Funny Because It's True

Christine Wenc

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Author
Christine Wenc
Publish Date
2025-03-18
Book Type
Hardcover
Publisher Name
Running Press Adult
Subtitle
How the Onion Created Modern American News Satire
Number of Pages
288
ISBN-10
0762484438
ISBN-13
9780762484430
SKU
9780762484430

Description

Discover the real truth behind the original fake news with this in-depth history of beloved humor publication, The Onion. In 1988, a band of University of Wisconsin-Madison undergrads and dropouts began publishing a free weekly newspaper with no editorial stance other than "You Are Dumb." Just wanting to make a few bucks, they wound up becoming the bedrock of modern satire over the course of twenty years, changing the way we consume both our comedy and our news. The Onion served as a hilarious and brutally perceptive satire of the absurdity and horrors of late twentieth-century American life and grew into a global phenomenon. Now, for the first time, the full history of the publication is told by one of its original staffers, author and historian Christine Wenc. Through dozens of interviews, Wenc charts The Onion's rise, its position as one of the first online humor sites, and the way it influenced television programs like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Funny Because It's True reveals how a group of young misfits from flyover country unintentionally created a cultural phenomenon.