I kinda have the print edition of the Onion to thank for my career.
Back in 2000, I had a "100% travel" tech consulting job. My favorite part of the week was finally getting back home to Chicago, grabbing a sub at a sandwich shop, and casually reading that week's edition cover to cover Saturday afternoon.
One particular week, there was an ad for a local tech company (ThoughtWorks). I don't remember there being many tech job ads in the Onion at the time, so it stood out. I remember the ad copy being something like "Does your life suck, or just your job? Work here instead." I immediately applied, interviewed, eventually got an offer, quit my other job, and started at ThoughtWorks. It was a massive upgrade.
A few years later, I got to lead an internal dev team, and a spin-off project (Selenium) came out of that.
Long story long: No Onion, no job at ThoughtWorks, no Selenium.
Glad a new generation gets to enjoy leisurely reading fake news and seeing where it takes them in life.
emccue · 1h ago
Selenium?
That stack birthed almost an entire category of QA jobs.
Melatonic · 50m ago
I feel like there's a funny Onion article version of this story :-D
tombert · 33m ago
Traveling Businessman Makes QA Automator After Mistaking Joke Newspaper For Reality.
burnt-resistor · 1h ago
TO is supposed to transport you away from life suck for 0.5-10 seconds. No warranties or refunds though.
CompoundEyes · 1h ago
The way they will incorporate an absurd mix of expressive poetic technical and satirical writing in the same piece — to the point of belaboring it and wearing you down until you can’t help but laugh is what I love. Compendiums off Amazon used books are about $8 I bought a stack a few years ago. “What Makes Anna so Beautiful in the Moonlight?” is a favorite for some reason (nerd explains beauty). Also the Onion Film Standard “The Onion Looks Back at E.T.” Maybe this means Nathan Fielder will resurrect his short lived hardcopy newspaper “The Diarrhea Times” too if there’s an appetite!
yakattak · 1h ago
Game Informer is doing the same. I got the most recent copy and it was just a breath of fresh air. Articles written for their content, not to fill some quota or drive clicks. It was a month late (mostly stuff about SGF) but it didn’t matter. I got to read what these passionate writers thought of the games and demos there and that was a great read, even if it wasn’t “news”.
Avshalom · 1h ago
Really? I had a subscription to GI for a year or so because it came free with the GameCube I bought from Gamestop. I assumed it was just GS' in house ad rag. It's cool to know it still exists...
Oh wait what's that, I just went to wikipedia and I was correct in my assessment but also now it's independent? Shit I might just subscribe for the sake of it.
aChrisSmith · 2h ago
As one of the subscribers, I can confirm that I’m satisfied with the product. And looking forward to each edition of America’s finest news source.
burnt-resistor · 57m ago
Their story review meetings really cut out for them by the rise of AI slop chumbox advertisers, lazy journalists using AI, cartoonish political figures playing third-world warlords, Chester Sokolsky's sub basement Q Anon daily, and Tim Pool taking Russian money.
cr125rider · 2h ago
We would snag copies of The Onion at the University of Minnesota many many years ago. Always fun. I’m glad they brought it back. It was always a great casual read
vitaflo · 1h ago
Was one of my fav thing about being in Madison in the mid-90s. Especially the “Drunk of the Week” because you always checked to see if it was someone you knew.
autoexec · 1h ago
The next time I'm in the area I'll have to check to see if it's still true that copies of The Onion are offered all over the place at no cost (I'm guessing they don't do it anymore though). Back in the 90s I was actually shocked when I saw that people in other places had to pay money for them.
JadeNB · 1h ago
Passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood.
(Also, UM has, or had back when I read it, the best school newspaper I've ever read.)
burnt-resistor · 1h ago
I heard UIUC had it too in the 90's. Can anyone confirm?
derektank · 56m ago
Respect to Jeff Lawson, the quality of the Onion, which had grown a bit stale in the preceding decade, has noticeably improved since he purchased the company last year.
JKCalhoun · 1h ago
Guess I know what subscription the wife is getting for Christmas.
burnt-resistor · 1h ago
Reminds me of an interview with one of its founders who said it's becoming increasingly difficult to parody Kafkaesque insanity. They said something like humor is a temporary salve from the awfulness of reality, even in the face of terrible, repetitive occurrences like mass shootings that aren't themselves funny at all.
And, meanwhile, South Park hasn't really evolved and misses the opportunity for satirical social commentary with less offensive, cheap shots rather than brutally criticizing and challenging the core flaws like idiocy, meanness, and selfishness of corrupt, hypocritical, and criminal political personalities.
neilv · 55m ago
There's even a Wikipedia page now for The Onion's handling of mass shootings.
I've found South Park's comedy and commentary to have both been incredibly on point this season. It does require some previous investment in the characters from the last two decades, so it might not be as accessible to new viewers, but making Donald Trump a reincarnation of Saddam Hussein and having Craig beat Cartman at being a right wing podcast grifter, are incredibly satisfying arcs that play on the established lore and character traits very well. And it hasn't been above making an earnest point e.g. about when is it worth selling out your values in episode 2 with Mr. Mackey
Back in 2000, I had a "100% travel" tech consulting job. My favorite part of the week was finally getting back home to Chicago, grabbing a sub at a sandwich shop, and casually reading that week's edition cover to cover Saturday afternoon.
One particular week, there was an ad for a local tech company (ThoughtWorks). I don't remember there being many tech job ads in the Onion at the time, so it stood out. I remember the ad copy being something like "Does your life suck, or just your job? Work here instead." I immediately applied, interviewed, eventually got an offer, quit my other job, and started at ThoughtWorks. It was a massive upgrade.
A few years later, I got to lead an internal dev team, and a spin-off project (Selenium) came out of that.
Long story long: No Onion, no job at ThoughtWorks, no Selenium.
Glad a new generation gets to enjoy leisurely reading fake news and seeing where it takes them in life.
That stack birthed almost an entire category of QA jobs.
Oh wait what's that, I just went to wikipedia and I was correct in my assessment but also now it's independent? Shit I might just subscribe for the sake of it.
(Also, UM has, or had back when I read it, the best school newspaper I've ever read.)
And, meanwhile, South Park hasn't really evolved and misses the opportunity for satirical social commentary with less offensive, cheap shots rather than brutally criticizing and challenging the core flaws like idiocy, meanness, and selfishness of corrupt, hypocritical, and criminal political personalities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27No_Way_to_Prevent_This,%27_...