Co-founder of The Onion talks fake news and satire at UAA

The true history of the one of country's most famous satirical fake news sources will be revealed when The Onion co-founder and longest-serving editor-in-chief  Scott Dikkers tells "The Funny Story Behind the Funny Stories" at University of Alaska Anchorage.

"It's basically a walk-through of how The Onion got started and grew into becoming the most powerful news organization in the world, which I think is safe to say right now," Dikkers said.

Since 1988, The Onion has been delivering deliciously satirical stories about everything from crooked politicians to random everyday losers, topped with hilariously dry headlines that have become the publication's trademark.

Dikkers, also the author of books including "Trump's America: Buy This Book and Mexico Will Pay For It" (2016) and "Destined for Destiny: The Unauthorized Biography of George W. Bush" (2008), left The Onion in 2014 and is currently coaching new satirists through his "Writing With The Onion" program at The Second City Training Center in Chicago.

Play chatted with Dikkers about politics, fake news and the stinging legacy of The Onion.

Q: Have you noticed it's harder these days to distinguish Onion headlines from all the other headlines in the deluge of stories on social media feeds?

A: It can be. It's also because the world is absurd. And there is an embarrassment of riches in terms of how many sources there are, which is why it's difficult to ascertain what is actually true.

Q: Did you have any inkling when you started that The Onion would become such an institution?

A: I certainly did not, but there were things I did on purpose to get us as close to that reality as possible. Not putting writers' names on the articles was key. I wanted The Onion to be the star, not the individual writers, because at other publications there would be these celebrity writers that would arise and then when they left, readers would kind of revolt and say, "Oh, the publication isn't funny anymore because so-and-so left." Having the reader be blissfully unaware of who the people are behind it has helped The Onion brand become the thing people recognize. It was definitely the right thing to do for The Onion. But it was a terrible choice for me, because now, who am I?

Q: Did you name the publication The Onion because you wanted to make people laugh and cry?

A: Wouldn't that have been so amazing if we'd had that kind of chutzpah? The crying was not part of it, but the peeling away the layers, that sounded like journalism. Like you peel back the layers to get to the truth. There were other reasons behind the name and I'll go into those stories during my talk.

Q: So, you wrote funny books about Trump and George W. Bush. Why didn't you write any about Democratic presidents or candidates?

A: I was planning a Hillary book. I'm no fan of her either and I think there's a lot to satirize there. The title was "My Wife: By Bill Clinton." It was a parody of his book "My Life." The picture on the cover was going to be Bill Clinton with a black eye and Hillary standing behind him with a rolling pin. I had a proposal and I was ready to go. Everybody thought she was going to win and I was hedging my bets. We also did a book about Joe Biden called "The President of Vice."  As a satirist you have to see the flaws in all of them. If you go around saying someone is perfect or ideal, that's not funny.

Q: Which political party is the most ripe for satire?

A: Typically Democrats aren't as funny as Republicans to satirists. That's just one of the unfair ways the cookie crumbles. All satirists are liberals. There's no such thing as a right-wing satirist. When you write satire you're a progressive-minded person. You think the human race is flawed and it could do better and you want to communicate how you think they could be doing better. Conservatives don't want things to change. They think things are good the way they are. That kind of mindset doesn't work for satire.

Q: Do you ever worry that we could become a society that silences artists, satirists and journalists?

A: Absolutely. Trump is very cozy with Vladimir Putin and Turkey's dictator Erdogan. He also invited the dictator of the Philippines to come to the White House — the one that's murdered thousands of his own people. He loves those guys and he keeps calling them strong. That's very worrying to anyone who is an artist, a satirist or a journalist … When I see a president getting as close to authoritarianism as Trump is, as a satirist I have to say something. I cannot sit back and not ridicule it. As long as it's legal I will keep doing that.

Q: When the last presidential race began did you think Trump had a chance?

A: I started "Trump's America" in the fall of 2015, so yes, I believed he would go places. There wasn't even a primary election held at that point. It was a big gamble. I sent the book to my agent, he sent it to all the publishers and nobody would touch it. They said people are going to forget about Trump by the summer. It'll be a memory. So we self-published it, and it did really well. Then the election happened and he won and Simon & Schuster published the book.

Q: Who did you want to be president?

A: I was a Bernie guy. He's a guy who barely has $200,000 in his retirement account and was talking the same talk (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) was and that was very exciting to me. FDR turned our country around after The Great Depression. He was just beloved by everybody of every political stripe. The political divide in America has nothing to do with left vs. right. I just don't buy that. I think that's a facade. The real political struggle in America is between the corporate elites and the regular people and right now pretty much all of our politicians represent the corporate elite. They're all in their pockets.

Q: Were you ever tempted to write a book about President Obama?

A: I was never moved to. But The Onion made a lot of fun of Obama through the years and I was at The Onion for much of that time. I am not an Obama fan. I think he was an elitist and an establishment tool of corporations essentially.

Q: What shaped your sarcasm and sense of humor?

A: I was an early reader of Mad Magazine and I really loved how they could just make fun of anything. Nothing was sacred to them. But I always thought in the back of my mind that I could do better than that. Mad was funny, but I never laughed out loud and I wanted it to be better. Typically, what inspires me is when I see humor that's not done well. That really lights a fire under me.

Q: Did you watch HBO's 1980s news sketch comedy show "Not Necessarily The News"?

A: Yes. Alan Zweibel made that show. He was a Saturday Night Live writer. There was that, and there was "Weekend Update," but those were news comedy. They weren't satire using the fake news format. That was definitely something The Onion pioneered. It looks real, but it's fake, and if you don't get that it's fake, you're the one who gets punked. "The Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" followed suit and were actually doing satire in the form of fake news. (Most of) the people who produced and wrote those shows came from The Onion. It's definitely a direct evolution from one to the other.

Q: Have you noticed any negative side effects of pioneering the real fake news?

A: What I'm worried about is being credited for the development of fake news propaganda. That, unfortunately, is there somewhat as a result of the existence of The Onion, but it's not The Onion's fault. There was this whole generation of people who grew up thinking that satire and fake news were the same thing, but of course they're completely different. I think the term "fake news," in the wider public parlance, equates the two as well.

Q: What are your preferred news sources?

A: I like Democracy Now and there are certain investigative journalists I like, like Jeremy Scahill, Max Blumenthal and Glenn Greenwald. I listen to a lot of real rabid right-wing radio, a lot of progressive media, and I try to watch news from different sources. I like getting a wide picture because then it's easier to ferret out what's the closest thing to the truth.

Q: Has The Onion audience changed with the rise of the millennials?

A: In very superficial ways it has. People still like satire and humor and that has not changed at all. But they get it more through social media now, and they want to interact with it more now. So those things are different

Q: Is there a difference between the Generation X and millennial sense of humor?

A: Yes, I do feel like Gen Xers appreciate irony and misplaced focus a little more than millennials, who prefer more madcap humor and meta-humor. Rich subtext is something people like no matter what generation they're in, and that's something The Onion has going for it.

Q: What do you hope your socio-comedic legacy is?

A: I'm getting a little older so I'm starting to think about that and I realize, you know what, maybe I won't have one. Maybe I'll just make jokes and hah-ha whatever, and that's fine. We all have to do what we were born to do and come what may … I've done some things I'm especially proud of, like The Onion's first book, "Our Dumb Century." You do enough of this work for enough time and you're bound to do something you're proud of.

Q: Are you OK letting The Onion go and leaving it in the hands of your successors?

A: Yeah. I've totally let it go. I liken it to having a child. At first you give it all this tender loving care, but by the time it's 30 years old, you better be hands-off or you're doing a terrible job.

Scott Dikkers, co-founder of The Onion

When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Wendy Williamson Auditorium at UAA, 2533 Providence Drive

Tickets: Free for UAA students with valid ID (plus one guest), $5 for UAA faculty/staff, and $10 for the general public. Purchase at UAATix.com and the Student Union information desk.