Our Long National Nightmare
August 12, 2011 5:43 AM

Satirical news articles which become true?

I know a few from the Onion: "Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity is Over", which predicted the Iraq War and recession and stuff, and "Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades", which is realized in the five-bladed Gillette Fusion. Is there anything else to speak of?
posted by curuinor to Media & Arts (16 answers total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
There was an article in the brilliant post 9/11 issue, "Woman Bakes American Flag Cake", about a woman who dealt with her own 9/11-related emotional fallout by baking a cake. A few months later I was at the grocery store and they were playing the Delilah show over the PA system, and a woman called in to say that she made an American flag afghan after 9/11 to make herself feel better.

I nearly fell into my grocery cart laughing.
posted by orange swan at 5:49 AM on August 12, 2011




There's a Dan Ackroyd sketch/commercial on an early SNL regarding multiple blades that predates The Onion bit.
posted by vitabellosi at 6:02 AM on August 12, 2011


And before that I believe it was in Mad magazine.
posted by zombieflanders at 6:07 AM on August 12, 2011


Kind of like the 5-blade razor...

The Onion: "Bounty Officials Approve Third Ply"

MSNBC.com: "Toilet-paper researchers create 3-ply tissue"
posted by BobbyVan at 6:30 AM on August 12, 2011




How about Fred Tuttle's goings-on in Vermont?

Your question may be related to the idea of ostension, although with ostension the stories don't have to be funny, and there is a connection between the story's being out there and its coming true.
posted by alphanerd at 6:46 AM on August 12, 2011


Not quite a prediction, but when The Onion put up a paywall for non-U.S. readers recently, many people complained, and many linked to the article NYTimes.com's Plan To Charge People Money For Consuming Goods, Services Called Bold Business Move.
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:57 AM on August 12, 2011


The film satire Network was eerily spot-on.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 7:27 AM on August 12, 2011


Office Space?
Idiocracy?
posted by Thorzdad at 8:56 AM on August 12, 2011


Some thoughts on your premise are in this article.

I remember jokes about airlines charging you to use the restrooms before Ryanair announced that they would.

My favorite example is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the encyclopedia in the novel by the same name, not the novel itself), which Wikipedia and a smart phone do a pretty good job of approximating.
posted by cjemmott at 9:52 AM on August 12, 2011


Not a satirical news article, but I thought of your question listening to NPR just now. There is a theory that the reason why French bank stocks took a bath this week is that people are having difficulty telling truth from fiction.
posted by thebrokedown at 2:40 PM on August 12, 2011


In September 1986 the Harvard Lampoon parody of USA Today had the headline "Royal Di-vorce stuns U.K."
posted by DanSachs at 8:50 PM on August 12, 2011


I remember reading Bush Or Gore: 'A New Era Dawns' in the Onion right before the presidential election in 2000 (maybe early on election night?), because I was floored when the results *actually dragged on for months*.

... but their website says it belongs to the issue dated the day after election day, so either they posted it early, or my memory is horribly, horribly flawed.
posted by metalsexkitten at 11:39 PM on August 12, 2011


Brasseye (1997) predicted the future of the news more accurately than any serious forecaster. See:

Crime (1, 2, 3)

Drugs 1, 2, 3

Sex
posted by MuffinMan at 2:03 AM on August 13, 2011




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