The Onion

[[File:The Onion Logo.png|thumb|right|Truly.]][[File:Clickhole Logo.svg|thumb|right|Never-ending spiral of [[clickbait]]? Exotic alien anus? [[Fox News|We report, you decide]].]]{{media}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:''The Onion''}}
{{cquote|Tu stultus es.|||Motto, translates to "You are stupid."}}
'''''The Onion''''' is a satirical [[United States|American]] weekly news magazine and its associated website.<ref>[http://www.theonion.com/content/index The Onion website]</ref> Over the years, ''The Onion'' has expanded from a simple magazine to a massive company, running a website that beats most professional news organizations and running television skits where the production values rival those of [[CNN]]. Because of the high quality of ''The Onion's'' appearance, it's little wonder that it sometimes [[Poe's Law#The Onion|gets mistaken for the real thing]].

''The Onion'' also has an entertainment/pop culture newspaper and website called '''''The A.V. Club''''', which features pop culture news, reviews of almost every form of media (TV, albums, books, etc.), and interviews presented in a humorous but factual tone. The site's head writer was Nathan Rabin until 2013. ''The A.V. Club'' maintains a separate identity and has very little (if anything) in common with ''The Onion'' to avoid people mistakenly thinking that ''The A.V. Club'' presents [[fake news]] like ''The Onion''.

''The Onion'' has in the past extended into a movie (critically panned, even by its own ''A.V. Club''), and two TV series — ''Onion SportsDome'' on Comedy Central and the ''Onion News Network'' on IFC. In 2013, a pilot for ''Onion News Empire'', a behind-the-scenes look at the ONN newsroom, was made for Amazon.com. (They didn't pick it up.) There have also been three original Onion books — ''Our Dumb Century'', a history of the 20th century told through fake Onion front pages, ''Our Dumb World'', a Hollywood atlas filled with stereotypes and black comedy, and ''The Onion Book of Known Knowledge'', a mock encyclopedia of all existing knowledge.

In June 2014, ''The Onion'' launched '''''Clickhole''''', an ancillary website and their take on ''[[Huffington Post]]''/BuzzFeed-styled reporting (i.e, clickbait).<ref>[https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/04/the-eternal-return-of-buzzfeed/390270/ The Eternal Return of BuzzFeed] by Adrienne LaFrance & Robinson Meyer (April 15, 2015) ''The Atlantic''.</ref> It has since disassociated itself from the main paper as it was acquired by ''Cards Against Humanity'' in February 2020.<ref>[https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/3/21121406/cards-against-humanity-clickhole-acquisition-gawker-g-o-media-the-onion Cards Against Humanity rescues ClickHole from its private equity owners]</ref> It also had '''''StarWipe''''', parodying celebrity news sites such as ''TMZ'', which was launched in September 2015, but is now defunct as of June 2016. In November of 2024, the publication made headlines for attempting to acquire [[InfoWars]] with the aide of the Sandy Hook families, but was blocked by a Texas judge.{{fact}}

Many upon scores of many times, ''The Onion'' has beaten [[RationalWiki]] to the punch with their humor and payroll.<ref>[http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28784 Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over']</ref> We work for free :)

==Eating the onion==
{{Expand section}}
{{Main|Poe's Law}}
From time to time, people mistake articles and stories from ''The Onion'' and ONN (its parodic "cable news channel" counterpart) as being true stories, to comedic effect. Usually, this is limited to the Facebook pages of credulous people, but sometimes… it leaks out.

In 2002, the ''Beijing Evening News'' ran a story in which the United States Congress threatened to leave Washington DC unless a new Capitol building, complete with a retractable roof, was built. Their source was an Onion article written to parody the practice of some sports teams of leaving their home cities for ones with better facilities. The ''Beijing Evening News'' soon retracted the piece, but not before the author, who had picked up the piece wholesale off the internet without citing the source, vehemently defended the truth of the article in an interview with the ''LA Times'', saying "How can you prove it’s not correct? Is it incorrect just because you say it is?"<ref name=chu>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jun-07-fg-whoops7-story.html Reeled In by a Spoof, Chinese Daily Shrugs Off Its Capitol Error], Henry Chu, ''LA Times'', June 7, 2002</ref>

The temptation to publish an article where the Speaker of the House for the decadent, immoral American government calls the Capitol a ''"drafty old building ... no longer suitable for a world-class legislative branch,"'' must have been overwhelming. We expect that one day soon, the Beijing Evening News will achieve the same level of fact-checking, accuracy, and attention to detail that are the hallmarks of the American media.<ref name=chu/> (Unless [[Fox News]] is reporting. They mistook an ''Onion'' story headlined "Frustrated Obama Sends Nation Rambling 75,000-Word E-Mail" for reality.)<ref>[https://www.rawstory.com/2010/11/fox-nation-readers-confuse-onion-article-real-news/ Fox Nation readers confuse Onion article with real news], Raw Story, November 26, 2010</ref><ref>[https://politics.theonion.com/frustrated-obama-sends-nation-rambling-75-000-word-e-ma-1819571949 Frustrated Obama Sends Nation Rambling 75,000-Word E-Mail], ''The Onion'', Nov 26, 2010</ref>

In 2012, China congratulated Kim Jong Un on being named sexiest man alive by ''The Onion''.<ref>[http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/chinese-website-congratulates-kim-jong-un-on-being Chinese Website Congratulates Kim Jong Un On Being Named Sexiest Man Alive By "The Onion"], ''Buzzfeed'', Nov 27, 2012</ref> The same year, Iran's state-run news agency touted an ''Onion'' poll which "proved" rural white Americans prefer Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over President Obama. They were promptly mocked by [[Israel]] and were forced to correct their mistake.<ref>[http://allthingsd.com/20120930/iran-news-agency-apologizes-for-taking-the-onion-seriously/ Iran News Agency Apologizes for Taking The Onion Seriously], ''All Things D'', September 30, 2012</ref>

Amidst the major 
soccer
 [[soccer|football]] scandal in May 2015, former FIFA VP Jack Warner leveled accusations that the Swiss arrests of over a dozen top-ranking FIFA officials were part of an American conspiracy motivated by losing the 2022 bid to [[Qatar]]. His proof? The article ''FIFA Frantically Announces 2015 Summer World Cup in the United States'' describes a nervous Sepp Blatter announcing an immediate start to a new World Cup in Los Angeles within hours of the arrest, with "the U.S. national team leading defending champions Germany in the World Cup's opening match after being awarded 12 penalties in the game's first three minutes."<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/world/americas/ex-fifa-official-jack-warner-cites-onion-article-in-defense.html Ex-FIFA Official Cites Satirical Article From The Onion In His Self-Defense], ''New York Times'', June 1, 2015</ref> After being ridiculed, Warner's videos and various social media posts were quickly taken down and reuploaded with the ''Onion'' references removed.

Also in May 2015, [[CNN]]'s Anderson Cooper put himself on his "RidicuList" segment for publicly asking Clickhole to correct a quote intentionally misattributed to him, not realising it was a spinoff of the Onion, who he had worked with in the past.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvB9IKdWalg</ref>

==Kelly cartoons==
The Onion hosts a single parody editorial cartoon penned by a fictional cartoonist 
[[Ben Garrison]]
 Stan Kelly, a bitter curmudgeon who views the world in a black-and-white dichotomy of innocent, heroic [[Republican]] [[American]] [[fundamentalist]] [[Christian]]s versus filthy [[liberal]] hippie [[Democrat]] foreigner [[feminist]] [[atheist]] [[communism|commies]]. The comics accentuate their point with cameo appearances of Lady Liberty, usually weeping or overjoyed, and with author self-portraits quipping snippy, pun-laced one-liners. The cartoons satirize a particular demographic: the middle-aged, white Fox News crowd, with a simplistic right-wing worldview and a love of [[Mallard Fillmore|mindless entertainment]].

The cartoons are drawn by Ward Sutton, who has said that he has found the cartoons being shared earnestly online by both the right and left wing "as either proof of their wrongheaded view or as evidence of the wrongheaded view existing in society".<ref>https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/alt-cartoonist-stan-kelly/</ref>
<!--
It seems like they have taken a slide to the bizarre in satirizing the older Fox News crowd. Some of the cartoons are what one would expect for those who wish to ignore the world,<ref>http://www.theonion.com/articles/preempting-strikes,35218/</ref> say that science is trumped by the Bible,<ref>http://www.theonion.com/articles/something-to-chair-about,35064/</ref> kids are on drugs,<ref>http://www.theonion.com/articles/americas-neighbor-hoods,34040/</ref> rampant political correctness,<ref>http://www.theonion.com/articles/byeawatha,34996/</ref> Charles Dickens was a business hating commie,<ref>http://www.theonion.com/articles/ebenezer-screwed,34772/</ref> and are anti-global warming.<ref>http://www.theonion.com/articles/snow-job,34929/</ref> However, some of the comics depict people wishing celebrities would die because they are bored,<ref>http://www.theonion.com/articles/none-too-soon,33192/</ref> eating microwaved foods is healthy/American,<ref>http://www.theonion.com/articles/a-vegetative-state,33276/</ref> drinking in front of the TV is a great way to spend the holidays,<ref>http://www.theonion.com/articles/the-most-onederful-time-of-the-year,34715/</ref> drinking tap water is socialist,<ref>http://www.theonion.com/articles/thirst-for-justice,33357/</ref> and the Somali pirates are great folks.<ref>http://www.theonion.com/articles/pillaging-our-hearts,34364/</ref>
-->

==Winning because someone else is losing==
In 2025, following the reelection of a [[Donald Trump|sadistic criminal]] to occupy 2/3<sup>rds</sup> of the White House<ref>[https://theonion.com/east-wing-demolition-sparks-outrage/ East Wing Demolition Sparks Outrage] (October 23, 2025) ''The Onion''.</ref> that he formerly occupied ''in toto'', ''The Onion'''s CEO Ben Carson announced:<ref>[https://archive.ph/Z4cUr Ben Collins] (December 2025) ''LinkedIn'' (archived from 7 Dec 2025 05:38:01 UTC).</ref>
{{cquote|It's been a big year for us at The Onion, but as media collapse accelerates, it is unfortunately going to be a fucking great year for us next year.

So I sent an email to our members with our goal for 2026: More print subscribers than ''[[The Washington Post]]''.

This is, tragically and hilariously, feasible.

Here's a note I sent to our members with how we spent our money last year, and how they can expect us to abuse it next year. We spent a lot of money taunting [[U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement|ICE]] and [[Jeffrey Epstein]], we spent even more money yelling at [[Congress]] for not taunting ICE and Jeffrey Epstein, and we stupidly continue to try to buy InfoWars.

In short:

The Onion is an independent company, we don’t use [[AI]] to write headlines or make [[art]], and we’re one of roughly three publications who are up for the fight. Unlike other places, The Onion is quadrupling down on being a pain in the ass, politically.

Quadruple down with us. The world might make a tiny bit of sense.}}


==See also==
*[[Fake news]]
*[[Onion]]
*[[The Daily Mash]]
*[[The Babylon Bee]]
*[[Waterford Whispers]]

==External links==
*[http://www.theonion.com/ ''The Onion'' homepage]
*[http://www.clickhole.com/ ''Clickhole'' homepage]
*[http://www.starwipe.com/ ''StarWipe'' homepage] (archives)
*[https://twitter.com/TheOnion @TheOnion]
*[http://literallyunbelievable.org/ Stories from The Onion, as interpreted by Facebook.] Prepare for facepalm.
*[https://www.reddit.com/r/AteTheOnion/ r/AteTheOnion], people who fall for Onion articles, similar to literallyunbelievable.
*[http://jezebel.com/the-onion-predicted-miley-cyruss-vma-performance-in-20-1202657581?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+jezebel%2Ffull+%28Jezebel%29 And now they're prophetic.]
*[http://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/ r/nottheonion]

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Onion, The}}
[[Category:American media]]
[[Category:Parodists]]
[[Category:Websites]]

Categories: American media, Parodists, Websites