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50 Ridiculous Real-Life Stories People Could Have Sworn Were Fake, As Shared By “Sadly, This Is Not The Onion” Community
Interview
We are head over heels in love with satire. It’s entertaining. It’s good social commentary. And it’s something we don’t feel guilty about forwarding to all of our friends in the middle of the day. Satirical news, in particular, holds a very special place in our hearts because it helps us discuss important topics by considering wildly different perspectives. Here’s the thing, though: not everything that glitters is gold, and not everything that reads like satire is actually satire.
The wildly popular ‘Not The Onion’ subreddit documents some of the most “mind-blowingly ridiculous” headlines for actually true stories that wouldn’t feel out of place on the landing page of the satirical news site ‘The Onion.’ Sure, some of these might sound unbelievable at first glance, but we promise you, they’re legit. In many cases, that’s very unfortunate for humanity and our faith in it. Other headlines, however, show just how downright weird life on Planet Earth can get.
Scroll down and feast your eyes on the most impressively bizarre news headlines. Upvote the ones that surprised you the most, and let us know what you thought of them in the comments, Pandas.
Again, just to reiterate: the headlines are totally real. So be sure to share ‘em with your friends—we’re pretty sure they need a break from school and work. Oh, and if you'd like to real the original articles in full, we've added links to them underneath each pic.
Bored Panda got in touch with one of the moderators helping run r/nottheonion, redditor u/IndigoSoln, for a chat about the news. We also reached out to Lisa McLendon, the William Allen White Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications and the Coordinator of the Bremner Editing Center at the University of Kansas to get her opinion about clickbait headlines and what lies at the core of good journalism. You'll find our interviews with both the moderator and Professor McLendon below, Pandas, so be sure to read on.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Lauren Copland 4 years ago
You know that feeling when a fake friend admits to not liking you... 'Life would be very good without'
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#6
Daniel Yamada 4 years ago
How to make a police officer in the USA: Hire a dull axe and shape it into a hammer.
#9
Brooke May 4 years ago
I am a native English speaker and watch everything with subtitles. Apparently it is quite common for Autistic people to prefer it. Both of my kids prefer it also (one ASD one NT)
#10
OmBoyGanesh 4 years ago
Marijuana Pepsi Jackson (now, VanDyck)! She’s a sociologist hero of mine. Her thesis subject: “Black names in white classrooms: Teacher behaviors and student perceptions”. She’s got some amazing insight into the history of black naming conventions.
#20
#21
Don't you wish you knew 4 years ago
I have to agree. And I'm glad I got here early, so no one I don't have to see the comments of typing out the song so it's stuck in everyone's head. 🤣
#22
Lauren Copland 4 years ago
Look! Buy from us! We're good, I swear. We even spent a million on charity and then continued to post a 5.5 mil ad!
#24
Draperdorf 4 years ago
Autism is not caused by vaccinations anyway, so it's a completely moot point.
#25
Valerie Frederickson 4 years ago
What was Rich Boy’s name and did he go to Harvard or University of Spoiled Children?
#31
#33
Daniel Yamada 4 years ago
The US Space Force is starting its own officer training academy. People who attend will be called Space Cadets.
#34
#35
#37
YourSecretSanta 4 years ago
If you have not figured out by now, it seems they will do everything to try and stop school shootings except change the one thing that will stop school shootings - gun laws
#42
Lauren Copland 4 years ago
Guys, c'mon. He was having a rough day! "HE KILLED SOMEONE' YEAH BUT--
#46
Kate Jones 4 years ago
This was so crazy. There should have been an investigation into this if you ask literally anyone. If we were Bill Ackman or Warren Buffet making the moves, they wouldn't bat an eye but because it was the little guy it was suspended for 'protecting the market'. At least they got fined but it was still not enough.
#49
Paul Haynes 4 years ago
For those the don’t speak retail. Stores are given hours weekly for payroll. At GS the district manager also gets some extra hours to divide between stores as he see fit. An extra 10 hours is 2 people in the store that day. As it is though Black Friday isn’t bad at GS. They day after Christmas is hell though
#52
Jason Marin 4 years ago
Reddit and their bullsh*t "community guidelines". One of their rules when posting anything to reddit is to keep it civil yet, I've seen many rude, snarky, insensitive and hurtful remarks but Reddit does nothing about them.
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What do you think ?
Daniel Yamada 4 years ago
Try doing a Google search for this news story: “US Court OKs Barring Smart People From Becoming Cops"
Ash 4 years ago
It's an interesting article: the reason they gave for not hiring people who scored too high was that they worried that a highly intelligent person would get bored on the job and leave, thus wasting expensive training. Which I get. But also I had to leave my PhD off of my resume to get a job. It's the widespread idea that it's bad to hire someone who's "overqualified". But I needed to make a living!!
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Daniel Yamada 4 years ago
Try doing a Google search for this news story: “US Court OKs Barring Smart People From Becoming Cops"
Ash 4 years ago
It's an interesting article: the reason they gave for not hiring people who scored too high was that they worried that a highly intelligent person would get bored on the job and leave, thus wasting expensive training. Which I get. But also I had to leave my PhD off of my resume to get a job. It's the widespread idea that it's bad to hire someone who's "overqualified". But I needed to make a living!!
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