The Onion is currently based in New York City, with a fluctuating staff of 50-70 people. However, said Kolb, the main creative staff is a crew of 10, some of whom have been with The Onion for over a decade. Indeed, Kolb began her talk with a very humorous, very fake history of it. According to that account, the newspaper started out in 1765 as The Mercantile Onion, run by an immigrant tuber farmer from Prussia named Sigfried Zweibel, who bartered a sack of yams for a printing press.

In reality, The Onion was begun in 1988 by two students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Two years later, it was sold to the first of its permanent staff. Once the website, http://www.theonion.com, went up in 1996, online readership took the newspaper’s popularity through the roof.

Kolb took her audience on something of a tour through the inner workings of The Onion, showing a group picture of the 10 writers, editors, and graphics guys who are behind the humor of the vegetable-named paper, as well as the office in which the creative process occurs. Each piece is discussed by the group, and requires overall approval to be printed in the next issue.

The atmosphere at The Onion is very relaxed. Said Kolb, “Luckily, no one at The Onion wears suits—or owns them.” There are almost no boundaries on who or what this satirical newspaper will make fun of, partly because it is completely independent and has no suited executives directing its content, and partly because poking fun at what no one else will can be incredibly funny.

The Onion’s weekly newspaper is not the only way for readers to get more of its trademark humor. Several books have been printed, including one titled Our Dumb Century, which is comprised of the major news events of the 20th century redone à la Onion. For example, headlines such as: “A New Century Dawns! McKinley Ushers in Bold New ‘Coal Age,’” and “Giant poster of Mao seizes power in China” make the last century a lot funnier than it was the first time around.

Also, The Onion has a movie premiering this summer, currently titled The Onion’s Untitled Movie. Unfortunately, Kolb was not able to say anything about what may or may not happen in this movie, which is to be released this summer. However, if The Onion’s usual standards of humor are any indication, The Onion’s Untitled Movie will be one for the ages—not to mention extremely funny.

One of the more interesting points during the lecture was the angry e-mails Kolb read. As a matter of course, The Onion receives a large number of e-mails from those who don’t realize that all of the articles are in jest, and many of them were quite humorous, such as the suggestion that The Onion include a large section devoted to reviewing cars, trucks, and RVs.