Mother, May I Sleep with Treacher?

This may be old news to some, but Mad Magazine, of all places, took The Onion out to the woodshed a few months ago:

http://www2.warnerbros.com/madmagazine/files/onthestands/ots_424/bunion.html

I have to admit that I snorked at "Spring Fashions
So Glamorous You'll Practically Shit Yourself". But that's about it.

http://www.theonion.com/index.php?issue=4115

Mad published that? Their computer must have crashed, and they couldn't get into their archives.

I agree that the Onion has declined.

http://knownunknowns.blogspot.com/2005/04/big-problem.html

However, I thought the "French's Anti Bacterial Mustard" story in the April 13 issue was somewhat humorous if not uproarious.

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4115&n=2

You didn't at least chuckle at "America Still Searching for Funniest Home Video?"
Other than that, nothing.

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4113

Dude. What is weird is that, having just found the most recent Onion issue unuproariously unfunny, I came to your blog, where the top post is about how lame the Onion is.

And yeah, the Mad Magazine parody nails a lot of what is wrong with the Onion these days.

I had the identical experience as Scott. Sheer force of habit still compels me to dutifully read the Onion first thing every Wednesday morning. I found it depressingly unfunny. Glad I'm not the only one who noticed.

Dear Lord! I haven't read The Onion in months. It's taken the same turn as The Daily Show, the whole "anyone who's intelligent enough to appreciate snarky humour MUST think this exact same way." I don't know why once someone makes it in "funny" they decide that they need to stop doing "funny" and get "important". Stick with what made you great.

"And yeah, the Mad Magazine parody nails a lot of what is wrong with the Onion these days."

Is there a magazine with a parody which nails a lot of what is wrong with Mad these days? Because Mad magazine saying The Onion isn't funny is kind of like Gallagher saying Carrot Top isn't funny.

This was pretty good: http://www.theonion.com/wdyt/index.php?issue=4115

But yeah, that was it.

I was going to prove you wrong, but then I realized that I don't read the Onion as much as I used to. I find Savage Love hilarious, but that's not really the Onion.

Having said that, out of 11, the one was kind of funny:

http://www.theonion.com/slideshow/index.php?show=6&slide=10

I also usually find "What Do You Think?" funny.

http://www.theonion.com/wdyt/index.php?issue=4116

EI

Yeah, Kevin, but Gallagher would still be right. And, well, I'd pay (not much, but some), to see Carrot Top's head smashed like a melon with a giant mallet.

Some of those pope ones are amusing, but look at the dates on them.

It all sucked!!! 'nuff said.

Ok, Much like EI my real favorite is not really the Onion (the RedMeat cartoons, esp. Bug-Eyed Earl).

I generally only get a laugh when reading the horoscopes otherwise, and then only one or two of them...
http://www.theonion.com/horoscopes/index.php?issue=4115
Some days you get the bear, and some days the bear gets you, but not a day goes by that you don't regret becoming a professor of Ursine Studies.
You've heard a lot of rational-sounding arguments in favor of drug legalization, but you'll be damned if you can remember what they are.

http://www.theonion.com/horoscopes/index.php?issue=4114
Hope can sustain a person through excruciating personal trials, but unfortunately, there's no real reason to believe that the new Star Wars movie will be tolerable.

I have to disagree with you all, except for maybe EI, because there is a section called "Savage Love" each week that will really tickle your funnybone. Get this: the premise is, somebody named "Dan Savage", wink wink, says he prefers men to women, sexually, and lots of other comedians write letters to him, claiming to engage in all sorts of disgusting behavior, which of course no person would ever actually take part in. You should check it out.

I think SL is funny, but it's seperate from the Onion's main page.

I haven't read it in a very long time, because even the headlines are losing their edge. The last time I even visited the site, there was some article about good scenes in bad movies and bad scenes in good movies. Half of both lists was on target, the other half were sorta weak.

I stopped reading the Onion once I read a story entitled "President Bush Deploys Very Special Troops to Iraq," about a division of soldiers with Down's Syndrome being sent to Iraq.

I stopped reading it because they'd run the exact same story two years earlier about Clinton, without any annotation like "we've totally recycled this story by changing the name of the President."

I stopped reading the Onion once I read a story entitled "President Bush Deploys Very Special Troops to Iraq," about a division of soldiers with Down's Syndrome being sent to Iraq.

I stopped reading it because they'd run the exact same story two years earlier about Clinton, without any annotation like "we've totally recycled this story by changing the name of the President."

Whoops, it didn't show up the first time. My bad.

I was a little surprised to see the Pillsbury Doughboy with a raised middle finger in the Mad parody. I mean, what about the children?

"Because Mad magazine saying The Onion isn't funny is kind of like Gallagher saying Carrot Top isn't funny."

Yeah, but Mad Magazine was hillarious for a good 2-3 decades before its slow descent to suckness, something the Onion managed to accomplish in 1/5 the time. Besides, compared to Carrot Top, who ISN'T funny?

Allow me to amend and clarify:

"Because the unfunny humor magazine Mad magazine in this year of our Lord 2005 saying the unfunny farcical newspaper The Onion isn't funny is kind of like unfunny watermelon-hammering prop comedian Gallagher saying unfunny mascara-wearing prop comedian Carrot Top isn't funny."

I try to see how fast I can read it. This week was a personal best: 23 seconds. Go me!

aw, it's not that bad...I thought "Dreamcatcher On Rearview Mirror Protects Sleeping Driver" was worth a muted "hehe." "Fifth-Grade Science Paper Doesn't Stand Up To Peer Review" was kinda funny too, maybe just cause I'm a science type.

The shorter their stuff is, the better. The little one-off headlines and the News in Brief is generally has the highest "slight chuckle to word count ratio." Sadly, they've made it a real pain to read all the News in Brief.

It's like they're just going through the motions. Everybody's still reading it, so I guess they must be doing something right. But it's just not the same as it was.