Backstage at the Onion's New TV Show

Peter Kafka — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:05:56 +0000

One day, maybe not that far off, we won’t distinguish between video we watch on the Web and the stuff we see on TV. But for now, TV is still the big leagues–the place you go if you want the biggest stage, and the most money.

Which might explain why the Onion has not one but two shows on TV right now, both based on the great stuff the satirists are already doing on their Web video site.

There’s SportsDome on Comedy Central, a beat-for-beat replication of ESPN’s SportsCenter. And starting tonight on IFC, there’s the Onion News Network, an uncanny amalgamation of News Corp.’s Fox News, Time Warner’s CNN, Comcast’s MSNBC et al.

Here’s a representative sample:

Snowy Conditions Proving Hazardous For Nation’s Idiots

I think it’s pretty great, but I’m a 100 percent biased observer, since I’ve been friends with some of the Onion crew for forever–think pre-Netscape. If you want a less objective take on the new show, you can check out this glowing New York Times review, or this measured one from Time.

Last week, I stopped by a promo for the show–a real/fake press conference starring the fake newsreaders, in character, moderated by Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter, who appeared as himself–and then sat down for a chat with Carol Kolb, a longtime Onion writer (and a pal–see above).

We talked in a makeshift green room set up at the very serious Paley Center for Media, and midway through, our conversation gets interrupted by the show’s cast. But that just makes it more real, right? If your coworkers aren’t cool with a few f-bombs, then this isn’t safe for work:

[ See post to watch video ]

No Joke: The Onion Wins One of Journalism's Biggest Awards

Peter Kafka — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:38:55 +0000

It’s not layoff news, and it’s not an April Fools prank: The Onion has won a Peabody, one of journalism’s most highfalutin awards.

The Peabodys, administered out of the University of Georgia, date back to 1941, and honor “the most outstanding achievements in electronic media, including radio, television and cable.” They tend to go to earnest television documentaries and the like, but they also allow for some very smart, quirky stuff.

Hence the award for the weekly’s “Onion News Network” video site, which debuted two years ago but has really been hitting its stride lately (disclosure: I’m pals with some Onion people). Per the judges: “The satirical tabloid’s online send-up of 24-hour cable-TV news was hilarious, trenchant and not infrequently hard to distinguish from the real thing.”

Other winners include the New York Times’s (NYT) excellent Web site, CBS’s (CBS) “60 Minutes” and… “Lost,” from Disney’s (DIS) ABC. But none of those are as fun to embed as Onion clips.

Here’s the Onion’s most recent effort:

Morning Show Host Starts Charity to Rid World of Flying Debris

And here’s a beauty that, like some other Onion stories, got digested as bonafide news in some places:

Prague’s Franz Kafka International Named World’s Most Alienating Airport

And while this one isn’t technically an Onion clip, I’ve always enjoyed its many meta qualities:

AllThingsD » Onion News Network

Backstage at the Onion's New TV Show

No Joke: The Onion Wins One of Journalism's Biggest Awards