Our Dumb Century
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Our Dumb Century is a satirical humor book written by the staff of The Onion and published by Three Rivers Press in 1999. The chief editor was Robert Siegel (not the radio journalist of the same name), with specific sections edited by Maria Schneider, John Krewson and Siegel.
The book, spun off from The Onion's weekly-newspaper format of dryly satirizing current events, features mocked-up newspaper front pages from the entire 20th century, presented as though The Onion had been continuously in print since before 1900.
Twentieth century events satirized in the book include the sinking of the Titanic, heralded with the banner headline "WORLD'S LARGEST METAPHOR HITS ICEBERG;" the start of World War II, announced on the page with a massive "WA-" and the announcement "Headline continued on page 2;" and the Apollo 11 Moon landing, given the incredulous headline "HOLY SHIT- MAN WALKS ON FUCKING MOON." Smaller stories in the book satirize social and pop-cultural trends of their respective eras.
Since the book was written before the year 2000, its prediction for that year satirized Y2K and religious prophecies, including "Christian Right Ascends to Heaven," "All Corporations Merged Into OmniCorp," and a small graphic listing meteors headed for Earth by size.
The book became a number one New York Times best-seller shortly after its publication, appropriately on April 1, 1999.
An audio version of the book was produced, presented as excerpts from The Onion Radio News throughout the same time period and covering many of the same subjects.