# Goodbye Weekly World News! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981 "2007-07-24T18:22:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/41 "2007-07-24T23:55:05Z")
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever] We need to make that musical. Consult your sources and make it happen! [/QUOTE] _Bat Boy: The Musical_ premiered off-Broadway in 1997. Rightsholder for amateur performances is [Dramitists Play Service](http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=3013). ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/42 "2007-07-24T23:56:30Z")
[QUOTE=FisherQueen] Now that’s a real shame. As to who their readers were- it’s my understanding that the bulk of people buying the paper were college students. [/QUOTE] That wouldn’t surprise me. I didn’t know a lot of people who liked the Weekly World News but I did know a lot who loved the Onion and they’re basically the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/43 "2007-07-24T23:58:39Z")
[QUOTE=Sternvogel] [Indeed.](http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/column/my_america/24) Of course, “Ed Anger” was a pseudonym. In fact, [more than one person](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Anger) crafted those diatribes over the years. [/QUOTE] My goodness. It must have been a warped publication indeed to condone such a practice. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/44 "2007-07-25T00:16:52Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] Does anyone have any favorite stories that they would like to share in tribute? [/QUOTE] My favorite headline sums up everything that the WWN was in one sentence: **GIANT STATUE OF ELVIS FOUND ON MARS** Classic! ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/45 "2007-07-25T00:24:22Z")
I bet this makes Ed Anger as mad as a . . . very . . . mad person, being provoked by . . . something very . . . anger-inducing. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/46 "2007-07-25T00:32:40Z")
[QUOTE=percypercy] Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten older, but the quality of their stories seems to have declined sharply in the last few issues I’ve read. [/QUOTE] Word. In the last couple of years, they seem to have changed into sort of a lowbrow attempt at the _Onion_, with stories based on bad puns and figures of speech come to life that no amount of suspension of disbelief could overcome. I miss the good old days, when they wouldn’t hesitate to print something just because it might be true, and the humor was unintentional, or at least less self-consciously transparent. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/47 "2007-07-25T00:37:02Z")
_WWN_ was the only rag that paid regular attention to the doings of the Yeti – the core demographic of the Church of the SubGenius. Now it is silenced. Triumph of the Conspiracy – or triumph of “Bob,” who engineered this so we can continue the heroic struggle in secrecy? ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/48 "2007-07-25T00:43:28Z")
:eek: This means the demise of my favorite party game – charades, where you have to act out headlines cut from the WWN. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/49 "2007-07-25T02:20:47Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] Does anyone have any favorite stories that they would like to share in tribute? [/QUOTE] Oh yes indeedy. "Television Networks Ate My Brain !! " 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Brainiac4](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brainiac4/32/3534_2.png) [@Brainiac4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac4)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/50 "2007-07-25T02:31:18Z")
My all-time favorite WWN headline: \*\* _Woman’s amazing true story_ I WAS BIGFOOT’S SEX SLAVE!\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Ms.Pumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@Ms.Pumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms.Pumpkin)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/51 "2007-07-25T02:38:38Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] One idiot I know who bought this would say “I know the stories are fake, but I like to read them anyway”. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] Wait, what’s wrong with that? I buy books in the “fiction” section. I know the stories in those are fake, but I’m entertained, anyway. How is this any different? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Hildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/52 "2007-07-25T04:28:44Z")
When I worked at a grocery store, my trainer was quick to tell me that the Weekly World News was not sales-taxable, as it was a news publication. But bottled water was. That pissed me off. I quickly made the decision to charge it as a taxable item every time someone bought an issue. No one complained. I called it the Necessary Idiot Tax. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/53 "2007-07-25T06:08:14Z")
[QUOTE=Gregor Samsa] Well, there’s always [the on-line version.](http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/) [/QUOTE] According to [this article](http://sfscope.com/2007/07/weekly-world-news-shutting-dow.html), the web site is shutting down, too. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/54 "2007-07-25T08:39:51Z")
By the way, those who enjoyed the WWN would probably enjoy William Kotzwinkle’s book [The Midnight Examiner](http://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Examiner-William-Kotzwinkle/dp/1569247773). It’s a comic novel set in the offices of a tabloid newspaper; ten years after reading it, there are passages I still laugh about sometimes. Kotzwinkle, incidentally, is the guy who wrote _E.T._ The only similarity I see between the two books is that both feature aliens, though; in _The Midnight Examiner_ they’re being written into the paper, and in _E.T._ they’re phoning home and stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/55 "2007-07-25T08:47:53Z")
[QUOTE=ShelliBean] How ever will I keep track of who, in fact, is the current world’s fattest lady? [/QUOTE] Wikipedia? Sadly not it would seem. ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/56 "2007-07-25T12:37:01Z")
Damn. That sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/57 "2007-07-25T13:02:13Z")
[QUOTE=Ms. Pumpkin] Wait, what’s wrong with that? I buy books in the “fiction” section. I know the stories in those are fake, but I’m entertained, anyway. How is this any different? [/QUOTE] I was out of line- see post 16 for my apology 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/58 "2007-07-25T13:12:14Z")
Brainiac – Was that a follow-up to “Bigfoot Stole my Wife – and made her PREGNANT!” around 1980? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/59 "2007-07-25T13:35:32Z")
Let’s see, it’s all starting to add up, now. We’ve got [alien spacecraft in our skies](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=421943&page=1&pp=50), [strange beasts from the deeps menacing our coasts](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=430147), and [the Reader get’s sold,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=430096) and _WWN_ get’s shut down. Someone’s close to figuring out the truth and the Illuminati are putting a stop to it! ---
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981/60 "2007-07-25T13:50:14Z")
[QUOTE=FisherQueen] As to who their readers were- it’s my understanding that the bulk of people buying the paper were college students. [/QUOTE] Pretty much. Their target demographic is actually 20-something males who read it for the kitsch value. One of my part-time editors is a copy editor for American Media Inc., the company that publishes _WWN_ and _The Star_. Surprisingly, this is the first I’ve heard about this, I wonder if he just found out, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goodbye-weekly-world-news/412981.md?page=4)