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Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

nytimes.com

171–180 of 311 posts

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#171
post #38

I 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…

Right now, Kinja is hosting all the content for The Onion, so it would take a lot of data migration to get all the content onto a different web host.

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#172

I'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...

Like fine wine. We need a new 2024 one:

Why Republicans Have Little Cachet Amongst the Educated In The Past 2 Decades A Total Fucking Mystery

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#173
post #38

I 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…

"Archaeological Dig Uncovers Ancient Race of Skeleton People"

https://www.theonion.com/archaeological-dig-uncovers-ancient...

"Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Fillm as Fun, Watchable"

https://www.theonion.com/trekkies-bash-new-star-trek-film-as...

"Jurisprudence Fetishist Gets off on Technicality"

https://www.theonion.com/jurisprudence-fetishist-gets-off-on...

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#174
post #22

This is the best birthday present I could have asked for. The Onion News Network has the funniest, most prescient videos online and I love going back to watch them. Even if the Onion comes back half as funny as they were it's going to be fabulous. Here are a few of my lesser-known favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJdP1zK15bE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRgRz3nSG7o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUT8ec2…

Nation's Girlfriends Unveil New Economic Plan: "Let's move in together" https://youtu.be/7ADncN9HIa4

Incredible, beginning to end

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#175
post #109

From a different article: https://www.businessinsider.com/twilio-founder-jeff-lawson-b... > When asked whether he had purchased The Onion, Lawson played coy. "What's The Onion?" he replied. Then, "What's a Tetrahedron?" > Business Insider was unsure how to respond to these questions.

Had no idea Ben Collins had become an executive at whatever this thing is. He was an excellent reporter and a guy who really, really understands how the internet works and how communities flourish or go toxic. He reported a lot about Kiwi Farms and Cloudflare's response to public pressure. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/worst-plac...

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Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#176
post #59

I'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…

Red Meat still exists, but absolutely nobody knows what I mean when I say, "I hate you, Milkman Dan" and hasn't for 25 years.

Oh gosh Milkman Dan, what a blast from the past. All the good memories of early edgy net absurdism.

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#177
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Secondhand smoke linked to secondhand coolness" "Schaumburg Man Dimly Aware Of Shadowy, Non-Schaumburg World Out There" "Clinton Injected With Highly Unstable Experimental Growth Serum" "Beer! It kicks ass!" Lastly, the 9/11 issue is one of their greatest achievements. They struck the perfect balance/tone, avoiding "too soon": https://www.theonion.com/issue-37-34-the-september-11th-issu...

That’s not the 9/11 issue though. (Check the date). And strangely, I can’t seem to find a link to the issue that they published that morning. Which is a shame, because it was the perfect counterpoint to what everybody else was reporting. Just a full page photo of the plane hitting the tower and a giant headline: “HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!”

That was the first real laugh after. It was just perfect.

Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#178
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had no idea Ben Collins had become an executive at whatever this thing is. He was an excellent reporter and a guy who really, really understands how the internet works and how communities flourish or go toxic. He reported a lot about Kiwi Farms and Cloudflare's response to public pressure. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/worst-plac...

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Re: Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

#179
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They had amazingly high production values on classics like "Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA and "Sony Releases Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyVh1_vWYQ I wonder why they stopped.

I assume video content is much more expensive They may also have been victimized by the scandal where Facebook was lying about the engagement that short-form videos generated over other kinds of content, leading several content producers into bankruptcy or near bankruptcy through loss of ad revenue when they pivoted towards it. https://slate.com/technology/2018/10/facebook-online-video-p... https://www.ccn.com/facebo…

Never trust a con artist.
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