As anyone proficient in outdoor grilling knows, a skewer is a “pin of wood or metal for fastening meat to keep it in form while roasting” (as explained by Merriam-Webster). Its verb form, to skewer, means to push said skewer through food—or, metaphorically, through something else, like a person.
As anyone proficient in outdoor grilling knows, a skewer is a “pin of wood or metal for fastening meat to keep it in form while roasting” (as explained by Merriam-Webster). Its verb form, to skewer, means to push said skewer through food—or, metaphorically, through something else, like a person.
Increasingly the word is used by media organizations as the preferred verb for when someone has strong criticism for another person, concept, culture, or school of thought.
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Of course that person could also “eviscerate,” “roast,” “own,” “destroy,” “annihilate,” “pillory,” “slam,” “crucify,” “trash,” or “wreck.” These other verbs are used often and interchangeably. But none work quite as well as skewer. There is a particular violence, perhaps, to the image of someone or something being impaled which makes the word especially irresistible for headline news writing.
It’s not a brand-new phenomenon (here’s a USA Today story from 2005 using the verb), but it has really picked up speed over the last few years, and especially in 2016, with the US presidential election in full swing. Online media organizations new and old have all participated in a Game of Thrones-worthy barrage of skewerings:
Lately, the most frequent victim of media skewerings is Donald Trump. Here is but a small taste of recent Trump skewerings:
The skewerer-in-chief of the internet is John Oliver, the comedian whose late night HBO show, Last Week Tonight, expertly skewers politicians, governments, corporations, and other entities that require a proper skewering. But apart from making for funny headlines, these skewerings typically don’t lead to any sort of meaningful change by those being skewered.
When it comes to skewerings, Quartz is not above the fray. Since launching in 2012, we’ve published six stories with some variation of the word “skewer” in the headline: three in 2014, one in 2015, and two (so far) in 2016. Three of those skewerings were performed by John Oliver. The other three were executed by comedian Jon Stewart, deceased rapper Tupac Shakur, and US president Barack Obama. Trump was our skewerers’ victim twice. Other victims of skewerings reported at Quartz include CNN, the US government, FIFA, and “Western media.”
Even distinguished newspapers are not immune to reporting on a good old skewering now and then. For example:
The Great Skewering of the 2010s won’t last forever. Eventually, it will be replaced by some other headline cliché. Until then, you can be sure that no skewering will go unnoticed.
