# Um, where do they get the pictures of people for The Onion? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 6, 2003, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434 "2003-03-06T05:18:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/1 "2003-03-06T05:18:34Z")
Idle curiosity, and an empty Keystone Light after a hockey game got me thinking. . . After reading [this article on an undercover cop’s work](http://www.theonion.com/onion3908/undercover_cop.html), and then going into some of the editorials which looked like they _might_ be staged pictures, I’m curious. Just where in the hell do they get some of these pictures (I know the one of Bush is “PhotoShopped”). Do they just take pictures of goofy-looking contributors? Tripler Has any Doper ever posed for _The Onion_? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/2 "2003-03-06T05:29:37Z")
[cool](http://graphics.theonion.com/pics_3908/statshot_3908.jpg) I’d imagine there’s a stock of photos of idiots. I expect they mostly just find appropriate pictures for th ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/3 "2003-03-06T05:41:00Z")
It took me an embarassingly long time to recognize that they use the same [six](http://www.theonion.com/onion3908/wdyt_3908.html) people each week. There’s a news story from a [The Boston Globe](http://thebase.weblogger.com/stories/storyReader%243013) Unfortunately after signing up they don’t appear to have the story anymore. Nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/4 "2003-03-06T05:54:02Z")
[Check this out.](http://benhauck.homestead.com/theonion.html) ---
**Author:** ![Gorgon\_Heap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f475e1/32.png) [@Gorgon\_Heap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgon_Heap)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/5 "2003-03-06T13:08:38Z")
That site wouldn’t pen for me **Osiris** , but this is something I’ve wondered about myself. I knew they reuse the same people for the “What do You Think” column, but there are plenty of people they use only once. And the manatee. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/6 "2003-03-06T14:35:04Z")
I’m pretty sure there was a thread about The Onion before here where someone said a friend of theirs (yes, this sounds like “a friend of a friend” territory) found a picture of him or herself being used without permission. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/7 "2003-03-06T14:47:48Z")
I’ve always wondered who the six people in the on the street interviews were. I’ve also wondered if they have a random name generator, why curly-haired clueless lady is always either a housewife or a librarian and why the other blonde woman always gets to be the cynical realist. Silly things to wonder while reading The Onion. Especially without the help of some Keystone Light. ---
**Author:** ![bradministrator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a698b9/32.png) [@bradministrator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bradministrator)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/8 "2003-03-06T15:08:55Z")
I once saw the woman from a Point/Counterpoint editorial (“U.S. Stay Out Of My Uterus/We Must Deploy Troops To Your Uterus”) in a optometrists print ad. [http://www.theonion.com/onion3534/oped\_abortion.html](http://www.theonion.com/onion3534/oped_abortion.html) Thus, I conclude, they use stock photography. ---
**Author:** ![CRorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CRorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CRorex)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/9 "2003-03-06T16:44:16Z")
They actually change the pictures every few years. ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/10 "2003-03-06T18:34:33Z")
They took the pictures of the people from the “What Do You Think” section on the capitol square in Madison (I recognize some of the buildings in the background). They probably just went around one day taking a bunch of pictures of government workers and businessmen/women. Since they use those pictures so regularly, they probably have permission. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/11 "2003-03-06T18:46:53Z")
Who would willingly pose for the mostly unflattering pictures of the regular comunists like Jean Teasdale (Go! Jeankateers!), stoner Jim Anchower? ---
**Author:** ![Soup\_du\_jour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Soup\_du\_jour](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup_du_jour)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/12 "2003-03-06T19:15:28Z")
Ever notice that exactly one of the “What do YOU think?” people is always a systems analyst? It’s different each time, but there’s always a systems analyst. There seems to be one sort of inside joke or another in there. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/13 "2003-03-06T19:30:22Z")
For a while, one of the “What do you think” people on the street was someone in Madison, Wisconsin, who was pestering the _Onion_ staff to let him write for them. They never did publish anything of his, as far as I know, but they did get him to pose for the photo. Some of the other people in photographs are friends of the editors, writers, and photographers. And others, as it has been said above, are just stock photos. ---
**Author:** ![Kantalooppi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@Kantalooppi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantalooppi)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/14 "2003-03-06T20:44:56Z")
Personally, I want to know who’s the guy in Herbert Kornfeld’s picture. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/15 "2003-03-06T21:25:00Z")
The light-haired guy with the mustache and glasses, I figure, must work for The Onion, because he’s been photographed more than once. Observe [this story](http://www.theonion.com/onion3543/billy_joel_fanpage.html). Same guy, no? ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/16 "2003-03-06T22:15:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gorgon Heap \* > **That site wouldn’t pen for me Osiris, but this is something I’ve wondered about myself.** Which one? The Boston Globe piece is just too old and they took it out of their system. If it was also a hard copy piece you may be able to find it at your local library but you’d probably have to e-mail them to find out when it was published. Or are you talking about the Ben Hauck site? It’s about this local actor who was paid to appear as a member of the gay following a local optometrist enjoys. in the Mar 7, 2001 The Onion. He says > [@](#): > > It was a short, fun shoot at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, and Curtis and I did all these great photos, of which one was used for the article: then there’s a jpg of the Onion where you can read the article. So they pay theatrical actors to appear in their articles in staged photos. For instance Hauck here has appeared as extras in some Hollywood movies, been a victim and a Principal on Law & Order and … Well you can read his resumé on-line. (Wow ALT 0233 has finally lodged itself in my mind, good.) ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/17 "2003-03-06T22:37:49Z")
They had an article about a year and a half ago, which featured a friend of my roommate. I forget the exact title but it was about how everyone loves the crazy japanese exchange student in the dorm. I found out afterwards that she is friends with one of the editors, so I guess in some cases they use the people right around them. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/um-where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-people-for-the-onion/159434/18 "2003-03-06T22:58:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Padeye \* > \*\*Who would willingly pose for the mostly unflattering pictures of the regular comunists like Jean Teasdale (Go! Jeankateers!), stoner Jim Anchower? \*\* Communists? What?!? I’m never reading that paper again! :mad: Damn commie pinkos. Tripler Making a pun on a typo.