Funny Because It's True: How The Onion Created Modern American News Satire [Hardcover]

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 Onionserved 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 chartsThe Onion’s rise, its position as one of the first online humor sites, and the way it influenced television programs likeThe Daily ShowandThe Colbert Report.Funny Because It’s True reveals how a group of young misfits from flyover country unintentionally created a cultural phenomenon.

Christine Wencwas a member ofThe Onion’s original staff from 1988 to 1990 as a UW–Madison undergrad. She has played central roles in highly regarded public history projects for Harvard University Libraries, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the National Library of Medicine, and has received writing grants from the Awesome Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is also trained in midwestern prairie ecosystem restoration and likes to spend time helping to revitalize one of the rarest, most diverse, most beautiful, and most ecologically beneficial landscapes on the planet. She grew up in rural Spring Green, Wisconsin.“The inside story of how a comedy institution was born in Wisconsin, cracked up the country, and changed the way we thinl3¨