0:00

Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. I

0:02

don't know if you knew this, but

0:04

anyone can get the same premium wireless

0:06

for $15 a month plan that I've

0:08

been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities,

0:10

so do like I did, and have

0:12

one of your assistance assistance to switch

0:14

you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told

0:16

it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com/switch.

0:18

Up front payment of $45 for three-month

0:21

plan equivalent to $15 per month

0:23

required. Intro rate for three months

0:25

only. Then full price plan options

0:27

available. Taxes and fees extra. See

0:29

full terms at mintmobile.com. Hello

0:34

and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm

0:36

Dana Taylor. Today is Sunday April

0:38

20th, 2025. If

0:46

you haven't heard of The Onion,

0:49

a satirical news publication, you've

0:51

no doubt come across the

0:53

many memes and parodies inspired by

0:55

its style. The Onion began

0:57

with a group of scrappy Gen

0:59

Xers who wanted to poke fun

1:01

at mainstream news. It's evolved

1:03

into an at times biting, often

1:06

times comic. cultural critic.

1:09

What role does humor play in

1:11

making the world make sense? I'm

1:13

joined now by Christine Wentz,

1:15

a member of the Onion's original

1:17

staff and author of the

1:20

new book, Funny Because It's True,

1:22

How the Onion Created Modern

1:24

American News Satire, which is available

1:26

now. Thanks for joining me,

1:28

Christine. Thanks for having me, Deanna. This

1:30

is great. In your book,

1:32

you talk about good fake news

1:34

versus bad fake news. How

1:36

does the onion walk

1:38

the line between satire

1:40

and misinformation? That

1:43

is a good question. The

1:46

onion's mission is to try to

1:48

make the world a better place

1:50

with its satire. And the point

1:52

of satire is to kind of

1:54

point out what the writers think

1:56

is wrong and needs to be changed.

1:58

And there's a lot of thought that

2:00

the Onion writers put into, you know, what

2:02

they decide to target as their satire. So

2:05

I think that's definitely part of it. Satire

2:07

is, of course, a powerful

2:10

tool to hold those in positions

2:12

of authority accountable. One of

2:14

the Onion's most famous headlines is

2:16

one that's often seen after

2:18

mass shooting in America. And

2:20

it says, no way to

2:22

prevent this says, only nation where

2:24

this regularly happens. Do

2:26

you think the onion has successfully influenced

2:28

public opinion with its brand of satire?

2:31

I would like to think that it

2:33

has. I mean, the popularity of the

2:35

onion, what I would hope is some

2:37

evidence of that. I mean, it was

2:39

amazing to me that after nearly 40

2:41

years, the onion is still popular. They

2:43

were the first entity, I think, to

2:45

reach a million followers on Blue Sky. And

2:49

that headline in particular, I think, has

2:51

made a big impact. It's been reported in

2:53

the media multiple times. Even in the

2:55

course of me writing the book, I had

2:57

to update the number of times

2:59

that it's been reprinted. I think right

3:01

now it's at about 37 or 38.

3:04

And it just points out

3:06

the kind of ineffectualness of

3:08

the public response to this

3:10

serious societal problem and pointing

3:12

out that we are the

3:14

only country in which this

3:16

is a continuing issue. So

3:18

if they're raising awareness of

3:20

that, I think that's a

3:22

really good thing. And then

3:24

looking back at the ethical

3:26

standards, for the onion

3:28

when they're riffing on sensitive

3:30

topics. Back in your day

3:32

when you were there, the way you view

3:34

it today, what are those

3:37

standards? Well, you mean you'd

3:39

have to talk to them now. But I

3:41

think, you know, I think the onion,

3:43

I mean, they have stepped over the line

3:45

a few times. I won't. I think

3:47

that's true. But I do think that they're

3:49

on the side of area men and

3:51

area women, you know, they're on the side

3:53

of the people who are affected by

3:55

the decisions made by people in power. And

3:57

I think that as long as they're

3:59

focused on that as the place where they're

4:01

coming from and where their proper target

4:03

should be, I think that that that gives

4:05

them a decent ethical standing in most

4:07

cases, I think. Christine, I'm sure

4:10

you know that there is a popular subreddit.

4:12

It's called Not the Onion, and they

4:14

highlight real stories and headlines that something could

4:16

have been written by the onion. The

4:19

onion was originally circulated in print.

4:21

Do you think it would have

4:23

become as well known as it

4:25

is if it had been launched

4:27

during the age of social media?

4:30

And I think you've answered this, but do

4:32

you think that it still cuts through the

4:34

noise? Yeah, I mean, I think

4:36

that people have asked me, you know,

4:38

if the onion could be, you know, become

4:40

what it was. And I think that.

4:42

The competition now is so intense, there's just

4:44

so much more than there was in

4:46

the 80s and 90s even. So yeah, breaking

4:48

through all that I think is really

4:50

difficult. So yeah, when they

4:52

started as paper, you know,

4:54

they got a really strong local following and then

4:56

they were kind of, people were subscribing to

4:58

the onion from all across the country. And then

5:01

when they went online in 96, that's what

5:03

really made them take off. So there was like

5:05

almost an irony in the history of the

5:07

onion, because the internet is what made them famous,

5:09

but the internet is also sort of what

5:11

caused a lot of traditional media, including the onion

5:13

in a way, a lot of problems later

5:15

on down the line. In

5:17

2001, a few weeks after

5:20

9 -11, the onion

5:22

published an issue with a satirical

5:24

take on the tragedy. There

5:26

was an article titled, quote, not

5:28

knowing what else to do, Woman

5:30

Bakes American Flag Cake, unquote. The

5:33

reception was mixed. What was

5:35

your take? on that publication

5:37

and what kinds of things were

5:39

you hearing at the time about

5:41

that? Well, my understanding that the

5:43

reception of that issue was extremely

5:45

positive. They received thousands and

5:47

thousands of emails and faxes. That's

5:50

when people said faxes. praising

5:52

the issue and telling the onion

5:54

that it really helped a lot of

5:56

people laugh for the first time

5:58

because it came out just two weeks

6:00

after the attack. So I know

6:02

the comedy community also held them in

6:04

extremely high regard after that issue

6:06

came out. Satire can make us

6:09

think. It can also make us laugh.

6:11

Do you have a favorite

6:13

onion story or headline? Oh,

6:16

there's so many. There's been thousands and

6:18

thousands of headlines. for

6:21

the science and the kind

6:23

of silly ones. What

6:25

I always liked is archeologists, archeological

6:27

dig uncovers ancient race of skeleton people,

6:29

which you have to sort of

6:31

think about it for a minute. There's

6:34

a lot of good archeology ones. But

6:36

there are many, many funny and

6:38

interesting and actually kind of sometimes sort

6:40

of complicated and sad stories about

6:42

people finding onion articles to be true

6:44

and you're thinking that it was

6:46

real, which often happens when and stories

6:48

are kind of taken out of

6:50

their context and seen in a different

6:52

way in the new context. Sometimes

6:54

it's hard to tell whether things are

6:56

real or not. And so I

6:58

think many, many people have been fooled

7:00

by the onion for sure. You

7:03

were there at the beginning. Can

7:05

you describe the energy and some of

7:07

the minds that created the onion,

7:09

who you've said are the creators of

7:11

modern American news satire? I was

7:13

there early on when the staff was

7:15

a bunch of 18 to 20

7:17

year old undergraduate students, you know, working

7:19

out of a dumpy student department

7:22

on campus. And, you know, a

7:24

lot of the paper was basically made up at, you

7:26

know, two o 'clock in the morning before it had

7:28

to go to the printer a few hours later. But,

7:30

you know, there was a lot of

7:32

being in a creative environment with a bunch

7:34

of young people was very fun. You

7:37

know, there's all kinds of crazy silly things

7:39

happening all the time. I was gone

7:41

by about about the early early 90s. But

7:43

the 1990s staff staff. That

7:45

was the group that really took the

7:47

onion to the next level. I think

7:49

they're the ones that made the onion

7:51

into a parody of USA today, you

7:53

know, as people thought about it at

7:55

the time. The newspaper that is they

7:57

also a number of them became committed

7:59

to satirizing from probably a progressive point

8:01

of view, I would say that became

8:03

really important. That's when they also started

8:05

really adhering to AP style and they

8:07

were that there were the people that

8:09

that really created the onions sort of

8:11

mature voice. If you

8:14

could call it mature in that period

8:16

of time. So that was an

8:18

amazing group of people. And those are

8:20

a lot of those people are

8:22

pictured on the front of the book,

8:24

actually. So I'm not going to

8:26

let this go. I was surprised to

8:28

learn that USA Today is actually

8:30

part of the Genesis story of the

8:32

onion you wrote about. one of

8:34

its co -founders Tim Cack growing up

8:36

in rural Wisconsin where there were only

8:38

two newspapers available. One of them

8:41

was USA Today, the other was the

8:43

Oshkosh Northwestern, and he had very

8:45

unflattering things to say about both of

8:47

them. As I mentioned, you

8:49

were there at the beginning, part

8:51

of the original staff from 1988, about

8:53

1990. Fast forward to

8:56

this moment, you're discussing the

8:58

onion and your book with

9:00

USA Today. Is this a

9:02

strange full circle moment for

9:04

you? I mean, the onion

9:06

is now a massive media brand itself. Yeah,

9:08

that was very, I thought I

9:10

definitely laughed when I saw that I

9:12

was, but I've been, oh wow,

9:15

it's USA Today. Do they know about the whole

9:17

thing? Yeah, no,

9:19

it's been so interesting to see how,

9:21

you know, because the part of what I

9:23

did with the book is, is tell

9:25

the story of media and the news since

9:27

the 80s, as well as the history

9:29

of the onion, because the onion has been

9:31

satirizing and making fun of flaws and

9:34

omissions, I would say, in mainstream you

9:36

know, since that time in a lot of different ways.

9:39

And at the same time, the onion has

9:41

become very popular. So, you know, the way

9:43

the onion is kind of mainstream now, you

9:45

know? I mean, it's, and a lot many

9:47

people from the onion have gone on to...

9:49

for, you know, the people from The Onion

9:51

were instrumental in creating The Daily Show and

9:53

The Colbert Report. And all the late night

9:55

shows now have had Onion, people working for

9:57

them. The Onion has kind of

9:59

spread its influence. very broadly, but

10:01

all kind of under the

10:03

radar. And

10:05

it's interesting because I also know that

10:07

journalists love the onion. They say

10:10

the onion says things that we wish we

10:12

could say and we can't say. And

10:14

so I find that really interesting too.

10:16

So I think the onion is aware

10:18

that journalists actually love them, even though

10:20

they're often making fun of what journalists

10:22

do. Your book is

10:24

rich with all of these

10:26

characters. Why did you want

10:28

to write this book? I knew you

10:30

did extensive research for it. Yeah, I mean,

10:33

I started this book way back in

10:35

2018 right before the pandemic and I

10:37

just moved back to Madison from the East

10:39

Coast where I'd been for about 25

10:41

years. And this was during the first

10:43

kind of just big discussion about fake news,

10:45

like the bad fake news. So everybody

10:47

was thinking about that and talking about

10:49

that a lot. I was going back

10:51

to my college town. So naturally I started

10:53

to think about the stuff I did back in

10:56

college. And so, and then I also started

10:58

wondering, you know, I wonder what the onion people

11:00

think about all of this and the way

11:02

the discourse has changed, the way that news has

11:04

changed. So all of that

11:06

really made me want to write the book,

11:08

as well as learning for myself more about

11:10

the history of news and journalism since that

11:12

time. So yeah, I

11:14

did many, many, many interviews, talked to tons

11:16

of people, and they were just... you

11:18

know as you can see you mentioned there's

11:20

so many characters there's so many just

11:22

smart funny and interesting and just weirdos you

11:24

know that have been through the onion

11:26

and that's been it was very very fun

11:29

to to meet a lot of those

11:31

folks and talk to them it was great.

11:33

It was very interesting to read

11:35

this book and I'll just

11:37

say I enjoyed the USA Today

11:39

shout out it made me

11:41

laugh. Funny

11:44

because it's true. It's

11:46

on bookshelves now. Thank you so much for

11:49

being on the excerpt, Christine. Thank

11:51

you for having me, Dana. Thanks

11:53

to our senior producers, Shannon McGreen and

11:55

Kaylee Monahan, for their production assistants, our

11:57

executive producers, Laura Beatty. Let us know

11:59

what you think of episode by sending

12:01

a note to podcasts at USAToday.com. Thanks

12:03

for listening. I'm I'm Dana Taylor. Taylor

12:05

Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with

12:08

another episode of The Excerpt. Find

12:18

yourself looking for a new job or

12:20

change in career. Monster.com is here

12:22

to help. We are not

12:24

only here to bring you job postings,

12:26

but also AI interview prep and

12:28

salary tools, expert career advice and top

12:30

-notch resume services. We've got

12:32

everything you need to land your perfect

12:35

job fit. Discover the magic of

12:37

finding the ideal job with Monster.com. Your

12:39

future starts now. Visit

12:41

Monster.com today. Your next job

12:43

opportunity is just to click away.