If you're not sure about reading Our Dumb Century, I hope this review makes you give it a chance.
The premise is simple: what if The Onion had been around to document, with its usual style, all the major events of recent American history? This is my opinion on the execution:
Introduction The introduction by T. Herman Zweibel, the 131-year-old former editor of The Onion, is already great. I won't spend much time on it: all you need to know is that The Onion was apparently founded in 1756 and that we're shown a 1765 front page of The Mercantile-Onion to prove it.
What follows is a series of front pages of The Onion covering all the major events of the century, all with period-accurate designs and an incredible attention to detail that makes them look real.
1900–1929 - A Nation Turns Its Crank In this first chapter, the United States are portrayed as an optimistic but deeply flawed country. People celebrate pollution as a sign of humanity's triumph over nature, and they believe man will one day reach Heaven itself thanks to Those Magnificent Flying Machines. All of this comes to an end with a brilliant example of Hypocritical Humor: after The Onion advises its readers to "Buy, Buy, Buy!", the inevitable crash of the stock market is blamed on basically every minority in the country, as well as women.
1929–1946 - Dust, Despair and Death: Those Were the Days A great take on The Great Depression: as the people are starving and desperate for money, millionaires are as happy as ever and the rich get blamed for everything wrong with the country. The darker tone of this chapter allows for a new series of jokes that are just as funny as the previous one's. After World War II ends, it seems everything's gonna be alright...
1946–1963 - The Swell Years The Red Scare is mercilessly made fun of, and the introduction of the television leads to this chapter being more focused on pop culture. Although there's not much of a "theme" anymore, the wider variety of topics discussed makes this chapter just as enjoyable as the previous ones.
1963–1981 - Peace, Love and Other Bullshit Despite its title, this chapter is not just a series of jokes about hippies (although there are several); it satirizes many different topics (such as the Space Race, the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal). Overall, I think this chapter is more memorable than the previous one, and it contains some of the book's best jokes.
1981–2000: A Nation Finds Its Remote The last chapter in the book. It is funny, but once the fake pages of the book begin covering events The Onion had already written about in Real Life a bit of the book's essence is lost. I won't spoil what the last page is, but I'll say it's a great way to end the century, especially for a book released in 1999.
I think Our Dumb Century is the best thing The Onion's ever done.
The Best Thing The Onion Has Done
If you're not sure about reading Our Dumb Century, I hope this review makes you give it a chance.
The premise is simple: what if The Onion had been around to document, with its usual style, all the major events of recent American history? This is my opinion on the execution:
Introduction
The introduction by T. Herman Zweibel, the 131-year-old former editor of The Onion, is already great. I won't spend much time on it: all you need to know is that The Onion was apparently founded in 1756 and that we're shown a 1765 front page of The Mercantile-Onion to prove it.
What follows is a series of front pages of The Onion covering all the major events of the century, all with period-accurate designs and an incredible attention to detail that makes them look real.
1900–1929 - A Nation Turns Its Crank
In this first chapter, the United States are portrayed as an optimistic but deeply flawed country. People celebrate pollution as a sign of humanity's triumph over nature, and they believe man will one day reach Heaven itself thanks to Those Magnificent Flying Machines. All of this comes to an end with a brilliant example of Hypocritical Humor: after The Onion advises its readers to "Buy, Buy, Buy!", the inevitable crash of the stock market is blamed on basically every minority in the country, as well as women.
1929–1946 - Dust, Despair and Death: Those Were the Days
A great take on The Great Depression: as the people are starving and desperate for money, millionaires are as happy as ever and the rich get blamed for everything wrong with the country. The darker tone of this chapter allows for a new series of jokes that are just as funny as the previous one's. After World War II ends, it seems everything's gonna be alright...
1946–1963 - The Swell Years
The Red Scare is mercilessly made fun of, and the introduction of the television leads to this chapter being more focused on pop culture. Although there's not much of a "theme" anymore, the wider variety of topics discussed makes this chapter just as enjoyable as the previous ones.
1963–1981 - Peace, Love and Other Bullshit
Despite its title, this chapter is not just a series of jokes about hippies (although there are several); it satirizes many different topics (such as the Space Race, the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal). Overall, I think this chapter is more memorable than the previous one, and it contains some of the book's best jokes.
1981–2000: A Nation Finds Its Remote
The last chapter in the book. It is funny, but once the fake pages of the book begin covering events The Onion had already written about in Real Life a bit of the book's essence is lost. I won't spoil what the last page is, but I'll say it's a great way to end the century, especially for a book released in 1999.
I think Our Dumb Century is the best thing The Onion's ever done.