How IFC Ruined The Onion

The Onion, the classic satire news source that has some of the sharpest and most spot on parodies of the media, got bigger in the past few months after it moved onto it's own half hour show on IFC. But was it a good thing? Read on for my thoughts!

I've been a huge fan of The Onion for the past few years. I'm subscribed to both their Youtube channel and their podcast, and I go out every Thursday just to pick up their newest print edition.

The print edition has some of the funniest headlines you'll ever see (including one that says "NASA completes 52-Year Mission To Find, Kill God"), biting political satire (a story about congress going on a mission to find "the legendary sword of bipartisanship) and to round it out, some awesome columns, including one of my all time favorites-a bit by Levar Burton after Reading Rainbow ending about how he never liked it in the first place.

Their podcast has the sound of old-school radio broadcasts with short blurbs about local and national news, complete with a deep-voiced serious man who could give Brian Williams' news casting voice a run for his money.

And their Youtube videos were simultaneously hilarious and disturbingly accurate-take for example his story about a new piece of technology "that doesn't do the goddamn thing it's fucking supposed to."


You watch this video and laugh your ass off, while at the same time thinking about the fact that it's actually pretty damn accurate in what it has to say. What makes it funny is that it focuses on the story and it accurately emulates the man-on-the-street interviews and tech expert interviews.

I'm always ready for the next Onion "thing", so you can imagine my excitement when it was announced that IFC was going to be making it into a 30-minute show. It was a way to get The Onion out there even more and capitalize on what makes it so great, and IFC felt like the right channel to show it. They don't edit the movies the show and they show a lot of great cult comedy like Monty Python's Flying Circus and Mr. Show.

Unfortunately, so far that's turned out to be the wrong move. In moving to TV, The Onion tired too hard to be something new, rather than just stick to what made it already great. It tries to emulate cable news networks like CNN and MSNBC with a fancy studio, high-tech graphics, and intense, self-centered hosts. Take the following video, for instance, which features the new host for the series, Brooke Alvarez, shooting down a viewer who wrote The Onion to correct a report she did:



Here's the big difference between the "Sony" piece and the one featured on the new show-the former focuses on parodying tech stories and the truth behind a new piece of technology being released and the hype behind it, despite no one really needing it and it not working. The latter just features an attempted parody at an egotistical news anchor. And that's what the new series seems to do-focus a whole lot more on the hosts and the "network" itself, rather than the stories it's lampooning.

To me, that's what's incredibly disappointing about the IFC series. I've always loved The Onion for it's hilarious yet accurate emulations of news stories. This new series on IFC instead spends most of its time focusing on how it wants to be like a cable news network with over-the-top technology and self-centered host. It feels then like it's trying too hard to emulate the media in addition to the stories. I suppose that's what bound to happen in some sense when you go from 3 minute videos to a full half hour show. Still, I feel like could've done a LOT better.

But wait, don't give up! I do have to give credit to the other Onion-inspired show that debuted on Comedy Central-the "Sports Dome", a parody of ESPN and it's overly-intense recap shows (namely the infamous "Sports Center"). The hosts feel like they could actually be on ESPN, but the show doesn't try to force that down your throat like the IFC show does. Instead, there's a great balance between that and hilarious/ludicrous yet seemingly possible sports stories. Take for example this great story about Fenway being returned to its 1912 conditions, much to the delight of Red Sox fans (as a Red Sox fan myself, it made me laugh extra hard)

Onion SportsDome

So it is a damn shame that IFC had to turn The Onion into something it never should've been. I know you're thinking "than why not just watch it in the first place?" Well, that's because clips from the new IFC show have taken over The Onion's Youtube channel, so I don't really have a choice. I guess the good news is the "Sports Dome" successfully crossed over into a 30-minute show while maintaining it's style and humor-and I'll always have the print edition to read about why movies would be better with Michael Keaton in them.