The Onion

Type	Satirical magazine
Format	Website
Owner(s)	Onion, Inc.
Founder(s)	Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson
Editor	Cole Bolton
Founded	1988 in Madison, Wisconsin
Ceased publication	2013 (print)
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois
Website	theonion.com

The Onion is an American digital media company and news satire organization. The publication’s origins are rooted in its distribution as a weekly college print publication beginning in 1988, but in the spring of 1996 The Onion put its content online in the form of a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news.^[2][3] Starting in 2007, the organization began publishing satirical news audio and video online, as the Onion News Network. In 2013, the publication ceased publishing the print edition and launched Onion Labs, an advertising agency.

The Onion's articles satirically comment on current events, both real and fictional. It satirizes the tone and format of traditional news organizations with stories, editorials, op-ed pieces, and man-in-the-street interviews using a traditional news website layout and an editorial voice modeled after that of the Associated Press. The publication’s humor often depends on presenting mundane, everyday events as newsworthy, surreal or alarming. Comedian Bob Odenkirk has praised the publication stating, “It’s the best comedy writing in the country, and it has been since it started.”^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

The Onion also runs an entertainment and pop culture publication called The A.V. Club—which was initially created in 1993 as a supplement to the parent publication—features interviews and reviews of various newly released media, as well as other weekly features.

The Onion was founded in 1988 in Madison, Wisconsin by students at the University of Wisconsin: Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson. In 1989, Keck and Johnson sold it to then editor Scott Dikkers and advertising sales manager Peter Haise for less than $20,000; the figure has also been quoted as being $16,000 according to The Washington Post as well as $19,000 in a 2003 Business 2.0 article. After the sale, founders Keck and Johnson went on to become publishers of other, similar, alternative weeklies: Keck of the Seattle weekly The Stranger and Johnson of the Albuquerque Weekly Alibi.^[9][10]

Its early years as a print publication The Onion was successful in a limited number of locations/regions, notably those with major universities (e.g. Madison, Champaign-Urbana). Originally the entire bottom three inches of the newspaper could be cut off for coupons to local establishments, such as inexpensive student-centered eateries and video rental stores.^[11]

Reportedly, it was Chris Johnson’s uncle—Nells Johnson—who came up with the idea to name the paper The Onion.^[12] “People always ask questions about where the name The Onion came from,” said former President Sean Mills in an interview with Wikinews; “and, when I recently asked Tim Keck, who was one of the founders, he told me…literally that his uncle said he should call it The Onion when he saw him and Chris Johnson eating an onion sandwich. They had literally just cut up the onion and put it on bread.” According to former Editorial Manager, Chet Clem, their food budget was so low when they started the paper that they were down to white bread and onions.^[13] This account was recently disputed by the current editor of The Onion, Cole Bolton, during an event at the University of Chicago. Cole Bolton called Sean Mills’ account “the dumbest explanation” and asserted that it is likely wrong. According to Bolton, the most plausible explanation is that The Onion was mocking a campus newsletter called The Union.^[14]

The widely popular—and unattributed—dissemination of a December 1995 pre-Web article by Robert Siegel titled “Clinton Deploys Vowels to Bosnia” helped spur the creation of The Onion’s website (www.theonion.com) in 1996. The presence of the website allowed The Onion to properly claim credit for that article—and others—that were being passed around in an unattributed form online in various forums, Usenet posts and mailing lists as well as enabled the publication to receive expanded global recognition as a result.^{[4][6][3][15][16][17]}

Scott Dikkers is The Onion's longest-serving Editor-in-Chief (1988–1999, 2005–2008). In 1988 Dikkers joined the two-person staff to draw comic strips. “By issue three, I was de facto editor.”^[18][19]

In early 2001, the company relocated its editorial offices from Madison, Wisconsin to a renovated warehouse in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan (New York City) to raise the The Onion’s profile, expand the publication from being simply a humor newspaper into a full production company, as well as develop editorial content in other media—including books, television and movies—and engage more directly with Internet companies as far as advertising revenue goes.^{[20][21][22][23][24]}

In 2003, The Onion was purchased by David Schafer—a businessman who had managed the $2.5 billion investment fund—from previous long time owner Peter Haise. “The Onion’s strong point was never accounting, financial management, or business,” Schafer stated. “Buying it was a bit of a shot in the dark, but we felt we could get a handle on it.”^[10]

In 2006, The Onion launched a YouTube channel, presented as a parody of American television news.^[25]

In April 2007, The Onion launched the Onion News Network, a “…parody the visual style and breathless reporting of 24-hour cable news networks like CNN.”^[26]

In April 2009, The Onion was awarded a 2008 Peabody Award noting that the publication provides “…ersatz news that has a worrisome ring of truth."^[27][28]

In July 2009, various news outlets began reporting rumors of an impending sale of The Onion with further details of the sale to be made on Monday, July 20, 2009.^[29][30] The purported sale was revealed as fictional Publisher Emeritus T. Herman Zweibel stating he’d sold the publication to a Chinese company—Yu Wan Mei Corporation—resulting in a week-long series of Chinese-related articles and features throughout the publication’s website and print editions.^[31][32] On Wednesday, July 22, 2009, the publication’s editor at the time—Joe Randazzo—clarified the issue on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, stating: “I’m sure there are many Chinese conglomerates out there that would love to buy The Onion. We are, in fact, still a solvent independently owned American company.”^[33]

In August 2011, The Onion's website began testing a paywall model requiring a $2.95 monthly—or $29.95 annual charge—from non-U.S. visitors who want to read more than about five stories within 30 days.“We are testing a meter internationally as readers in those markets are already used to paying directly for some (other) content, particularly in the UK where we have many readers,” said the company’s CTO Michael Greer.^[34][35][36]

In September 2011, it was announced that The Onion would move its entire editorial operation to Chicago by the summer of 2012. The news of the move left many of the writers—who moved with the publication from Madison to New York City in 2000—"blindsided", putting them in a position to decide whether to uproot themselves from New York City and follow the publication to Chicago, which was already home to the company's corporate headquarters.^{[37][38][39][40][41]} At a comedy show on September 27, 2011, then editor Joe Randazzo announced that he would not be joining the staff in Chicago.^[42]

In March 2012, additional insight into the internal issues surrounding the Chicago move—including an attempt for writers to find a new owner—are explored by articles in The Atlantic and New York magazine.^[43][44] According to a March 31, 2012, article in the Chicago Tribune, founding editor Scott Dikkers returned to the publication stating that he hopes to find a “younger and hungrier” pool of talent in Chicago than what was available in New York City. “The Onion is obviously always going to draw talent from wherever it is,” Dikkers said. “In Madison, people used to just come in off the street […] and we’d give them a shot. The Onion has always thrived on the youngest, greenest people.”^[42][45][46] In February 2013 The Onion was added to Advertising Age’s “Digital A-List 2013” because the publication “…has not just survived, it's thrived…” since the publication’s 2012 move to consolidate operations and staff in Chicago.^[47]

In August 2012, it was announced that a group of former The Onion writers had teamed up with Adult Swim to create comedy content on a website called Thing X. According to the comedy website Splitsider, “The Onion writers had nothing else going on, and AdultSwim.com wanted to take advantage of that. But only because they smelled a business opportunity. Adult Swim is just looking at it from a business standpoint.”^[48][49] In June 2013, it was announced that Thing X would be shutting down with some staff moving over to parent website adultswim.com on June 18, 2013.^[50][51]

In November 2013, the publication announced in Crain's Chicago Business that The Onion would move to an all-digital format by December 2013, citing a 30% year-over-year growth in pageviews to the publication’s website.^[52]

In June 2014, The Onion launched the spinoff website ClickHole, which satirizes and parodies so-called “clickbait” websites such as BuzzFeed and Upworthy that capitalize on viral content to drive traffic.^[53]

In November 2014, Bloomberg News reported that The Onion had hired a financial adviser for a possible sale.^[54][55] Additionally, in a memo addressing potential sale rumors provided to Walt Mossberg’s tech site Re/code Onion CEO Steve Hannah states, “We have had follow-up conversations with numerous parties in recent months. Our advisors will continue to have those conversations and, hopefully, they will lead to the right outcome.”^[56]

In June 2015 Steve Hannah—the publication’s CEO since 2004—announced he would be stepping down from the position with the new CEO role to passed onto current president of the organization, Mike McAvoy.^[57][58]

During The Onion print edition's 25-year run from the publication’s initial creation in 1988 to the end of the print edition in 2013, it was distributed for free in Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Austin, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Toronto, Denver, Indianapolis, Boulder, Omaha, Santa Fe, Ann Arbor, Columbus, and Providence. By the time the print edition of The Onion ceased publication in December 2013, it was available only in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Providence. At its peak, The Onion had a print circulation of about 500,000 while the publication’s websites brought in more than 10 million unique monthly visitors.^{[59][60][61][45]}

Regular features of The Onion include:

• “Statshot,” an illustrated statistical snapshot which parodies “USA Today Snapshots.”
• “Infographics,” with a bulleted lists of jokes on a theme.
• Opinion columns, including mock editorials, point-counterpoints, and pieces from regular columnists.
• Bizarre horoscopes.
• Slideshows that parody content aggregation sites like Huffington Post and Buzzfeed usually accompanied by a "click-bait"-style headline.
• “News in Photos” that feature a photograph and caption with no accompanying story.
• “American Voices” (formerly called “What Do You Think?”), a mock vox populi survey on a topical current event. There are three respondents, down from the original six, for each topic, who seem to have been chosen intentionally to represent a diverse selection of ages, races, and socio-economic classes. Although their names and professions change daily, photos of the same six people are almost always used. One of them is often described as a systems analyst.
• An editorial cartoon drawn by "Kelly", a fictional character; the cartoons are actually the work of Ward Sutton.^[62] The comic—the most controversial feature in The Onion^[13]—is a deadpan parody of conservative cartoons, as well as editorial cartoon conventions in general.^[62] Roughly half of the cartoons feature the Statue of Liberty, usually shedding a single tear, of joy or anguish, depending on the situation.

The current editor of The Onion is Cole Bolton, and the writing staff is Chad Nackers, Jermaine Affonso, Django Gold, Jocelyn Richard, Seena Vali and Jen Spyra. Past editors and writers have included:

In April 2007, The Onion launched Onion News Network—a daily web video broadcast—with a story about an illegal immigrant taking an executive’s $800,000-a-year job for $600,000 a year. The publication reportedly initially invested about $1 million in the production and initially hired 15 new staffers to focus on the production of this video broadcast. On February 3, 2009, The Onion launched a spin-off of the Onion News Network called the Onion Sports Network.^[26]

In a Wikinews interview in November 2007, former Onion President Mills said the Onion News Network had been a huge hit. “We get over a million downloads a week, which makes it one of the more successful produced-for-the-Internet videos,” said Mills. “If we’re not the most successful, we’re one of the most.’^[13]

In January 2011, The Onion launched two TV shows on cable networks: Onion SportsDome premiered January 11 on Comedy Central.^[63]and the Onion News Network premiered January 21 on Independent Film Channel (IFC).^[64] Later in the year IFC officially announced the renewal of the Onion News Network for a second season in March 2011 while Comedy Central officially announced the cancellation of Onion SportsDome in June 2011.^[65][66]

In August 2011, the Writers Guild of America, East, AFL-CIO, announced the unionization of the Onion News Network writing staff, averting a potential strike which hinged on pay and benefits. It is also not the first time Onion, Inc. has been criticized for the way it treats its employees: In June 2011 A.V. Club Philadelphia city editor Emily Guendelsberger was the victim of an attack and—according to the Philadelphia Daily News—her job did not provide health insurance to cover hospital bills. According to the WGA, Onion News Network was the only scripted, live-action program that had employed non-union writers. “The ONN writers stood together and won real improvements,” said WGAE Executive Director Lowell Peterson. “We welcome them into the WGAE and we look forward to a productive relationship with the company.” Peterson noted that more than 70 Guild members from all of the New York-based comedy shows signed a letter supporting the Onion News Network writers, and hundreds of Guild members sent emails to the producers.^{[67][68][69][70][71][72]}

In March 2012, IFC officially announced the cancellation of the Onion News Network. After the show’s cancellation, a pilot for a new comedy series titled Onion News Empire premiered on Amazon.com in April 2013, which presented as a behind-the-scenes look of The Onion's newsroom. The pilot was one of several candidates for production on Amazon, but was not ultimately selected.^[73][74][75]

In 2012, The Onion launched a series of YouTube videos produced by its Onion Digital Studios division, funded in part by a grant from YouTube and exclusive to the site. Series produced so far:

• Sex House: A dark satire of reality show culture and negligent producers.
• Lake Dredge Appraisal: A show centering around the dredged salvage of a lake, appraised of its worth on public access television.
• Trouble Hacking with Drew Cleary: A mock Life Hacking Q and A series.
• Horrifying Planet: A nihilistic parody of nature documentaries.
• Onion Talks: A satire of TED Talks.
• Porkin' Across America with Jim Haggerty: An on-the-road food reality show featuring Jim Haggerty from Today Now.^[76]
• America's Best: An American Idol parody.
• Dr. Good: Parody of Dr. Oz.

The Onion Movie is a direct-to-video film written by then-Onion editor Robert D. Siegel and writer Todd Hanson and directed by Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire.^[77] Created in 2003, Fox Searchlight Pictures was on board to release the movie, originally called The Untitled Onion Movie, but at some point in the process, directors Kuntz and Maguire—as well as writer Siegel—walked away from the project. In 2006, New Regency Productions took over the production of the troubled project. After two years of being in limbo, the film was released directly on DVD on June 3, 2008. Upon it’s release it was credited as being directed under the pseudonym of James Kleiner but is still directed by Kuntz and Maguire.^[78]

In the spring of 2014, former president, publisher, and CEO of The Onion Peter Haise filed a lawsuit Palm Beach County court against the publication’s current chairman David K. Schafer with regards to a missing “Executive Producer” credit on the failed film. As stated in the lawsuit, “Onion, Inc. has admitted that Haise was involved in and should have been named as an Executive Producer of the Film, and that the omission in the credits listed for the Film was an error."^[79]

Occasionally, the straight-faced manner in which The Onion reports non-existent events, happenings and ideas has resulted in third parties mistakenly citing The Onion stories as real news.

• In 1998, Fred Phelps posted The Onion article “'98 Homosexual-Recruitment Drive Nearing Goal” on his Westboro Baptist Church website as apparent “proof” that homosexuals were indeed actively trying to “recruit” others to be gay.^[80][4]

• Beginning in the year 2000, an article on Harry Potter inciting children to practice witchcraft was the subject of a widely forwarded email which repeated the quotes attributed to children in the article. Columnist Ellen Makkai and others who believe the Harry Potter books "recruit" children to Satanism have also been taken in by the article, using quotes directly from it to support their claims.^[81][81]

• On June 7, 2002, Reuters reported that the Beijing Evening News republished, in the international news page of its June 3 edition, translated portions of the article “Congress Threatens To Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built.”^[82] The article is a parody of U.S. sports franchises' threats to leave their home city unless new stadiums are built for them.^[83] The Beijing Evening News initially stood by the story, demanding proof of its falsehood but later retracted the article, responding that “…some small American newspapers frequently fabricate offbeat news to trick people into noticing them with the aim of making money.”^[84]

• In late March 2004, Deborah Norville of MSNBC presented as genuine an article titled "Study: 58 Percent Of U.S. Exercise Televised".^[85][86]

• In 2006, the Danish television station TV 2 posted a story on the gossip section of its website that seriously took The Onion article titled “Sean Penn Demands To Know What Asshole Took SeanPenn@gmail.com.”^[87][88]

• On the March 24, 2009 broadcast of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Fallon’s monologue used the subject of an Onion News Network video, “Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport” as a set-up for another joke claiming the report was based on a “study.”^[89]

• In September 2009, two Bangladeshi newspapers—The Daily Manab Zamin and the New Nation—published stories translated from The Onion claiming that astronaut Neil Armstrong had held a news conference claiming the moon landing was an elaborate hoax.^[90]

• In October 2009, the Russian news site Russia.ru repackaged clips from The Onion video piece “New Anti-Smoking Ad Warns Teens 'It's Gay to Smoke'” as legitimate news.^[91][92]

• In February 2010, among others the online newspapers Il Corriere della Sera (Italy)^[93] and Adresseavisen (Norway)^[94] repackaged clips from The Onion video piece "Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier" as legitimate news.

• In June 2010, the soccer website Sofoot.com (France)^[95] mistook for real news the article "Nation's Soccer Fan Becoming Insufferable",^[96] picked up the story and translated it partially on their own website under the title "La solitude du supporter ricain" ("The Yankee supporter's loneliness").^[97] The article even ends with a kind word for the fake fan, telling him to be brave and to hang on.

• In November 2010, the Fox Nation website, a part of the Fox News network, presented as fact The Onion's article^[98] about President Barack Obama writing a 75,000 word e-mail complaining about America as a genuine report.^[99]

• The blog Literally Unbelievable (started 2011) showcases posts from Facebook users who take various Onion articles seriously.^[100]

• In September 2011, United States Capitol Police investigated reports coming from The Onion's Twitter account claiming that US congressmen were holding twelve children hostage.^[101]

• On January 7, 2012, Lim Hwee Hwa, a Singaporean former MP, posted an article titled "Obama Openly Asks Nation Why On Earth He Would Want To Serve For Another Term" from The Onion on her Facebook page, with the comment "Increasingly challenging everywhere, whatever Obama's campaign strategy might be".^[102]

• On February 3, 2012, Congressman John Fleming (R-Louisiana) posted a link to an article on his Facebook page about an $8 billion "Abortionplex" opened by Planned Parenthood, with the status "More on Planned Parenthood, abortion by the wholesale."^[103]

• Iran's Fars News Agency copied almost word-for-word a September 24, 2012, Onion story, "Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama" and reported it on September 28.^[104][105] The Onion updated the original story with the note: "For more on this story: Please visit our Iranian subsidiary organization, Fars," linking to a screenshot of Fars's coverage of the story.^[106] The version on the Fars website was removed later in the day.

• On November 14, 2012, the Onion ran a story titled, "Kim Jong-Un Named The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive For 2012."^[107] On November 27, 2012, the online version of the Chinese Communist Party newspaper The People's Daily ran a story on Kim Jong-Un, citing The Onion's parody. The People's Daily web site included a 55-page photo gallery with the article in tribute to the North Korean leader.^[108][109]

• In March 2014, Ed Farrell, the Vice Mayor of Maricopa, Arizona, apologized for inadvertently stating enthusiastic praise for the Westboro Baptist Church. Posted to his Facebook feed, his original comments had been based entirely in reaction to The Onion's satirical obituary calling the church's late pastor, Fred Phelps, the man "who forever stopped [the] march of gay rights".^[110] In an interview with a local newspaper about this particular posting, Farrell later explained that he had previously never heard of The Onion, Fred Phelps, nor the Westboro Baptist Church, and didn't know what he was talking about. While stating that he maintains his belief that the United States needs to return to a "biblical platform" and that he "[has] a hard time with all of this (sic) gay and lesbian rights thing" Farrell apologized for his post, saying "I had no clue about this guy; he's an idiot," and, "I can't believe that I posted what I posted … shame on me."^[111]

• In May 2015, the former FIFA vice president Jack Warner drew attention to an Onion article entitled "FIFA Frantically Announces 2015 Summer World Cup In United States" in a video posted on Facebook. Warner, arrested on corruption charges that same month and facing possible extradition to the US used the article to complain about double standards in the United States's attitude to FIFA, saying "if FIFA is so bad, why is is it that the USA wants to keep the FIFA World Cup?"^[112]

In September 2005, the assistant counsel to President George W. Bush, Grant M. Dixton, wrote a cease-and-desist letter to The Onion, asking the paper to stop using the presidential seal, which is used in an online segment poking fun at the President through parodies of his weekly radio address. The law governing the Presidential Seal is contained in 18 U.S.C. § 713; bold and italicized emphasis added:

Whoever knowingly displays any printed or other likeness of the great seal of the United States, or of the seals of the President or the Vice President of the United States, or the seal of the United States Senate, or the seal of the United States House of Representatives, or the seal of the United States Congress, or any facsimile thereof, in, or in connection with, any advertisement, poster, circular, book, pamphlet, or other publication, public meeting, play, motion picture, telecast, or other production, or on any building, monument, or stationery, for the purpose of conveying, or in a manner reasonably calculated to convey, a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States or by any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

By Executive Order, President Richard Nixon specifically enumerated the allowed uses of the Presidential Seal, which are more restrictive than the above title (Executive Order 11649), but which allows for exceptions to be granted upon formal request.^[113]

The Onion responded with a letter asking for formal use of the Seal in accordance with the Executive Order, while still maintaining that the use is legitimate. The letter written by Rochelle H. Klaskin—the publication’s lawyer—is quoted in the New York Times as stating “It is inconceivable that anyone would think that, by using the seal, The Onion intends to ‘convey... sponsorship or approval’ by the president,” but then went on to ask that the letter be considered a formal application asking for permission to use the seal.^[114][115]

During the 85th Academy Awards, a post from The Onion's Twitter account called 9-year-old Best Actress nominee Quvenzhané Wallis "a cunt". The post was deleted within an hour, but not before hundreds of angry responses.^[116] CEO Steve Hannah issued an apology to Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, calling the remarks "crude and offensive" and "No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire."^[117] Scott Dikkers, who was Vice President Creative Development for the publication at the time, said in a Monday^[when?] interview that the publication had sent a note of apology to Quvenzhané and her family but also stated, "She's a big star now. I think she can take it."^[118] The apology was denounced by some two former Onion writers, with one stating, "It wasn't a great joke, but big deal."^[119]

Several commentators have characterized the Onion as being more overtly political (with a specifically liberal bent) since the move to Chicago. Noreen Malone, characterizing the publication as having a left-leaning outlook, said "The best op-eds in the country are written by the staff of The Onion, though they're often published as news articles. The satirical paper ... still does plenty of hilarious articles on the mundane ... but its writing on current events has become increasingly biting."^[120] Malone, like other pundits,^[121] specifically noted the Onion's sharp take on the Syrian Civil War, with David Weigel characterizing the publication's stance as effectively being "advocacy for intervention in Syria". Weigel attributed the trend toward more news satire – including political news satire – as being a byproduct of the publication's shorter turnaround times after the internet version became the main version, endangering the Onion of becoming a "hivemind version of Andy Borowitz, telling liberals that what they already think is not only true but oh-so-arch".^{[clarification needed][122]} Farhad Manjoo similarly attributed the publication's "more strident" vibe to the exigencies of the internet.^[123] Conversely, conservative political website Breitbart has long condemned the Onion's political effect; Breitbar pundit Christian Toto attributed the Onion's kid-glove handling of Barack Obama^[124] to "the left's inability to mock one of their own",^[125] for instance.

In 2014, Emmett Rensin claimed the Onion is an important if unintentional fomenter of Marxist thought in America: "breathing new life into a far-left movement ... the vanguard of revolution—the paper most dedicated to the overthrowing [of] capitalism in the United States today—is none other than The Onion".^[126] Examples of indictments of false consciousness, commodity fetishization, and valorization of the invisible hand also abound, according to Rensin, who attributes the material to the humorists' need to work from "obvious, intuitive truth—the kind necessary for any kind of broadly appealing humor" rather than a conscious decision to promote Marxism.^[126]

• Our Dumb Century: The Onion Presents 100 Years of Headlines from America's Finest News Source (1999, ISBN 978-0609804612. OCLC 680088372)
• The Onion's Finest News Reporting, Volume 1 (2000, ISBN 0-609-80463-4)
• Dispatches from the Tenth Circle: The Best of The Onion (2001, ISBN 978-0609808344. OCLC 680101036, 225924624)
• The Onion Ad Nauseam: Complete News Archives Volume 13 (2002, ISBN 1-4000-4724-2)
• The Onion Ad Nauseam: Complete News Archives Volume 14 (2003, ISBN 1-4000-4961-X)
• "Fanfare for the Area Man": The Onion Ad Nauseam Complete News Archives Volume 15 (2004, ISBN 1-4000-5455-9)
• "Embedded in America": The Onion Ad Nauseam Complete News Archives Volume 16 (2005, ISBN 1-4000-5456-7)
• "Homeland Insecurity": The Onion Ad Nauseam Complete News Archives, Volume 17 (2006, ISBN 0-307-33984-X)
• Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of the Planet Earth (2007, ISBN 978-0316018425. OCLC 474118895)
• Our Front Pages: 21 Years of Greatness, Virtue, and Moral Rectitude from America's Finest News Source (2008, ISBN 978-1439156926. OCLC 472312888)
• Ecstasy Of Defeat: Sports Reporting At Its Finest By The Editors Of The Onion (2011, ISBN 1401310729. OCLC 707965684)
• The Onion Book of Known Knowledge: A Definitive Encyclopaedia Of Existing Information (2012, ISBN 978-0316133265. OCLC 813219870)

Similar satirical newspapers and magazines exist in many countries, including:

• The Onion
• The A.V. Club
• ClickHole
• Onion Labs