The Onion

The Onion is a false news reporting service that provides comical stories that sound true but are not true. Their reports are made in a serious fashion, and are related to topical events that are really happening. The Onion generally describes things in a way that their false story actually describes what is really deeply true. For example, they recently ran a story about the Beijing Olympics being a trap, which was based on the USA's fear of China that has been widely reported in the media. The comical element of their stories is in that whilst they are false, on some deeper level they are very true.

The Onion began in 1988, prior to the existence of the World Wide Web, and was initially reporting purely with written news reports, which were sent out primarily over newsgroups and printed out to try to trick gullible people. With the advent of the World Wide Web, The Onion soon began appearing on web sites, and eventually had their own web site. Their reports occasionally included pictures and links to real news reports.

On several occasions gullible news services have thought that The Onion stories were true, taking them further and running actual news stories based on them. Celebrities have also tried to sue based on their false news stories. This is actually the point of The Onion - that people should be more informed as to what is going on such that they are not fooled by The Onion articles.

In 2001, Comedy Central combined with The Onion to run a series of video news reports, which have appeared on The Onion and on You Tube. These video news reports have convinced even more gullible people that The Onion stories are true.

The Onion has been used to inspire many services, including Encyclopaedia Dramatica, Uncyclopedia and Wiqipedia, who occasionally have the same level of comedy.

The Onion is widely regarded as the most highly respected and most popular false news reporting service in the world.