Onion comic speaks at festival
By KEVIN ALLEN
News Writer
Throughout the 36 years of the annual Sophomore Literary Festival, a distinguished list of satirists has graced Notre Dame with their wit and anecdotes. Monday night another popular and widely-read satirist joined writers like Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut on that list. But unlike timeless names like Heller and Vonnegut, the latest addition to that list is better-known by his pseudonyms.
"The Legendary" Joe Garden, writer and editor for the immensely popular weekly spoof newspaper The Onion, took the stage at Washington Hall last night and entertained an enthusiastic crowd of approximately 150 for over an hour. "I feel very privileged to be speaking here in Indiana. Indiana is the only state in the Union to stand strong against the tyranny of daylight savings," joked Garden in his opening remarks. Garden evoked a steady stream of laughter from the receptive crowd for his 80 minutes on stage.
With thinning hair that appeared to defy gravity, the tall, energetic Garden, creator of columns written under the guises of Jim "The Cruise" Anchower and Jackie Harvey, appeared as the quintessential stereotype of a quirky comic writer.
Garden appeared as comfortable on stage as he presumably is writing at a computer. Dressed casually and sporting a Heileman's Old Style Beer T-shirt to pay homage to his home state, Wisconsin, Garden interacted comfortably and informally with the audience of devoted Onion fans. He consistently inspired crowd participation, the most memorable instance being at the end of the lecture when he recited a hilarious rendition of Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back."
Garden demonstrated that "journalism" does not have to be serious to get a point across and that laughter is as important as ever in today's particularly serious world of news.
To describe The Onion, Garden said, "We're sort of like USA Today with fart jokes."
"We target mostly They Might Be Giants fans, Dungeons and Dragons players, former and current, and people who dress like the Knights Who Say `Ni' on Halloween," said Garden sarcastically. "Basically anyone who's under 45 and smart." Amid the laughter, Garden also covered several serious and informative topics. He explained the process of production and brainstorming at The Onion and illustrated the zany, yet relaxed atmosphere of The Onion office, where goofing around, frantic deadlines and Garden's tendency to be naked are nothing out of the ordinary.
Garden also discussed the art of walking the fine line between satire and offense, with specific reference to The Onion's tastefully comical coverage of the events of September 11. But Garden clarified that the main reason for not running a story is almost always because it is not funny, not because it is offensive.
While Garden was a student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where The Onion was founded in 1988, several free weekly magazines and newspapers competed for his attention. Garden says The Onion — even in its primitive stages — always entertained him.
"[The Onion] was really not that good when it started out," he admitted, even though he said he was a fan of the publication from the very beginning.
Garden, who lists Steve Martin, Monty Python and The Simpsons among his strongest influences, was working at a liquor store in Madison when he first drew the attention of then Onion editor Dan Vebber. One of Garden's duties at the store was to make signs, which he used as a medium to deliver some of his own jokes. "I started out making signs with big prices and little jokes on them. Then I started making signs with little prices and big jokes on them," recalled Garden.
After seeing the signs, Vebber asked Garden to submit some story ideas.
A considerable portion of Garden's lecture was spent fielding questions from the audience, and he attended a reception and book-signing in the basement of Zahm Hall after his lecture.
All News Stories for Tuesday, February 11, 2003
