If sarcasm had an official Web site, it might be www.theonion.com.
The Onion began in 1988 as an alternative weekly print newspaper run by two University of Wisconsin students. Six years later, the Onion set up shop online. Currently, that Web site is one of the most visited sites on the Web, logging more than two million hits per week.
In its eight years online, the Onion has set a new precedent for news-based satire. The site incorporates a broadsheet newspaper style format with ridiculous headlines, personal ads, graphics, comics, opinions, and other tidbits assembled by an 11-person staff. Through its trademark dry humor and observational wit, the Onion quickly became one of the Web’s funniest locations.
Its headlines alone are praiseworthy, effectively mocking traditional print media’s perpetual hyperdrama. “Area Bassist Fellated” reads one recent spoof; “Second-Grade Teacher Overhyping Third Grade” says another. The articles’ content holds their end of the bargain also.
“Months of research and developments by a team of India’s top physicists have resulted in an ambitious plan to get them the hell out of the overcrowded, impoverished nuclear powderkeg, sources revealed Monday,” reads an article titled “India’s Top Physicists Develop Plan to Get The Hell Out of India.”
Onion Editor in Chief Scott Dikkers believes the Web has had a huge impact on his publication.
“The Web is awesome just because it’s so democratic,” he said. “We have just as much chance of being seen as a Time-Warner Web site. I love that. It’s led to a lot of write-ups in the press that have gotten the Onion out there.”
“We’re waiting for the backlash,” says Arts Editor Stephen Davis. “We’ll know we’ve made it when people compare us to ourselves back when they were funny. Hopefully, we’ll get rich before the backlash hits.”
The site also adjoins an entertainment section called the Onion A.V. Club at www.theonionavclub.com. Although not nearly as sarcastic as the site’s home page, the A.V. section delivers dozens of reviews and critiques weekly, including various features and interviews with musicians and entertainers of the day. The A.V. Club also stages two comic strips, Maria Schneider’s “Pathetic Geek Stories” and Max Cannon’s “Red Meat,” which establish the Onion as one of the world’s leading vehicles for social satire.
Since its days in the ’90s as a fount of humorous e-mail forwards to its current status as a comedic heavyweight, the Onion has maintained its quality of writing and its tack-sharp sense of humor. If the Internet is an information superhighway, the Onion is comedy’s on-ramp.