quevenzhane Wallis, a first-time actress and the youngest ever given the Best Actress nod, nominated for her role as Hush Puppy in the sleeper hit Beasts of the Southern Wild. The Onion is known for pushing the envelope in a really smart way (remember the pitch-perfect Newtown post titled “Fk Everything, Nation Reports”?) but using the c-word to describe a child just left Squid cold. The Onion took the tweet down within minutes, but it was a good 12 hours before they apologized.

What is it about men these days using vile words to refer to women?

Squid took heart, though, that the fine art of spoofing and mocking isn’t entirely dead. A few days ago on Wired magazine’s website, the national security-nerd/military-spoof website The Duffel Blog managed to convince Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that Guantanamo Bay detainees would be eligible to receive post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. That had McConnell calling the Pentagon’s Congressional liaison to ask “WTF?” (As Wired points out, there was nothing subtle about the Duffel Blog post, either: “By allowing the detainees to use the Department of Veterans Affairs, we hope to completely crush their souls with bureaucracy,” the DB author writes.

Monterey County’s own military has also been on the receiving end of some Duffel Blog snarking. In August, DB write that students at the Defense Language Institute had gathered at Soldier Field for the “Nerd of the Quarter” competition, which featured sailors, soldiers, Marines and airmen testing their mettle in competitions that included Magic the Gathering deck building, World of Warcraft navigation, Star Wars and Star Trek trivia.

“We’re not looking to reward the guy who knows everything about Manga but nothing about Lord of the Rings,” said Petty Officer Mike Boyle, before adding, “Could you change that when you quote me? I said ‘Guy who knows everything’ but I should have said ‘Guy or girl.’ Some of the girls here are into vampire nerd stuff and are so fracking uncool [sic], they make me look like Apollo Adama in comparison.”

Squid is heartened to know that smart spoofing still exists, and hoping it never again involves using vulgarities to refer to a little girl—or any child, for that matter.