The Borowitz Report by Andy Borowitz of the New Yorker parodies real-life political news events with satire and wit. Borowitz, as a satire columnist, is in the unique position to highlight what's wrong with society by dead-panning (sometimes offensive) statements in a parodied news story format. Borowitz writes "news stories" (columns) as suggestive as they are ridiculous. His columns' titles are premises such as "Al Qaeda disbands; says job of destroying U.S. economy now in Congress's hands" and "Billionaires warn higher taxes could prevent them from buying politicians." He tends to be left-wing, poking fun at actual Republican policies but only finding tics in Obama's personality to nitpick.
The Onion is collectively a satirical publication, again providing social commentary of news events. Its whole staff is the next author I follow, since they don't publish bylines. They frequently get political as well, although I think their wit is a little weaker than that of the almost always right-on Borowitz. I get the sense that The Onion tries too hard for humor sometimes and falls flat. I have to hunt around for gems in their collection; "Depressed groundhog sees shadow of rodent he once was," the headline story on their website today, wasn't my style. An alternate theory I have for why they don't do as well as Borowitz is they diversify into other areas besides politics, straying away from the jungles of D.C., which really tend to inadvertently poke fun at themselves in moments so perfect they don't even need a satire columnist to pick them up and twist them (George Bush's "Mission Accomplished" sign being one prominent example of this frequent occurrence). Regardless, they occasionally do pull off good humor at The Onion.
Katherine Fang
Editor-in-chief
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