Has the Onion Jumped the Shark?

New York city... they moved and it hasn't been the same since.

Yeah, there was a change when they got to the big city, you're right. Their sensibility is too midwest-based -- it's like they didn't look out their window for inspiration anymore, more inward. More self-referential.

Plus I think the main guy quit a while ago, didn't he? Or removed himself from day-to-day operations, something like that?

Yeah, he stopped in 2000:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Dikkers

I definitely think it's less funny. I used to read point-counter-point and practically wet my pants. I still check the horoscopes and browse the main page now and again.

I've noticed that the older I get the more jaded and jaundiced I am about thigh-slapping humor.

Instead of laughter, I summon a weak polite smile and look for the exit.

Housewife Charged In Sex for Security Scam


AKRON, OH?-Area resident Helen Crandall, 44, was arrested by Akron police Sunday, charged with conducting an elaborate "sex for security" scam in which she allegedly defrauded husband Russell Crandall out of nearly $230,000 in cash, food, clothing and housing over the past 19 years using periodic offers of sexual intercourse.



According to Agee, undercover agents spotted Crandall's husband handing her $50 in cash at approximately 4 p.m., just 30 minutes after the two had sex. Crandall then drove off in her car, returning home two hours later with five bags of groceries.

"That's when we made the arrest," Agee said. "After tracking her for years, we finally had proof that she was buying all those goods with dirty money."

During the arrest, Akron police officials entered the Crandall household and seized more than 150 items Mrs. Crandall had received from her husband over the last 19 years, including a four-speed adjustable food processor, 12 pairs of earrings, a matching sofa and loveseat, a box of two-ply kitchen garbage bags, and a portable radio.

In exchange for these items, Agee said, Crandall's husband received sex an estimated 950 times?-most frequently in the master bedroom, but also in the downstairs den three times, and once on the floor of the sewing room.

rest of the story

OK, that's pretty funny. :-)

I think it has to be at least partly context/ high expectations. I hadn't seen that one, and read it here, and laughed, and went to the Onion (hadn't checked yet this week) and it wasn't there, and the ones that were there were kind of eh. So then I thought jp had found something new and funnier, and clicked the link, and there it was on the Onion. And it didn't seem as funny. :-?

So maybe it's just me.

The Onion has been around for about twelve years, I think. I was in 8th grade, lived in Milwaukee, I'd get the Onion at the drugstore.

My overall assessment is that I am impressed with how long the Onion has kept in funny. While I agree that perhaps there haven't been classics like "Smoking Pot Linked to Sitting Around and Getting High" as frequently, I still get a good laugh from the Onion. It's certainly funnier than most comic enterprises, Jay Leno for example, who I'm pretty sure is an alien poised to melt our faces any day now.

Also, I find it remarkable that it is creative work that people actually read on a weekly basis! I'm still hopeful that someday a free publication will be available that features poetry, fiction, and art that people will read, maybe if you sandwhich the art with interviews, music reviews, comics, humor, like the Onion.

As a hopeful fiction writer in progress from the Midwest, I'm really interested in the nature of regional humor. The irony of the Onion is something that everyone I went to high school with seemed to possess and appreciate naturally.

But I say the Onion is alive and well, particulary the editorials. Those have always been my favorite.

It was from last weeks paper. It was the only story that I really laughed out loud at so I don't think it is just you.

Well actually this one was pretty funny too... but you shouldn't click on the link if you are easily offended.

Heh!

"And where did he get those fantastic boots?"

(If you're easily offended you prolly shouldn't get anywhere near the Onion, period.)

OK, I think the moral here is either a) last week's issue was pretty good or b) I gotta look harder. (Hadn't seen either of those.)

I'm going with half of answer A.

There were just a couple of good articles in last weeks but that is about it.
Overall I do think the quality has gone down.

I think it has.

Occasionally, you can still find a gem or two, but in general, Fonzie has struck.

BBB
bm

At least three articles from the newest issue posted here today (that I know of)... some kinda upswing going on. (It was a good issue!)

Re: Has the Onion Jumped the Shark?

I suspect that's "can't tickle yourself syndrome". (We need such a word.) Your brain has ingested Onion-style humor for about fifteen years now. Unlike when you first read it, you now open the Onion with a pretty good idea of what to expect. And since laughing is all about encountering something unexpected, you don't laugh as much anymore.

I am willing to test this idea with an open mind though. I have only started reading the Onion when you recommended it to me about three years ago. I still find it about as funny as I did the first time. Now, if you could show me a ten-year-old Onion article that sent you into hysterics back then, I'd be happy to read it. If I find it funnier than what I read in the Onion nowadays, that suggests it got less funny after all, because the "can't tickle yourself" effect would work the other way for me. If it's the Onion-quality humor I know from current issues, it would indicate that it's your reaction to the humor that has changed, not the humor itself.

This is one of my faves from 2000.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33296

Iraqi Constitution Ratified, Burned

BAGHDAD?-The people of Iraq celebrated the passage of their new constitution Monday, in a formal ceremony that included a stirring speech by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a series of explosions that left 77 dead, and a traditional dance performed by Iraqi schoolchildren.


Iraqi leaders pose with the constitution after its historic signing.

After many weeks of squabbling and protracted negotiations between Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites, the historic document was declared the law of the land and destroyed late Monday afternoon, in what Talabani characterized as "a vital step toward restoring law and order in this war-torn nation."

A car bomb killing 12 U.S. servicemen and 26 Iraqi civilians briefly interrupted the speech.

"Today in Iraq, the voice of the people was heard loud and clear," Talabani said as U.S. fighter jets launched a retaliatory air strike overhead. "It is moving to see so many Iraqis getting involved in the political process."

Bush Orders Mass Bald Eagle Slaugter to Stop Spread of Bird Flu

WASHINGTON, DC?-As experts issue increasingly dire warnings of an avian flu epidemic, President Bush signed an executive order Tuesday authorizing the mass slaughter of "all bald eagles found anywhere within our borders."

"As president, my first duty is to protect the American people, whether the threat is terrorists or deadly, fast-mutating bird viruses," said Bush, standing on the lawn of the National Mall before a specially built pyre stacked with recently killed bald eagles. "This proactive initiative will rid our nation of this potentially disease-ridden winged animal."

Bush added: "I want these birds rounded up, tied down, and their throats slit."

Executive Order 1342A, which calls for the annihilation of the bald eagle, specifies that each carcass shall be wrapped in a single American flag, doused with gasoline, and burned.

This So Typical Of Hemophiliac

TEMPE, AZ?-Friends of Joshua Melman agreed Monday that the behavior displayed at the WildSlide Waterpark Sunday was "utterly typical" of the 19-year-old hemophiliac. "Before we can even go on one ride, Josh trips on his flip-flop and scuffs his toe on the cement," said Alex Schaeffer, who has had several outings ruined by Melman's congenital disease. "Would it kill the guy to clot once in a while?" Schaeffer added that the water-park debacle was worse than the time they played paintball, but not as bad as the lap-dance incident.