Our Dumb Century: The Onion Presents 100 Years of Headlines from America's Finest News Source

by Scott Dikkers (Editor), The Onion, Maria Schneider (Contributor)

The Onion has quickly become the world's most popular humor publication, misinforming half a million readers a week with one-of-a-kind social satire both in print (on newsstands nationwide) and online from its remote office in Madison, Wisconsin.

Witness the march of history as Editor-in-Chief Scott Dikkers and The Onion's award-winning writing staff present the twentieth century like you've never seen it before.

Genres: Humor, History, Comedy, Nonfiction, Satire, Politics, Reference

164 pages, Paperback

First published March 23, 1998

About the author

Scott Dikkers is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of “How to Write Funny.” He's also the founder of TheOnion.com and The AV Club.

Scott sends out a daily tip on Substack:

https://scottdikkers.substack.com/

Be sure to follow him on BookBub for insiders deals on his books!

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/scott...

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the best gift in the world, for two reasons. First, anyone you give it to will love it, and you have therefore given a successful gift to a loved one. Second, if the person who receives the gift does not like it, it's a sure sign that he or she is not someone you should have anything to do with, much less give a gift to. For more on how to join the national campaign to convince motel 6 to replace the bible with this book in every one of their fucking hotel rooms, please respond to this post.

[J.G. Keely · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recall an Onion article just after the 2000 election jokingly talking about how Bush was going to reverse the clinton years and pick up where his father left off. It talked about making tax refunds, starting a new war in Iraq, and running the economy down. It's rather frightening to think about it coming to the end of two terms. The world is a strange place; I'm surprised it's still here.

[Matthew Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Empire of Japan makes alliance with white supremacists in well thought-out scheme." - case closed.

[Jake Basner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best bathroom book of all time.

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will return you to a simpler time when The Onion was... nonexistent- wait, what? You’re telling me The Onion didn’t get the chance to write amazing satire in times before 1988?

Thankfully, the amazing writers at The Onion went and made this book, for you to experience satirical headlines from ye olden days!

It’s filled with great articles just like the ones The Onion writes today, except with more oldness!
Includes:

“Women Finally Allowed to Participate in Meaningless Fiction of Democracy”, and
“Holy Dang, Man Walks on Darning Moon!” (Profanity has been replaced), not to forget
“New AIDS Disease Could Put Nation at Increased Risk of Gala Celebrity Benefits”

It’s a good book. I do like the website better, though.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

As though the Onion had been around for the whole twentieth century. I think this is the funniest of the Onion books. Sample headlines:

1. 1951: "Morty and Betty Crocker Executed for Selling Top-Secret Cake Recipes to Reds."

2. 1905: "The Machine: Will it Replace the Chinaman."

3. 1939: "Hitler Neutralizes the Polish Menace."

Humor, history and social criticism. Really funny!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My best friend gave me this book for Christmas years ago, and I cried I laughed so hard. A couple of my favorite headlines: "John Lennon: 'I'm higher than Jesus right now'," and "FDR's Fireside chat just a stream of cuss words." I can re-read this again and again, and it never gets old.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book marked the peak for the Onion. It reviews headlines of the 20th century as they would have appeared if the Onion had been published since 1900. Some are laugh-out-loud funny, though as usual there tends to be much more hilarity in the headlines and accompanying photographs than in the articles themselves. Other Onion books are not as consistently amusing (including the recent "Our Dumb World"). "Our Dumb Century" succeeds as well as it does because it is a natural outgrowth of the paper itself. Get one for your bathroom!

[Mike Bloom · Rating 5 out of 5]

One evening at a hotel in Escanaba, Michigan, while on the road for work, a colleague and I sat around with a couple bottles from the brew pub where we had eaten dinner and read bits from this book out loud to each other. I don't remember ever laughing so hard. This collection of fake newspaper articles perfectly achieves what it sets out to do--it hilariously skewers everyone and everything from 1900 to 1999. If this book doesn't make you laugh, you need professional help.

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's just nothing as amusing for a brief read as a made-up front page of The Onion. Good times.

[Linton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man Ventures Outside Hatless

Martin Luther King: I Had a Really Weird Dream Last Night

FDR: The Only Thing We Have to Fear is a Decade-long, Crippling Depression

Man Walks on Fucking Moon

Christian Right Ascends to Heaven

-- Nobody does it better than The Onion

[James Norton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is satire at its best - satire of journalism, of history, of the self-important and often poorly informed "USA USA USA!" mentality. It covers much if not all of the ground as Zinn's "People's History," with the added bonus of a great deal more laughs.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess since this is listed on goodreads, and because it has been published and has an ISBN number, this counts as a real book. But it's actually just the front pages of the onion website. It doesn't even include the whole articles, just the front of them.

Well, since I read the onion on the website theonion.com almost every day, this book was a little extraneous. I already read almost all of thse things. But the main thing about it was that it only cost $3 on clearance at Borders. 3 fucking dollars! I guess people didn't want to buy it because you can literally see all of these articles online.

Well I bought this book last week, and I think I've already read it through 5 times or so. In my lifetime I'm guessing I'll read it through at least 1000 or more times. It's hard to make an accurate guess because I don't know when I'll die or if I'll go blind at some point. But if as a civilization, we measured the greatness of a book based on how many times I, Patrick Yamamoto, have read the book, this would clearly be the best book in all of history.

[April Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Onion's sardonic take on current events and culture can be very funny in small doses, but in such a large anthology, The Onion increasingly comes off as one-trick pony. Most of its humor boils down to hyperbole - treating the unimportant as if it is of tantamount importance, thereby creating a critical commentary on the shallowness of popular culture. You don't have to read much of this book to get the point, and since it's mostly Onion fans who would buy this book in the first place, it seems like a point that hardly needs to be made in book form.

[James Rozoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this thinking it was a compilation of articles from The Onion, and was surprised it was all new material made to look as though it was a best of from an entire century. It is superbly well done. The Onion has had many fine moments but this may well be their finest.

[Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound, moving, relevant.

[Ayne Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Proof that satire is alive and well in America.

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Browsed through since there's really no way anyone would read this thick tome. "Headlines" and mock newspaper stories and layout page after page after page.

[Jilly Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember when you could tell The Onion headlines from actual ones? Heh, those were the days...

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most hilarious book I've ever read.

[Clayton Barr · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've ever read. The front pages of the The Onion newspaper from 1900-2000 commenting on the current events and culture of the day as only the Best Source of Newsworthy Items in Our Great Republic could. Some favorite headlines: "Our Nation's Forests Must Be Mined for Coal!", "Congress Reduces Work-Week to 135 Hours", "Rail-Road Scientists say Kitty Hawk Flying Apparatus a Hoax", "The Machine: Will It Replace the China-Man?", "Pure Food and Drug Act Will Limit Human-Thumb Levels Permitted in Meats, Will Other Fingers Follow?" "Harold Lloyd Killed in Fall from Clock", "Amelia Earhart Missing, Famed Aviatrix 'Probably Just Shopping', Search Teams Say", "War-Weary Jews Establish Homeland Between Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt", "Jackie Robinson Lynched for Stealing Second", "A-Bomb May Have Awakened Gigantic Radioactive Monsters, Experts Say", "Korean War Ends in Tearful 3-Hour Finale", "GUM IN OUR SCHOOLS!", "New Magazine, 'Playboy', Offers Astute Literary Criticism, Tits", "Boy Bitten by Radioactive Spider Dies of Leukemia".

Okay, I've overdone it. Read a page or two out of this book every day and you'll understand our world a little better.

[Grant]

“Our Dumb Century” is clearly a non serious play on how news lines can be quite dumb. The Onion shows this is in a super extreme and silly way that is very immature. In this satire, no problem, big or small, is safe. They plays jokes about natural disasters and man made disasters. One of their biggest focuses was WW2, it probably took up a quarter of the book which got a little boring because its basically the same thing. There are a lot of jokes about the time period which are always very goofy and usually makes you think “What?”. All in all, this book is not a book I’d actually read for school due to its immature nature but I think that’s what they intended.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who survived most all of the last half of it, I must say this is intense and required reading for those who didn't, if they have any sense of humor left. There is a laugh on every page and maybe at least two or three more, and it certainly does tell a more realistically cynical exposure of US & world media attitudes as the 20th C. made its fitful way through human strivings.
Worth picking up once in a while to remind oneself, what might be done with a similar edition dedicated to the 21st? Could it be just as dumb? Or even dumber?

[Kristal Stidham · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Onion's satire is a cut above and this audiobook of humorous takes on newsworthy headlines and highlights from the 1900s does not disappoint. I found it to be absolutely hilarious and I can't wait to listen to it again. 

[Renee]

Picked a copy of this up from a book sale because I heard it was hilarious. Sadly, I will never know unless they put out an ebook version I can enlarge. Much of it is in a miniscule font that is a strain to read. I doubt it's funny enough to try to read over the headache reading it would give.

[Strong Extraordinary Dreams · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word: Genius.

[Flossmoor Public Library (IL) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

- Ms. Jenn

[Tom M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious book!

[Suz Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For fans of The Onion, this is a great collection of the best of their early material.

[Coleman Wigger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interest.