Bon Bon: This Onion Makes You Laugh, Not Cry

The Onion, America's Finest News Source.

In Mass Comm 101 this week we heard about the Penny Press Era, the New York Sun and its "Great Moon Hoax." These were a series of articles printed in 1835 that claimed that the moon was inhabited and was home to such creatures as moon buffalo and giant moon beavers. After it became painfully obvious that the paper had been making up some whoppers, the readers of the Sun largely remained loyal and the paper continued to enjoy the largest circulation of any newspaper in America up to that time. So maybe we like a good, funny story now and then and it really doesn't matter if it's true or not. (Please don't quote me on the previous sentence if you are a journalism student.)

Enter The Onion, "America's Finest News Source" according to its motto. This satirical paper, which has long delighted readers through its website, is now popping up in paper form in newsracks all over Los Angeles (and other cities too, if other cities even exist). This paper Onion forces a couple of trenchant, Club MediaNote-worthy questions: If there is an audience for comedic versions of the news on television (and there is), will the same idea translate into print? And second, will The Onion be a successful competitor to other alternative weekly newspapers? (The Onion is satirical for the first eight pages and more like a typical alternative weekly from Page 9 to the back cover.)

I can't tell you if The Onion will elbow aside the L.A. Weekly and other, presumably non-fiction, competitors. But I can tell you that, unburdened with having to report those pesky yet tedious facts, The Onion is a pretty good read.

***Back to a regular (presumably fact-driven) medianote on Monday.