Peel Back the Layers

By chicago_chris in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 9, 2004 5:24PM

Chicagoist knows it's not original to say this, but man, we can't get enough of The Onion. Though based currently in New York, the paper hails from Wisconsin and it definitely has that indefinable Midwestern sensibility and sense of humor that we know and love. We have all the books (the brilliant Our Dumb Century, Dispatches from the Tenth Circle), a few of the T-shirts ("Your favorite band sucks"), the coffee mug ("Fuck off"), and can recite classic headlines for days ("There's no 'My Kid has Cancer' in Team"). We went to their Christmas party last year, and if your humor paper can get performances by David Cross, The Walkmen, and Yo La Tengo at such an event, you must be doing something right. Hell, Chicagoist even knows one of the writers, and he's a damn nice guy.

An Onion writer we don't know, John Krewson, will be speaking tonight at 7 at Rainbo Club, 1150 N. Damen. In a talk sponsored by the Independent Press Association of Chicago – an organization we didn't know existed, but are now glad they do – Krewson will discuss the role of political satire in society. And if anybody could talk eloquently about that topic – besides Jon Stewart, of course – it would be an Onion writer. About the paper's approach, he has noted, "In the end, we just hate everybody." Amen, brother. There is a $5 donation for the event and you must be over 21 (cough*bullshit*cough) to attend.

Also, what are your favorite Onion headlines?