Our Dumb Century
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LC Class | PN6231.N6 O95 1999 |
Our Dumb Century: The Onion Presents 100 Years of Headlines from America's Finest News Source is a
The book, spun off from The Onion weekly-newspaper format of dryly satirizing current events, features mocked-up newspaper front pages from the entire 20th century, presented as though The Onion had been continuously in print since before 1900. The publication of the book is in itself a parody of other end of the century retrospectives that had been published in 1999, notably Time magazine and The New York Times.
Summary
The book satirizes many common beliefs, trends, and perceptions. For instance, in response to the
The book often takes a cynical look at American foreign policy over the ages, describing past events with revisionist, modern-day perspectives. For example, the Pearl Harbor attacks are described as being an attack on a "colonially-occupied US non-state" and President Woodrow Wilson encourages Americans to fight in World War I in order to "make the world safe for corporate oligarchy." The article on the 1920 granting of women's suffrage states "Women Finally Allowed to Participate in Meaningless Fiction of Democracy." The article on the beginning of World War II is "WA- (headline continued on page 2)," with "WA-" in especially large print.
Articles on major historical events are often preceded by ironic articles criticizing the irresponsibility that led to such events: For example, an issue dated a week before the
Smaller stories in the book satirize social and pop-cultural trends of their respective eras, such as the faux-
Since the book was written before the year 2000, its prediction for that year satirized Y2K and religious prophecies, including "Christian Right Ascends to Heaven," "All Corporations Merged Into OmniCorp," and a small graphic listing meteors headed for Earth by size.
Occasionally, Our Dumb Century happens to be also a good prelude for the next century. The title devoted to the establishment of Israel cites
Running gags
There are a number of running gags through this supposed history of the twentieth century, which are not immediately apparent. One is the existence of a piece of farmyard equipment called 'The Chicken Raper'. Another is that every major celebrity trial, from
.Three consecutive pages show a fictionalized end to Richard Nixon's presidency which loosely parallels the end of Gary Tison's life. First, Nixon is arrested for his connection to the Watergate scandal; the next week's headline says he then escaped and is on the run; the third says he was gunned down in a shootout with cops (but Spiro Agnew is still at large).
A more subtle satire is the rise of a (fictional) company called 'Global Tetrahedron', which first appears as a small business in the first decade of the century and gradually grows into a multinational behemoth.
Publisher Emeritus, T. Herman Zweibel, writes frequent editorials, growing more and more erratic until he's removed from power by the board of directors in the 1950s.
Article titles from 1905 and from 2000 both read 'Arabs, Jews Forge New Age of Peace.'
Cultural references
Several events from the classic film appearing sleeveless in a film, and culminating in "Hippies Celebrate Fuck Summer '67".
The space race is repeatedly covered, including such articles as "Bleeping Two-Foot Tin Ball Threatens Free World" about the
Critical reaction
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The book became a number one New York Times best-seller shortly after its publication on April 1, 1999.[4]
Other formats
An audio version of the book was produced by Scott Dikkers and adapted by Tim Harrod, and was presented as excerpts from the (real-life) nationally syndicated The Onion Radio News throughout the same time period and covering many of the same subjects.
See also
References
- ^ "Thurber House — PAST THURBER PRIZE WINNERS AND FINALISTS — Literary Center and James Thurber Museum". Thurber House. Archived from the original on 2022-11-25. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
- ^ "Our Dumb Century". NPR.org. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
- ^ "November 22, 1963". The Onion. 2005-11-23. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
- ^ "Best Sellers: Paperback Nonfiction". archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2022-12-06.