# Who are the guys in the photos on The Onion? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 19, 2004, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-guys-in-the-photos-on-the-onion/270080 "2004-10-19T18:32:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-guys-in-the-photos-on-the-onion/270080/1 "2004-10-19T18:32:00Z")
Does anyone know who models for the photos used to illustrate “news stories” on [The Onion](http://www.theonion.com)? Is it the writers, or do they have special satire models that they use? I guess they use the occasional stock photo, but lots of them have clearly been taken especially for the article. ---
**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:** [October 19, 2004, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-guys-in-the-photos-on-the-onion/270080/2 "2004-10-19T19:28:26Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Does anyone know who models for the photos used to illustrate “news stories” on [The Onion](http://www.theonion.com)? > > Is it the writers, or do they have special satire models that they use? I guess they use the occasional stock photo, but lots of them have clearly been taken especially for the article. IIRC, for the “man on the street” ones, they we just some random people that were walking aound Madison that day. I had a friend who they used in an article (crazy japaneze exchange student) who knew was friends with one writers or something. ---
**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:** [October 19, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-guys-in-the-photos-on-the-onion/270080/3 "2004-10-19T19:33:48Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=39778&highlight=Onion](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=39778&highlight=Onion) The answer should be in here somewhere. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Roches](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc8723/32.png) [@Roches](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roches)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-guys-in-the-photos-on-the-onion/270080/4 "2004-10-19T19:42:55Z")
The ‘man on the street’ pictures are always the same people, so those people who happened to be walking around the right place at the right time now have unlimited fame. What about the columnist pictures? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-guys-in-the-photos-on-the-onion/270080/5 "2004-10-19T19:57:52Z")
> [@Roches](#): > > The ‘man on the street’ pictures are always the same people, so those people who happened to be walking around the right place at the right time now have unlimited fame. Yes, I always liked the guy at the top-left. This week he’s “Harold Mercer, Systems Analyst”. > [@](#): > > What about the columnist pictures? I’m guessing some of those are library pics (like [tha H-Dog](http://www.gusworld.com.au/nrc/herb.htm), maybe). I’d love to get some answers though… ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-guys-in-the-photos-on-the-onion/270080/6 "2004-10-19T20:19:36Z")
My brother was a college roommate to the publishers of _The Onion_. Back when the editorial offices were still in Madison, Wisconsin, the people in the pictures were often staffers, writers, friends of staffers and writers, wanna-be writers and staffers. The columnist photos are usually taken from stock photo suppliers who have already obtained clearance from the subjects. ---
**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:** [October 19, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-guys-in-the-photos-on-the-onion/270080/7 "2004-10-19T21:22:03Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Yes, I always liked the guy at the top-left. This week he’s “Harold Mercer, Systems Analyst”. heh. One of them is _always_ a “systems analyst.” ---
**Author:** ![aeropl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f05b48/32.png) [@aeropl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aeropl)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-guys-in-the-photos-on-the-onion/270080/8 "2004-10-19T22:46:50Z")
One of the writers came to our school and had a very interesting Q&A session (in addition to an onion eating contest). This was one of the questions, and he said basically what has been answered already. You can just buy a whole collection of generic photos to use as you choose and that’s what they mainly used. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-guys-in-the-photos-on-the-onion/270080/9 "2004-10-20T01:57:22Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > I had a friend who they used in an article (crazy japaneze exchange student) who knew was friends with one writers or something. I remember that one! She was cute. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-guys-in-the-photos-on-the-onion/270080/10 "2004-10-20T02:39:23Z")
Including Jean Teasdale? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2004, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-guys-in-the-photos-on-the-onion/270080/11 "2004-10-20T06:32:09Z")
I’ve always wondered who Jean Teasdale was. It looks like the yearbook photo of the class nerd.