Funny Onion Articles Area Man Under the Impression He Tried

Welcome back to The Onion: 20 Years Later , and especially welcome to all the subscribers who came in through the recent Substack Q&A with me !

This newsletter has a simple premise: Recapping The Onion's print issue from 20 years ago and seeing what holds up today — and why.

One thing that continually surprises me is how much American society has changed in 20 years. For example, on Dec. 19, 2001 , The Onion published a print issue. It then took nearly 1 month off! No newspapers, no website updates, and obviously no tweets, videos or podcasts.

And so I've been awaiting the Jan. 16, 2002 , issue. But this week, I thought I'd reintroduce myself and this newsletter, look back at 2001's best moments and preview a few of my favorite 2002 stories I'll be talking about in 2022.

What's this newsletter, and why?

As I mentioned in the Substack Q&A, this is a labor of love for me. I'm an editor who reads and writes all day — and much of that is also in email.

So, as 2020 began, I decided I wanted a hobby that forced me to write but didn't involve any of the pressures of audience or revenue. I also was fascinated with The Onion, and wondered whether it was as good as I remembered.

Recapping The Onion takes time. These are long emails, I'll warn you right now! But there's a lot to talk about. And I hope that you'll benefit from getting all the links, photos and infographics in one place — especially images that The Onion itself no longer displays. If you can't find your favorite old Onion story on TheOnion.com, maybe I can help you locate it.

I hope you like my recaps, of course. But I also hope you share any old Onion articles that you especially enjoy. That's another big goal — to laugh together at jokes we're forgotten about and tell other people about them, too.

Finally, another fun part for me is exploring what the internet looked like 20 years ago. I mean, take a look at The Onion's website from Dec. 12, 2001! There was no such thing as "mobile-friendly" back then.

What I loved in 2001

I wrote about 100,000 words recapping The Onion in 2021, and sometimes it all feels like a blur!

That said, I spent most of 2021 anticipating The Onion's 9/11 issue , which is its most famous and most compelling. So much of 2001 feels like ancient history, but The Onion's reaction to 9/11 stands the test of time.

Beyond that, I mostly looked for stories that made me crack up, especially stories I didn't remember reading 20 years ago.

This is not an official Top 10 list, just 10 stories I really enjoyed:

1. Smoove B's only 2021 column: "I Have Returned, Baby"

2. "Awkward Farewells Exchanged On Disliked Coworker's Last Day"

3. "Fourth-Graders' Button-Making-Machine Privileges Suspended Indefinitely"

4. "Work Avoided Through Extensive List-Making"

5. "Beer Commercials Aren't What They Used To Be"

6. "Retired Realtor Drawn Back In For One Last Big Score"

7. "Best Friends Each Secretly Think Of The Other As Sidekick"

8. "Area Man Acts Like He's Been Interested In Afghanistan All Along"

9. "Stephen Jay Gould Speaks Out Against Science Paparazzi"

10. Anything Hollywood columnist Jackie Harvey wrote. Here's just one: "Celebrity Couples Are Breaking Up!" with my recap of it from Jan. 31, 2001.

I can't leave out this Halloween infographic, which is 1 part stupid, 1 part brilliant satire.

What to expect in 2022

Look how old that website looks! Later in 2002, The Onion redesigned its website and added a text version (it already had a "mobile/PDA" version). But it's still feels ancient, as you can see in this Oct. 2, 2002, archive.

Here are some things I'm thinking about in 2022:

• How many cultural references will I have to Google because I don't remember them?

• How did The Onion treat President George W. Bush — as a silly fictional character, a la Bill Clinton or Vice President Joe Biden? Or as real-life War on Terror Bush, a la Will Ferrell's "Saturday Night Live" impression?

• How long will I have to wait to write about Smoove B , my favorite columnist? He's only had 1 column since I started recapping The Onion.

• How can I help you, the readers? What context can I offer? What insights can I offer on why a joke was written in 2002, or why it was funny then (and maybe not funny now)?

If it sounds like I haven't thoroughly re-read 2002's archives, it's because I haven't. I've skimmed through most of it, but I try not to get too deep until it's time to write. I like rediscovering the material along with you.

That said, here are 5 stories I'm really excited about recapping in 2022:

1. "McDonald's Drops 'Hammurderer' Character From Advertising": Arguably my favorite Onion story of all time, as I told Substack.

2. "Southerner Either Looking For 'Pawn Shop' Or 'Porn Shop'": I'm clearly a biased Yankee for loving this headline, but I've been repeating it ever since it came out.

3. "Factual Error Found On Internet": This headline is golden, and I look forward to seeing how the rest of it holds up. It feels like a worthy successor to May 2000's "Internet Opens Up Whole New World Of Illness For Local Hypochondriac."

4. "63 Percent of U.S. Implicated In New Scandal": This number can only be higher in 2022, right?

5. "Congress Threatens To Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built": This is the story that fooled a real newspaper controlled by the Chinese government.

OK, that's enough for this Sunday. Stay warm, and I'll see you next week for the first issue of the year.

Feel free to tell folks to sign up! And if you're new here, sign up below!

blaincouglag.blogspot.com

Source: https://onion20.substack.com/p/remembering-the-onion-in-2001-and

Share this post