About

Not The Onion is a popular expression or catchphrase for expressing the opinion that a news story is so outlandish and unbelievable that it is reminiscent of the satirical newspaper The Onion.

Origin

While the satirical newspaper has been in publication since 1988, the phrase "Not the Onion" did not come into prominence until the mid-00s. On October 25th, 2008, the subreddit /r/NotTheOnion launched.^[1] This page allowed users to submit bizarre and funny news articles that look like satire but were, in fact, real. As of July 2017, the subreddit had more than 12 million subscribers.

Precursor

On August 13th, 2003, the website www.nottheonion.com was registered. While this is the first known usage of the phrase "Not the Onion," the site does not abide by the popular definition.^[2] Instead, the site is an educational portal for learning to write satire.

Spread

Since the launching of the subreddit, the phrase has become used on other sites. The earliest known usage of the phrase as a hashtag on Twitter occured on February 17th, 2009.^[6] Twitter user @Shebanator commented (shown below), "RT @monkchips: Saudi Oil Minister Warns Against Hasty Transition to Renewable Energy – http://tinyurl.com/bryq65 ha! #NotTheOnion."

One post on the Democratic Underground (shown below) made on October 4th, 2010 sees user lame54 use the phrase to describe the unusual circumstances of a story. They titled the thread, "I Swear – This Is NOT The Onion."

On March 6th, 2012, the website theon1on.com launched, which archives and shares funny and bizarre news articles.^[3]

The following year, Not the Onion appeared on Twitter,^[4] when the account @ItsNotTheOnion joined on February 8th, 2013. The account, as of July 2017, has more than 1,000 followers. Two years later, on November 10th, 2015 a Facebook account called OnionFlavouredNews^[5] launched. As of July 2017, the page has more than 1,000 likes and 1,000 followers.

Search Interest

External References