By Erez Ben-Ari , JTNews Correspondent
Editor’s note: This article has been vetted by the Comedy Writers Union Local #675. They have given it a rating of “Not as funny as something you’d find on the Daily Show, but better than borsht.”
The Onion’s editorial staff considers itself a bunch of equal-opportunity offenders.
“We don’t discriminate against any group — we point out what’s absurd about anyone, “ says Jason Roeder, staff writer for The Onion, who will be coming to Seattle next week with his colleagues Joe Randazzo and Joe Garden.
Fans of humor and stinky vegetables alike will appreciate a special performance written just for the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s community campaign kickoff event, “Laugh Your Way to Giving, The Sequel” on Oct. 6.
The Onion, with its own brand of satire and social commentary, has been sinking his teeth into about as much as it can since 1988. Initially in print, and one of the early online news pioneers, three years ago it started to attack even more of our senses with online content that includes audio and video. Their attempts to make a foray into aromatic news came to an untimely end when they figured out that onions just don’t smell very good after being left out in the open for too long.
“What we do best is walking the line between satire and being mean,” Roeder told JTNews of the upcoming event. “We strive to do something people will appreciate, and laugh, but at the same time, feels like The Onion itself.”
The Onion’s reporting style, which delivers fictitious news with a face straighter than the Pope’s, often ends up being taken seriously. A case in point: The recent wave of rumors of The Onion itself being sold to a Chinese company, which were nothing more than poppycock.
Being home to famous industry leaders like Costco, Starbucks and Microsoft, Seattle has been hammered by The Onion’s writers on more than a few occasions. For the upcoming event, Jason and his compatriots will poke gentle fun at our community. Roeder, being Jewish himself, is no stranger to the cultural sensitivity, but is confident the Jewish audience will receive the material well. They also plan on talking about The Onion and its history, and about how they get their jokes — how they manage to be consistently funny.
Jason told JTNews a bit about The Onion’s creative process. The rest is shrouded in secrecy and comes with the threat of death by killer slugs should he accidentally divulge any sensitive information.
“Every week, we have a staff meeting, and each of us has to come up with 15-25 funny headlines,” Roeder said.
The headlines are read out loud and judged by the team, then a handful are picked to go to the next round.
“Some people are constantly struck by inspiration, and I’m jealous of them,” admitted Roeder. “I have to sit with a pad until I get a migraine to come out with a joke.”
Yet, somehow, he still has a job. Some ideas are put in a backlog, while others may require refinement to be suitable for public consumption — a tricky proposition at best. The videos on The Onion’s Web site are produced by a separate group, but the print side has a dedicated graphics department that creates the visuals needed to bring the joke home.
Roeder himself has been with The Onion for 14 months, but has been writing comedy for several years, including his book Oh, the Humanity!: A Gentle Guide to Social Interaction for the Feeble Young Introvert, and several others. He has also been part of the Association for the Betterment of Sex, which released another work of comedy by the name of “Sex: Our Bodies, Our Junk.”
The Onion team conducts similar events throughout the year, mostly at colleges. The Federation performance will be much more entertaining and contain fewer flatulence jokes, they assured JTNews.
It wouldn’t be a Jewish event without food, which will be kosher and catered by event sponsors Nosh Away and Wolfgang Puck. The performers have promised they would try to save some for the attendees.