Anderson’s Bookshop Presents Christine Wenc

Join Anderson’s Bookshop for an author event with Christine Wenc, to celebrate the release of her newest book, Funny Because It’s True: How the Onion Created Modern American News Satire, on Thursday, April 10th at 6:00 pm in our Downers Grove store.

Event Format

We will begin checking you in approximately 30 minutes before the start time. After a presentation and Q&A with the author, the line will form in numbered order with the following guidelines:

• Posed photo with your camera taken by our staff
• There is a limit of 2 books from home to be signed (unless otherwise stated)
• There is a limit of 1 personalization of the new book only (unless otherwise stated)

All events have open seating. The “Order Line Number” on your pdf ticket is your reserved place in the signing line. You will line up to meet the author based on that number.

If you cannot attend, you must pick up your book (if included with ticket) at the hosting store within 30 days of the event.  We can ship that book to you for an additional charge of $9.99; please call the store to arrange that.

Pre-registration is required for this event because space is limited.

More about Funny Because It’s True:  

Discover the real truth behind the original fake news with this in-depth history of beloved humor publication, The Onion.

In 1988, a band of University of Wisconsin–Madison undergrads and dropouts began publishing a free weekly newspaper with no editorial stance other than “You Are Dumb.” Just wanting to make a few bucks, they wound up becoming the bedrock of modern satire over the course of twenty years, changing the way we consume both our comedy and our news. The Onion served as a hilarious and brutally perceptive satire of the absurdity and horrors of late twentieth-century American life and grew into a global phenomenon. Now, for the first time, the full history of the publication is told by one of its original staffers, author and historian Christine Wenc. Through dozens of interviews, Wenc charts The Onion’s rise, its position as one of the first online humor sites, and the way it influenced television programs like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Funny Because It’s True reveals how a group of young misfits from flyover country unintentionally created a cultural phenomenon.

About the Author:

Christine Wenc was a member of The Onion’s original staff from 1988 to 1990 as a UW–Madison undergrad. She has played central roles in highly regarded public history projects for Harvard University Libraries, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the National Library of Medicine, and has received writing grants from the Awesome Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is also trained in midwestern prairie ecosystem restoration and likes to spend time helping to revitalize one of the rarest, most diverse, most beautiful, and most ecologically beneficial landscapes on the planet. She grew up in rural Spring Green, Wisconsin.