
No Joke: The Onion Faces Layoffs by Univision, Says Report - rbanffy
http://fortune.com/2018/07/06/the-onion-layoffs-by-univision/
======
vforgione
I worked at The Onion a few years ago. The content teams there were some of
the most dedicated and passionate professionals I’ve had the pleasure of
working with in my career.

This is an upsetting story. Despite so much upheaval in print and publishing
at large, and the unfortunate circumstance that reality has become as absurd
as the headlines of The Onion a decade ago, everyone there comes in every day
ready to give it all they’ve got. It honestly is a remarkable staff and
sometimes I really miss it there.

~~~
scottmf
There's a great episode of This American Life from 2008 with a behind-the-
scenes look at how the staff comes up with headlines:
[https://www.thisamericanlife.org/348/tough-
room](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/348/tough-room)

It sounds like an amazing place to work!

~~~
vforgione
I was a developer there, not a writer, but this kind of mentality was so basic
to the entire company. It reinforces a great deal of humility -- not just in
your work but as a person.

------
waivek
Half a decade ago, The Onion reached the pinnacle of satire with their Onion
News Network. What made it different was the presence of a really solid fourth
wall. Not once is there a wink at the camera or any indication that the actors
are "in on it".

All the satire I've seen in more recent years has had people talking in an
exaggerated manner about absurd events. They don't talk like real people.

My Favorite ONN videos

[https://youtu.be/D04wb7P_v-4](https://youtu.be/D04wb7P_v-4)

[https://youtu.be/XUT8ec24anM](https://youtu.be/XUT8ec24anM)

[https://youtu.be/kOHABYhZ7a8](https://youtu.be/kOHABYhZ7a8)

[https://youtu.be/84phU8of02U](https://youtu.be/84phU8of02U)

[https://youtu.be/EDWo6m5hbG4](https://youtu.be/EDWo6m5hbG4)

~~~
aplc0r
I still send this one around a lot: "Sony Releases Stupid Piece Of Shit That
Doesn't Fucking Work" \-
[https://youtu.be/8AyVh1_vWYQ](https://youtu.be/8AyVh1_vWYQ)

~~~
ralston
Wow. I haven't laughed that hard in a while

------
dessant
Two of my favourites:

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA)

Anonymous Hero Donates Hospital 200 Human Kidneys -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_5nLxZVoPo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_5nLxZVoPo)

------
52-6F-62
That's sad. Especially these days— seems like satire is as important as ever.

For fans of the Onion, there's a rising Canadian counterpart. They started off
kind of slowly, but have started to come into their own— especially with
Ontario's recent election. They sometimes cover American events as well.

[https://www.thebeaverton.com](https://www.thebeaverton.com)

ex:

[https://www.thebeaverton.com/2018/07/ford-vows-to-treat-
asyl...](https://www.thebeaverton.com/2018/07/ford-vows-to-treat-asylum-
seekers-like-his-own-family/)

[https://www.thebeaverton.com/2018/06/andrea-horwath-
looking-...](https://www.thebeaverton.com/2018/06/andrea-horwath-looking-
forward-to-continuing-to-have-no-power/)

~~~
walrus01
There is also the Burrard Street Journal. A lot of the satire will be lost on
Americans who don't pay attention to Canadian local news/politics.

[https://www.burrardstreetjournal.com/](https://www.burrardstreetjournal.com/)

~~~
52-6F-62
Never heard of this. Its great!

------
danso
Worth linking to the original report: [https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-
onion-clickhole-av-club-br...](https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-onion-
clickhole-av-club-brace-for-layoffs)

If nothing else, for its closing anecdote:

> _One former Univision executive joked to The Daily Beast that UCI seemingly
> does not differentiate between the Onion Inc. sites, and is “not even sure
> what Clickhole is.”_

> _When asked during an all-hands meeting with staffers from one site earlier
> this year what his favorite article was on an Onion Inc. site, Univision’s
> head of digital Sameer Deen would not answer._

~~~
Roritharr
If I were a billionaire I'd buy the Onion, it's so sad to see it being treated
like this.

------
notacoward
It's been pretty obvious for a while that The Onion is struggling. I love a
lot of their material, but lately a lot of their writing about others they see
as threats to their ad-supported business model has been far less funny than
mean spirited. Almost like an Onion headline.

"Humor site tries to save business by giving up on humor"

------
SiempreViernes
That's too bad, the onion is still very good with political satire, though it
doesn't give you a good one daily unless Washington is particularly poor that
week.

A recent good one: [https://local.theonion.com/man-offended-by-rude-female-
cowor...](https://local.theonion.com/man-offended-by-rude-female-coworker-
continuing-to-spea-1827204473)

------
everdev
For me comedy comes from good timing and the unexpected. I've tried to read
the Onion but never found it funny because it's formula of satire is expected
from the beginning. Sure, they have some witty observations and funny titles,
but the articles read like an SNL skit that goes on too long.

The written word probably doesn't help too much either. Comedians frequently
use pauses and pace to accentuate the humor and without it, in my mind reading
the Onion sounds like poor comedic timing.

I think there was a reason political satire was traditionally effective in
cartoon or stand up comedy format.

~~~
pvg
Not liking the Onion is probably just a matter of personal taste rather than
evidence of the limits of the written word as a method for conveying political
satire.

------
nickthemagicman
I love the onion. It's slowly become the only reason I use Facebook anymore.

~~~
zerostar07
Plot twist: The onion becomes the CIA project that fools people on using
Facebook, another CIA project:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqggW08BWO0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqggW08BWO0)

~~~
nickthemagicman
Ha. Sneaky CIA knows me too well.

------
siberianbear
I first found about The Onion in 1991 when I was a summer intern at Intel in
Folsom, California. A fellow intern from UW Madison told me about it. I
subscribed to the paper version: this was before it was on the internet. It
was $28 a year.

Two years later, they went to a color version and raised the price to about
$45 a year, if I recall correctly. I said "screw it" and didn't renew my
subscription.

It was more of an "underground" thing at the time. I enjoyed it again a few
years later when it became an internet site.

------
2bitencryption
curious, does this affect AV Club, which I believe was a shoot-off from The
Onion?

I really love AV Club's content, hope it doesn't go away.

Of course, I also love The Onion, it's an institution.

~~~
JansjoFromIkea
The AV Club has already had a few rounds of Univision driven cuts and
overhauls that've impacted it pretty hugely in a bad way.

However, I believe the AV Club are about as independent of each other as
Kotaku, Deadspin, etc at the moment, so these layoffs shouldn't directly
impact them.

------
philwelch
The Onion is long in the tooth, but Clickhole at times manages to pull off the
perfect surrealist humor. Although at a glance, even they seem to have
declined a bit.

------
bitL
I wish The Onion were still funny; can't really recall visiting them in the
past 3 years because of some funny video they were famous for.

~~~
snackbugs
We're living in a period where real events are as absurd and as brain-
breakingly bizarre as satire. It makes satire less of a release of tension and
more of a depressing reminder.

Satire doesn't make you laugh when you can barely write an Onion headline that
isn't only slightly expanded from reality.

~~~
lb1lf
-Brilliant 60’s satiricist Tom Lehrer famously declared political satire dead when Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

~~~
gadders
I wonder what he thought of Obama getting his.

------
batbomb
I really love the Onion, but I think I have laughed much more at The Hard
Times these past two years. I’m not sure what that means, but I hope some of
the Onion guys maybe make it over there.

------
mhuffman
Hard to stay relevant when half of their joke headlines could be real these
days. (eg. "President Threatens Stock Market")

~~~
ceejayoz
Or last week's "DOJ lawyer delays court hearing on reuniting children with
families due to weekend dog-sitting responsibilities"...

------
Yhippa
Herbert Kornfeld would have found the money to avoid this fate.

~~~
gadders
He'd have put the smackdown on the waanabe g's in purchasing fo' real.

------
lr4444lr
TBH, I think BabylonBee has been putting out better content for quite some
time. Fewer sacred cows, harder punches thrown.

~~~
jessaustin
I giggled, but that's a bit too Republican for many tastes...

