Onion diaries

The premier name in American satire, The Onion, has published a retrospective. Now let's see it try to publish a Mideast edition.

By the time a headline makes it to the front page of The Onion, it has already beaten out up to 800 other headlines vying for the same spot of treasured comedic real estate. So the headlines that made yet another cut — to be featured in The Onion's latest book, Our Front Pages — are pretty much the cream of the satirical crop.
Seeing stupidity everywhere can quickly become a full-time job.
"I've even talked to writers who've told me that it's an obsession," says Randazzo. "Nearly everything that they see, think or do gets instantly reframed into this kind of headline."
So The Onion's stories end up running the gamut from observations about the little injustices of everyday life (Chipotle Employee Just Gave Guy In Front Of You More Rice) to sobering commentary on global events (Hijackers Surprised To Find Selves In Hell).
(Garden says he initially thought that the hijacker headline — which appeared in the issue of The Onion that came out immediately after Sept. 11 — was "too pandering," but it turned out to be a popular and "cathartic" story.)