The Excerpt
"Funny Because It's True" - New book reveals the beginnings of The Onion
Sun, 20 Apr 2025
If you haven’t heard of The Onion, a satirical news publication, you’ve no doubt come across the many memes and parodies inspired by its style. The Onion began with a group of scrappy Gen-Xer's who wanted to poke fun at mainstream news. It’s evolved into an at times biting, oftentimes comic, cultural critic. What role does humor play in making the world make sense? Author Christine Wenc, a member of The Onion’s original staff, joins Dana Taylor on the Excerpt to discuss her new book “Funny Because It’s True,” which is on bookshelves now. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to [email protected] Transcript available hereAlso available at art19.com/shows/5-ThingsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What is the background of The Onion?
Hello and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Sunday, April 20th, 2025. If you haven't heard of The Onion, a satirical news publication, you've no doubt come across the many memes and parodies inspired by its style. The Onion began with a group of scrappy Gen Xers who wanted to poke fun at mainstream news. It's evolved into an at times biting, oftentimes comic, cultural critic.
Chapter 2: What role does humor play in society?
What role does humor play in making the world make sense? I'm joined now by Christine Wentz, a member of The Onion's original staff and author of the new book, Funny Because It's True, How The Onion Created Modern American News Satire, which is available now. Thanks for joining me, Christine. Thanks for having me, Deanna. This is great.
Chapter 3: How does The Onion balance satire and misinformation?
In your book, you talk about good fake news versus bad fake news. How does The Onion walk the line between satire and misinformation?
Chapter 4: Has The Onion influenced public opinion?
That is a good question. The Onion's mission is to try to make the world a better place with its satire. And the point of satire is to kind of point out what the writers think is wrong and needs to be changed. And there's a lot of thought that the Onion writers put into, you know, what they decide to target as their satire. So I think that's definitely part of it.
Satire is, of course, a powerful tool to hold those in positions of authority accountable. One of The Onion's most famous headlines is one that's often seen after a mass shooting in America. And it says, no way to prevent this, says only nation where this regularly happens. Do you think The Onion has successfully influenced public opinion with its brand of satire?
I would like to think that it has. I mean, the popularity of The Onion, what I would hope is some evidence of that. I mean, it was amazing to me that after nearly 40 years, The Onion is still popular. They were the first entity, I think, to reach a million followers on Blue Sky. And that headline in particular, I think, has made a big impact. It's been reported in the media multiple times.
Even in the course of me writing the book, I had to update the number of times that it's been reprinted. I think right now it's at about 37 or 38. And, you know, it just points out the kind of ineffectualness of the public response to, you know, this serious societal problem and pointing out that we are the only country in which this is a problem. continuing issue.
So if they're raising awareness of that, I think that's a really good thing.
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Chapter 5: What are the ethical standards of The Onion?
And then looking back at the ethical standards for The Onion when they're riffing on sensitive topics back in your day when you were there, the way you view it today, what are those standards?
Well, you'd have to talk to them now. But I think, you know, I think the Onion, I mean, they have stepped over the line a few times. I won't. I think that's true. But I do think that they're on the side of area men and area women. You know, they're on the side of the people who are affected by the decisions made by people in power. And I think that as long as they're
Chapter 6: How did The Onion adapt to the rise of social media?
Focused on that as the place where they're coming from and where their proper target should be, I think that gives them a decent ethical standing in most cases, I think.
Christine, I'm sure you know that there is a popular subreddit, it's called Not The Onion, and they highlight real stories and headlines that something could have been written by The Onion. The Onion was originally circulated in print. Do you think it would have become as well known as it is if it had been launched during the age of social media?
Chapter 7: What was the reception of The Onion after 9/11?
And I think you've answered this, but do you think that it still cuts through the noise?
Yeah, I mean, I think people have asked me, you know, if The Onion could be, you know, become what it was. And I think that the competition now is so intense. There's just so much more than there was in the 80s and 90s even. So, yeah, breaking through all that, I think, is really difficult. So, yeah, when they started as paper, you know, they got a really strong local following.
And then they were kind of people were subscribing to The Onion from all across the country. And then when they went online in 96, that's what really made them take off. So there is almost an irony in the history of The Onion because the Internet is what made them famous.
Chapter 8: What are some memorable Onion headlines?
But the Internet is also sort of what caused a lot of traditional media, including, you know, The Onion in a way, a lot of problems later on down the line.
In 2001, a few weeks after 9-11, The Onion published an issue with a satirical take on the tragedy. There was an article titled, quote, not knowing what else to do, woman bakes American flag cake, unquote. The reception was mixed. What was your take on that publication and what kinds of things were you hearing at the time about that?
Well, my understanding is that the reception of that issue was extremely positive. They received thousands and thousands of emails and faxes. That's when people sent faxes praising the issue and telling The Onion that it really helped a lot of people laugh for the first time because it came out just two weeks after the attack.
So I know the comedy community also held them in extremely high regard after that issue came out.
Satire can make us think. It can also make us laugh. Do you have a favorite Onion story or headline?
Oh, there's so, so many. There's been thousands and thousands of headlines. I have a penchant for the science and the kind of silly ones. One I always liked is archaeologists. Archaeological dig uncovers ancient race of skeleton people, which you have to sort of think about it for a minute. There's a lot of good archaeology ones.
But there are many, many funny and interesting and actually kind of sometimes sort of complicated and sad stories about people finding onion articles to be true, you know, thinking that it was real, which often happens when stories are kind of taken out of their context and seen in a different way. In the new context, sometimes it's hard to tell whether things are real or not.
And so I think many, many people have been fooled by The Onion for sure.
You were there at the beginning. Can you describe the energy and some of the minds that created The Onion, who you've said are the creators of modern American news satire?
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