The Onion head writer Mike Gillis says GTA 6 is ripe for satire precisely because it commands so much attention. Speaking to Polygon, Gillis described games that become a “center of gravity” as good targets for puncturing the expectations surrounding them.
The Onion has already published GTA 6-related satirical headlines over the past few months, Polygon reports. But Gillis isn’t approaching the game as a dismissive outsider: he also said he’s excited about it from an enthusiast’s perspective. That distinction gives his comments their bite — the joke doesn’t require thinking GTA 6 will be bad.
Instead, Gillis questioned the idea that any cultural product changes everything forever. His prediction is that GTA 6 will make a big impact and then evaporate. That’s a judgment about its cultural staying power, not a verdict on its quality. Read that way, the target is the weight placed on the game rather than the prospect of enjoying it.
There’s some history behind that approach. The Onion launched OGN, its parody of IGN, in 2019, and Gillis said its video-game satire rejects treating gaming as an embarrassing hobby. The useful distinction is between laughing at people for caring about games and questioning how much significance a game can reasonably carry. His enthusiasm for GTA 6 leaves plenty of room for the latter.
