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Jeff Lawson buys The Onion
121–130 of 311 posts
Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a splash of cold water if you're familiar with who Ben Collins is. This will not not be a return to The Onion you fondly remember. Most likely it will be a continuation in the same direction it's been going.
OK, I’ll bite: why? I don’t know who Ben Collins is and at a first read of his bio I’m not really sure who would. My first instinct is that this is one of those terminally online things, like how I kept reading references to “Taylor Lorenz” as if she were the devil incarnate and when I finally looked into it she was just another pretty boring journalist.
Since you asked, a genuine answer. I suspect it's because Ben Collins is a veteran of the left-wing "disinformation" beat, most recently for MSNBC until he lost that gig -- so the admittedly cryptic parent comment is positing that as a seasoned culture warrior, Collins will likely apply The Onion as a tool in the culture war.
The Onion's comedic point-of-view used to be less predictable, but as the culture war as progressed, so too has The Onion's voice, and it's a more reliable voice for the left these days. If you rue that trend, for whatever reason, Collins provides little reason to imagine things will change.
Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion
#123I guess it's cheaper than a real news site, and is there any difference anymore? Babylon Bee has become defacto news now. I don't mean this in terms of blaming the left or the right, but just that it's hard for any entity to have any monopoly on the truth anymore. Mainstream, established news sites have to compete against AI-generated content and influencers in the 'news space', which has blurred the lines between tr…
I wish that there was an equivalent to The Onion with a different political slant, but the quality of the writing in all of the Onion copycats is just plain bad. The Babylon Bee is awful.
Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion
#124I'm old enough to remember when it was a physical paper you'd get for free in Harvard Square... wish I kept some of them. I particularly enjoyed the old "Point/Counterpoints" such as: https://www.theonion.com/u-s-out-of-my-uterus-vs-we-must-dep... https://www.theonion.com/americas-homeless-want-a-hand-up-no... https://www.theonion.com/my-computer-totally-hates-me-vs-god... Also, shout out to the "Oh! Mumford" comic s…
These are all great, another good one is
“This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism vs. No It Won’t”
https://www.theonion.com/this-war-will-destabilize-the-entir...
Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion
#125The onion got really unfunny because they got too moralizing on their pet issues. Hopefully they can fix that.
Exactly! Comedians aren’t funny when they have opinions. They’re only funny when they tell jokes that are carefully calculated not to make anyone upset about anything.
I’d say there’s a difference between expressing an opinion, and moralizing about it. One can make great comedy with the former, while the latter sucks because the comedy is completely subjugated by the message. It’s the same difference between heavy metal and Christian metal. Same instruments, same basslines, etc., except the latter is trying to push you towards belief, and thus it’s annoying.
Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion
#126Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion
#127I think this is good news, because G/O Media websites are the worst. I was at UW-Madison when The Onion started. We had a wealth of student newspapers at the time, along with The Daily Cardinal and The Badger Herald. Scott Dikkers and Todd Hanson, writers for The Onion, also wrote great comic strips for the Cardinal (Jim's Journal and Badgers and Other Animals, respectively). Some favorite Onion headlines that I reme…
Clinton Deploys Vowels to Bosnia
https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/humor/clinton-deploys-v...
Cities of Sjlbvdnzv, Grzny to Be First Recipients
Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ben Collins says they're bring back ONN https://bsky.app/profile/bencollins.bsky.social/post/3kqyj7u...
This is a splash of cold water if you're familiar with who Ben Collins is. This will not not be a return to The Onion you fondly remember. Most likely it will be a continuation in the same direction it's been going.
On the other hand he does have experience in the field.
Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion
#129I think this is good news, because G/O Media websites are the worst. I was at UW-Madison when The Onion started. We had a wealth of student newspapers at the time, along with The Daily Cardinal and The Badger Herald. Scott Dikkers and Todd Hanson, writers for The Onion, also wrote great comic strips for the Cardinal (Jim's Journal and Badgers and Other Animals, respectively). Some favorite Onion headlines that I reme…
Some personal favourites:
Drugs win Drug War
New President Feels Nation's Pain, Breasts
Area Man Passionate Defender of What He Imagines Constitution to Be
Awesome Toy Recalled Thanks to Three Stupid Dead Kids
Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again
Alzheimer's Sufferers Demand Cure For Pancakes
Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion
#130Jeff Lawson has state of Michigan connections. A University of Michigan grad he started a digital textbook company, but was just too early. Then he was founding CTO of StubHub which is based in Detroit. I regret never actually meeting him though we have some mutual friends in common. Tried to get him to speak at a hackathon I was running in Detroit during his early days at Twilio but he was simply too busy which I ca…
Why is Michigan relevant to buying The Onion?