On June 9, 2004, The Onion published online-only content after Ronald Reagan's death. Plus, John Kerry, a rowdy raccoon, The Simpsons," Jim Anchower and more.
Odd that the Friend-ranking story made no mention of Myspace, which had users explicitly rank their friends. Maybe 2004 was slightly before when that was common? I'd guess that that the 2024 version of this article would be about the reshuffling of group chats.
I'd compare the Simpsons suicide article to the 2003's "Family Unsure What To Do With Dead Hipster's Possessions" although I didn't think about how casual the suicide reference is. As you point out, they still joke about suicide pretty regularly 20 years later. I don't think that there's any single cultural touchstone that could take the place in a modern version of the story. Maybe I'm biased, but even today's most popular shows haven't permeated the culture as much - when I saw you mention Rush Limbaugh, I immediately thought of "Only turkeys have left wings". At best, it'd be the general concept of "memes" like Homer receding into the bushes or Don Draper insulting someone on an elevator.
Good point about how changing mediums would change how the Onion works! Maybe soon you'll start seeing SEO stuff or listicles that get more clicks I wonder when they got a twitter account and if that led to more focus on headlines.
Love this comment, Robert, as late as I am replying! I also think of MySpace as being the big network in this era, but it only launched in August 2003, so I think it was still under the radar. Maybe it was more like Letterboxd or Behance, where there are users but most of us never think about it?
And yeah, I agree that the cultural touchstones are gone. 20 years ago, random TV shows ("Cold Case," for instance) got more viewers than every non-NFL show today. There's also not the conversation around shows, I think, with so many streaming programs getting released en masse. Even with a CBS procedural, you could imagine (older) co-workers today being like, "Hey, did you see it last night?" in a way that's harder when it's like, "Oh yeah, I finally caught up on Ted Lasso."
Odd that the Friend-ranking story made no mention of Myspace, which had users explicitly rank their friends. Maybe 2004 was slightly before when that was common? I'd guess that that the 2024 version of this article would be about the reshuffling of group chats.
I'd compare the Simpsons suicide article to the 2003's "Family Unsure What To Do With Dead Hipster's Possessions" although I didn't think about how casual the suicide reference is. As you point out, they still joke about suicide pretty regularly 20 years later. I don't think that there's any single cultural touchstone that could take the place in a modern version of the story. Maybe I'm biased, but even today's most popular shows haven't permeated the culture as much - when I saw you mention Rush Limbaugh, I immediately thought of "Only turkeys have left wings". At best, it'd be the general concept of "memes" like Homer receding into the bushes or Don Draper insulting someone on an elevator.
Good point about how changing mediums would change how the Onion works! Maybe soon you'll start seeing SEO stuff or listicles that get more clicks I wonder when they got a twitter account and if that led to more focus on headlines.
Love this comment, Robert, as late as I am replying! I also think of MySpace as being the big network in this era, but it only launched in August 2003, so I think it was still under the radar. Maybe it was more like Letterboxd or Behance, where there are users but most of us never think about it?
And yeah, I agree that the cultural touchstones are gone. 20 years ago, random TV shows ("Cold Case," for instance) got more viewers than every non-NFL show today. There's also not the conversation around shows, I think, with so many streaming programs getting released en masse. Even with a CBS procedural, you could imagine (older) co-workers today being like, "Hey, did you see it last night?" in a way that's harder when it's like, "Oh yeah, I finally caught up on Ted Lasso."