Our Dumb Century
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| Author | The Onion, Scott Dikkers, Mike Loew |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Onion |
| Subject | Revisionist history |
| Genre | Satire |
| Published | March 23, 1999 (Three Rivers Press) |
| Media type | Paperback |
| Pages | 176 |
| Awards | Thurber Prize for American Humor (1999) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 53288090 |
| 081 21 | |
| LC Class | PN6231.N6 O95 1999 |
Our Dumb Century: The Onion Presents 100 Years of Headlines from America's Finest News Source is a satirical humor book written by the staff of The Onion and published by Three Rivers Press in 1999. The chief editor of the book was Scott Dikkers, with specific sections edited by Robert D. Siegel, Maria Schneider and John Krewson. It was awarded the 1999 Thurber Prize for American Humor.
The book, spun off from The Onion weekly-newspaper format of dryly satirizing current events, features mocked-up newspaper front pages from the entire 20th century, presented as though The Onion had been continuously in print since before 1900. The publication of the book is in itself a parody of other end of the century retrospectives that had been published in 1999, notably Time magazine and The New York Times.
The book satirizes many common beliefs, trends, and perceptions. For instance, in response to the John F. Kennedy assassination theories, one headline declares, "Kennedy Slain By CIA, Mafia, Castro, LBJ, Teamsters, Freemasons" and that he was shot "129 times from 43 different angles." This is later followed up by an article proclaiming that the "Warren Commission admits to killing JFK."
The book often takes a cynical look at American foreign policy over the ages, describing past events with revisionist, modern-day perspectives. For example, the Pearl Harbor attacks are described as being an attack on a "colonially-occupied US non-state" and President Woodrow Wilson encourages Americans to fight in World War I in order to "make the world safe for corporate oligarchy." The article on the 1920 granting of women's suffrage states "Women Finally Allowed to Participate in Meaningless Fiction of Democracy." The article on the beginning of World War II is "WA- (headline continued on page 2)," with "WA-" in especially large print.
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