The Onion is one of the most consistently funny publications I’ve ever come across. This is a very special episode with a man who’s spent his career making others laugh.  This is a show full of twists and turns, and it reveals that sometimes comedy is a product of real life drama.

 

Mike and Scott Discuss:

 

14:23 Memorable Onion Headlines

17:40 Trumps America and Role of the President

22:59 What to joke about

31:51 Comedy Chops

39:49 Realization of being unemployable

44:47 Naming The Onion

46:29 Crossing a line with a joke

50:54 Writing funny

61:25 Fulfillment, Joy, Satisfaction and a Doomer?

66:51 Dark Side of funny people

72:18 What’s next

 

Scott Dikkers, the famous American comedy writer, entrepreneur, and speaker, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on March 1, 1965. He has authored and coauthored many bestselling humor books, the majority of which still enjoy significant popularity all across the globe. Dikkers, however, first came to prominence as the artist and creator of the comic strip titled Jim’s Journal.

The world started talking about Dikkers’ talent and uniqueness when he founded the planet’s first humor website TheOnion.com. The introduction of this site changed the world of comedy significantly.

Dikkers has also showcased his creativity and amazing sense of humor through a number of films. Spaceman, which was released in 1997, was his first feature film. It was a science fiction film boasting a serious touch of rich comedy. He went on to direct Emmy and Golden Globe-winning comedian Chevy Chase in his 2003 movie Bad Meat.

It’s impossible to describe Dikkers’ achievements, and legacy is brief. It’s probably because the man managed to reach the top at a very young age and has succeeded in remaining there for almost three decades.

Dikkers and Jim’s Journal

 

Dikkers’ first prominent creation Jim’s Journal appeared in The Daily Cardinal, a newspaper published to serve students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for the first time way back in 1988. Since then the guy has never looked back.

Dikkers created Jim’s Journal with the aim of parodying the customary four-panel comic strips. The strip was character-driven and included a central character that didn’t have any distinct personality. There used to be no observational humor, and the strips didn’t even provide any insight. They used to end without any gag, and some of them didn’t even have a conclusion. In words of Dikkers, they were “anti-humor” strips. He used to say that the content of those strips created humor by making fun of other humor.

Jim was the protagonist of the comic strip. The strip, however, didn’t feature experienced processed by him. Jim used to record all his experiences as he moved passively in his world. It’s true that the author of Jim’s Journal chose not to provide any context, but every single individual who has the experience of living in a shabby apartment building, doing a minimum wage job, or has been to college, will not find it difficult to come up with a suitable context.

The comic strip shows Jim muddling through school and several blind-alley jobs along with some of his friends. All of them have vague dreams of being part of the space project or the entertainment industry, but none of them ever tries to turn their dreams into reality. Also, these people share another amazing thought. For them, life is never meaningless or absurd; the only word that can describe life, according to these people, is “funny”. Jim says that it’s okay if someone just exists and places an order for a pizza now and then.

This weird, but amazing comic strip appeared in the university’s newspaper till 1997, after which it was discontinued for unknown reasons. After a hiatus of 14 years,