It used to be so funny that it would bring tears to my eyes!
As a test, I picked the first 5 “News” headlines from July of 2004 and July of 2014 that didn’t contain obvious dated references.
List A:
[ol]
[li] Minister Constantly Mentioning Teenage Son’s Virginity[/li][li] Woman Doesn’t Have Single Photo Where She’s Not Hugging Someone[/li][li] Kick-Ass Sales Proposal Written[/li][li] Insecurities Laid Bare In Wal-Mart Shopping Cart[/li][li] Lottery Winner An Inspiration To All Who Play The Lottery[/li][/ol]
List B:
[ol]
[li] Cracks In Facade Visible As Teen Enters Third Day Vacationing With Friend’s Family[/li][li] Few More Items Knocked Off List Of Desirable Traits In Partner As Woman Turns Year Older[/li][li] Legal Dream Team Of Coworkers Counsel Woman On Strategy For Speeding Ticket[/li][li] Community A Wasteland Of Professional Athletes’ Failed Side Businesses[/li][li] Report Confirms No Need To Make New Chairs For The Time Being[/li][/ol]
Which list do you think is from 2004 and which is from 2014? Which do you think is funnier or can you not tell the difference?
List A is from 2004 and List B is from 2014.
Personally, I find List B to be a little bit funnier than List A but neither are exactly setting the world on fire. It just goes to show how little of The Onion we remember after the fact and how that distorts our perception of things.
I think it’s funnier now than it was five years ago, but not as funny as back in the nineties. Also, I miss T Herman Zweibel.
I have nothing to contribute to this thread, but I can’t resist mentioning my all-time favorite Onion line, which is from “Toy-buying tips for parents”, March 2001:
Yeah, I live in the Bay Area and knew a few places that would have the print edition available for pickup until that disappeared altogether.
They stopped being funny around January 20, 2009.
Somehow, nothing the President has said or done since then has struck the editors as humorous. Can’t imagine why.
Yeah, but they make up for it with the Vice President.
IMHO, their best moment ever was “Bush: Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over” just before his inauguration in 2001.
Like they say, it was funny because it’s true.
My parents used to get a publishers’ trade magazine that ran a column collecting actual newspaper headlines with funny implications. Because they were real, they were funnier than made-up ones. Some were obvious errors, others more subtle: “Tuna Biting Off Washington Coast,” to cite one example.
Because I liked those from way back, I do sometimes find Onion headlines funny. My all-time favorite is probably from their historical collection…the day Germany invaded Poland to start WWII:
**WA-headline continued page 2 **
So it’s the dumbest shit imaginable?
And before that, there was Millennium Actually Starts in 2001, Terrorists Note.
“Clinton declares self ‘President for life’.” in the wake of the whole 2000 election mess.
I liked the cover of the final print edition.
The most fun about The Onion anymore is reading it on Facebook for the comments, and seeing how many people take it seriously.