# Who are those people interviewed in The Onion's "What Do You Think?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 22, 2002, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-those-people-interviewed-in-the-onions-what-do-you-think/110205 "2002-05-22T00:41:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![occ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-those-people-interviewed-in-the-onions-what-do-you-think/110205/1 "2002-05-22T00:41:12Z")
For years now, every week the Onion has run a “man-on-the-street” feature, where six or so people are asked a current-events question. Each week, the names change…_but the pictures are always the same._ Hence, my question: who are these people? Are they Onion employees? Were they people who licensed the use of their images to the Onion? Or were they just taken from stock photos on a CD-ROM somewhere? Has this ever come to light? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-those-people-interviewed-in-the-onions-what-do-you-think/110205/2 "2002-05-22T00:44:02Z")
This is from a friend of a friend of a guy who knew a guy who was friends with a guy who worked for the Onion, so, you know, FWIW: They’re friends and family members of people who work there. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-those-people-interviewed-in-the-onions-what-do-you-think/110205/3 "2002-05-22T01:24:59Z")
[I Had No Idea They Were Going To Use My Photo For _That_](http://home.earthlink.net/~cjclark/theolive/i_had_no_idea.html) (Note: The above **looks** like an _Onion_ article, but it’s actually from _The Olive_, which is – get this – a **parody** of _The Onion_.) ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-those-people-interviewed-in-the-onions-what-do-you-think/110205/4 "2002-05-22T01:32:02Z")
Didn’t they change out the pictures a few years ago? Originally I thought they had a different set of pictures… ---
**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:** [May 22, 2002, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-those-people-interviewed-in-the-onions-what-do-you-think/110205/5 "2002-05-22T04:04:15Z")
They’re people from Madison–mostly friends and family of Onion staffers, like **Smeghead** said. The photos were taken around the capitol square (I can recognize some of the buildings). At least, that’s what Scott Dikkers told me when he visited my dorm a couple years ago. His session was the one attended by the most people that year, until Russ Feingold (one of the WI senators) came. Scott vs. Russ was pretty close, but Russ stayed for dinner (the poor man). ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-those-people-interviewed-in-the-onions-what-do-you-think/110205/6 "2002-05-22T04:41:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dooku \* > \*\*Didn’t they change out the pictures a few years ago? Originally I thought they had a different set of pictures… \*\* They changed the pictures when they went from black-and-white to colour a couple years ago. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-those-people-interviewed-in-the-onions-what-do-you-think/110205/7 "2002-05-23T01:05:12Z")
_The Onion_ is an American newspaper. They don’t do **anything** in “colour”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-those-people-interviewed-in-the-onions-what-do-you-think/110205/8 "2002-05-23T01:26:10Z")
Some of the names are made up, but some are real. One time they put names there that were from old newscasters, spotscasters and weather persons from Milwaukee tv from when I was a kid. Howard Gernette anyone? Inside humor like that. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2002, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-those-people-interviewed-in-the-onions-what-do-you-think/110205/9 "2002-05-23T01:34:29Z")
😛 😉