The Onion to compete with FOX, Jon Stewart

Building on the success of satire news shows hosted by comedians, on Monday the Independant Film Channel (IFC) announced that it was developing a TV series by The Onion.

The famous (and fake) news organization is the force behind such gems as “Nation Shudders At Large Block Of Uninterrupted Text,” “Obama to enter diplomatic talks with raging wildlife,” and “Man Accidentally Ends Business Call With “I Love You.”

Mashable blogger Samuel Axon says:

“Like Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, ONN will parody local affiliate news and at-a-desk editorial programming on 24-hour news networks. The Onion is known for a harsher and more absurd style of comedy, though, so don’t expect the new series to step on Stewart’s toes if it actually makes it on the air.”

The New York Times spoke with an ONN producer:

” ‘It just seems to us, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC are already doing such great comedy out there, without a whole lot of competition,’ said Will Graham, executive producer of Onion News Network.”

” ‘It was sort of the logical next step, in a way,’ he said. ‘What more viewers can we mind-control?’ ”

ONN will employ much of its current creative team, including Carol Kolb, The Onion’s former editor-in-chief. “We’re going to feed them a little more,” Graham told the New York Times. “Finally, we’re going to buy them computers.”

The IFC also acquired “Death Comes to Town,” a comedy created by former Kids in the Hall Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson, which will be shown as an eight-part series starting in August.

And now for the ultimate procrastinator – Onion headlines:

Dolphins Grow Opposable Thumbs; “Oh Shit” Says Humanity
Suicide Note Full of Simpsons References
Point Counterpoint: You The Man/No, You the Man
Area Man Dying To Tell Someone His Cool Password
Opinion: It’s Funny How What You’re Saying Relates to My Novel
Starbucks Begins Sinister “Phase Two” of Operation
U.S. Finishes A ‘Strong Second’ In Iraq War
Martin Luther King: “I had a Really Weird Dream Last Night”
Bush Diagnosed with Attention-to-Deficit Disorder
Microsoft Patents Ones and Zeroes
Protest Finishes One Protestor Short of Success
World death rate holding steady at 100 percent
Commas, Turning Up, Everywhere