Colton, M. (1998, October 25). Paper provides joke, pain: The onion grows on nation; read it and weep. The Washington Post, pp. F1, F4.

OVERVIEW

In the 1970s the National Lampoon used satire to criticize 70s society. Now, in the clear, crisp colors and style of USA Today, "the ONION" is becoming popular with Chevy Chase, Larry David (co-creator of "Seinfeld"), Steve Martin, Jon Stewart, Bob Odenkirk (of "Mr. Show") and the execs of Comedy Central. It is reported that former President Clinton enjoys it, but this is indignantly denied by the official White House spokesman.

Apart from a Clinton/Lewinsky report ("We did not have sex, we made love.") the ONION has not covered the Clinton scandal because it avoids main-stream humor. Managing editor, Rob Siegel says: "We don’t want to be like Jay Leno, who tells the same Lewinsky jokes every night.’ "

The ONION has grown from a "sophomoric Badger State campus rag ten years ago to publishing editions in Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago and Denver. By December, 1998 it was distributed by Barnes & Noble and other national book chains. It reached 360,000 readers in 1998, and its web site (www.theonion.com) was receiving 220,000 weekly hits."

Most of its writers are former students of the Univeristy of Wisconsin—Madison. Todd Hanson, ONION’s head writer describes himself as a "bum-slacker-dropout" who says he attended the University of Wisconsin "from 1986 to 1986." He was a dishwasher before he came to the campus paper. What other writers for the paper share is some experience, inspiration from David Letterman, Monty Python, the original "Saturday Night Live," and a "vast knowledge of archaic and trashy popular culture."

Presiding over the chaos of creativity such a venture entails is managing Editor in Chief, Scott Dikkers,

the 33-year-old editor...with shaved head and a roguish smirk. His jocularity, though, masks the fact that the ONION’s raw material is ‘the absolute unlivable agony of life.’ (Further proof of Mark Twain’s dictum that sorrow is the secret source of humor.)

‘I think a lot of our work here is very sad, and actually makes us cry,’ says Dikkers, citing stories such as ‘Local Man Might as Well Give Up,’ ‘Life is sad. Nothing makes me laugh, ever.’

Siegal, whom Dikkers calls ‘a Pandora’s box of neuroses,’ says he doesn’t think many creative people are happy. Writer John Krewson is an angry insomniac. And Hanson, who suffers anxiety attacks, says, ‘Every single person working here is whacked in the head.’

The writers of the ONION are smart people who know that most other people are pretty dumb. This realization has not made them snotty and egotistical; instead, it saddens them. ‘People willfully ignore bad things,’ says Krewson. ‘We’re doomed and we’re doing nothing to stop it.’ So they might as well write in jokes.

Hanson answers those who think the ONION could have prospered more in the Los Angeles or New York comedy centers with a fear that it may have been co-opted:

‘The ONION is independent and unfettered by the things that fetter the rest of comedy. We’re not terribly bohemian, and we’re certainly capitalist, but we generally count as underground.’

It was going on the web that catapulted the ONION into national and international fame. Quick hits can bring a satisfying smile or laugh. They have plans for a computer animated cartoon for MTV.

Their book, Our Dumb Century was to be published by Disney, but a cartoon linking Hitler and Disney and an article on Oprah ended the deal...then picked up by Crown Books. It includes such "moments of the 20th century" as

• "World’s Largest Metaphor Hits Ice-Berg: Titanic, Representation of Man’s Hubris, Sinks in North Atlantic."
• "Martin Luther King: ‘I Had a Really Weird Dream Last Night’ "
• "New President Feels Nation’s Pain, Breasts"

The ONION’s satire attacks hypocrisy on the national and global level:

• "Army Cadets Under Investigation for Killing"
• "Nation’s Educators Alarmed by Poorly Written Teen Suicide Notes"
• "Chinese Woman Gives Birth to Sextuplets: Has One Week to Choose"
• "Nike to cease Manufacturing Products: ‘From Now On, We’ll Focus on Just Making Ads, Says CEO’ "
• "New Cambodian Barnes & Noble: Will it Threaten Cambodia’s Small Book Shops?"
• "It’s Not a Crack House; It’s a Crack Home"

The other ONION staple is the local "everyday" story, a description of typical behavior written as if it’s a worthwhile news development: "Posters of Naked Women Fail to Draw Real Naked Women to Dorm Room." "Local Teen Hates Life, Mom, Hair." This is meta-humor—the utterly banal rendered funny by its format:

ODESSA, TX—A saltless ‘Superpretzel’ is still hanging alone in a bulb-heated rack at Horizon Lanes, officials for the Odessa-area bowling alley reported Tuesday. ‘Looks like there’s just one left,’ said Mack Kalusner, snack manager for the 12-lane alley.

Like all good satirists, the ONION is nonpartisan, just anti-stupidity in all its forms. But for Hanson, author of such stories as "Doctors Find New Way to Prolong Meaningless Existence," the humor is ultimately about one thing, "Life’s nightmare hellscape of unrelenting horror." The motto of the paper is said to come from its legendary founder, Herman Ulysses Zweibel, in 1871. Tu Stultus Es: You are dumb.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. How important is humor for you?
2. Do you see any humor in the contents of the ONION’S contents? Can anything be learned from such satire?
3. What concerns do you have about such a paper, website, enterprise, or humor like this? When, in your mind, does humor go too far, and how may this differ in terms of contexts and age groups?
4. Do you agree that humor seems to have a base in the sorrow and pain of human life? What do you think of Siegal’s opinion that "not many creative people are happy?" How would you respond to the rather morose conclusions about life held by these writers?
5. How can you best use humor in your teaching or work?

IMPLICATIONS

1. Life has its pain, sorrow and boredom, and humor continues to provide relief.
2. Humor can hurt. Peer sarcasm can injure a young person deeply, and taunts in the media have an influence difficult to measure.
3. Parents, teachers and youth workers need to understand humor, spot the way it can degrade or desensitize, and help young people come to a better appreciation of humor’s appeal and power.

Dean Borgman cCYS