Peeling the Onion

It's kind of amazing how good The Onion has remained after all these years. It can still make me laugh and spend time poking around absurd articles and spoof videos. So, it was interesting to read this article in the Washington Post Magazine a while back about how they make it all come together. They pretty much invert a normal publication, by choosing the headlines first and then writing the story.

For a headline to have made the first cut, at least two of the six writers in attendance had to okay it, generally an occasion of little fanfare in which a couple of people threw up their hands and murmured with a defeated sigh, "Sure, why the hell not?" Among the survivors were "Sudanese Man Best In Village At Stacking Bodies"; "Really Loud Whistle Guy Takes Every Opportunity To Whistle Loudly"; [and] "Steven Tyler Laid Off From Aerosmith As Band Jobless Rate Hits 20%".

And the Onion is still making money and expanding while real newspapers are struggling for survival.

The rise of the parodic industry poses new riddles for media observers: In years to come, will America's faux news prove a more enduring enterprise than the news itself? What might it mean for our nation that joke news could outlast the institutions it ridicules? "Speaking as a citizen of America, it's a little terrifying that real news is crashing while fake news is growing," said Chet Clem, the Onion's editorial manager. "It's scary. You wonder where people are going to get their facts."

I say: Facts? Facts!?! We don't need no stinkin' facts!!!

Kyla might appreciate the most popular Onion story currently: 26-Year-Old To See Every Asshole He Ever Went To High School With On Night Before Thanksgiving.

The trip back home, scheduled for later this week, will reportedly bring McCabe face-to-face with an endless string of pricks from his past, each of whom he will have to engage in awkward conversation, and generally pretend to be happy about seeing again.

Good thing she's staying on the East coast this year.