Christine Wenc wrote for it in those early days - many years later she decided to write a definitive history of this legendary publication which grew and grew and still exists. I talked to her about it recently and was able to clarify an important detail; I asked her if this history of The Onion is real? Or is it a fake history? She assured me this is the true history.
Have you read The Onion? It started out as a print newspaper, then with the rise of the internet it became one of the first successful on-line humor sites. Over the years it has spun off in various directions, to video, to books, and recently it returned to the original form as a print newspaper.
Those print versions were the best Onions in this reviewer’s view, with wacky, almost believable headlines. It was so clever. Wenc gives examples of crazy stories they wrote that seemed so real and convincing some people got fooled into thinking they were true. She cites politicians who waved around copies of it that seemed to validate their own ludicrous ideas. Sorry Mr. Congressman, that’s “The Onion” you are waving around, you do know that is all fake, right?
The writers made The Onion amazing. Wenc takes us through the massive growth of the publication. When the writers moved en masse to New York City suddenly they were in the heart of the entertainment industry. Many of those writers went on to be involved in creating some notable humor enterprises.
We learn how they wrote it and how it evolved. Growth was often painful. Investors wanted to capitalize on that success. Battles were waged between business and editorial. One astonishing period was right after the writers moved to New York. They were working on their first New York issue when 9/11 happened.
Not a good time to try amusing people. Their 9/11 issue is one of the most striking and brilliant. The Onion writers were geniuses. And their investors made all the money. So it goes. In recent years it has returned to more of the way it used to be.
We live in a distinctly unfunny world. Thank heaven for The Onion.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
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