Meh, the Onion went corporate years ago.
About six months ago they redesigned their site to cram more ad banners on the page, about six months before that they started running their "pre-mercials" (comercials that you have to view before you get to the content). Lucky for me Firefox ad blocker takes care of both of them for me
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I can't speak for the Miller article, Av may have a point that they were trying to be ironic. On the other hand it may be a paid plug, but what's the big deal? Everyone's gotta make money one way or another. You've been watching sit-coms on TV with ads for years (not to mention product placements), and I bet you havn't turned your TV off for good.