Scott Dikkers, a founding editor of the satirical magazine The Onion, will speak in Duke University's Page Auditorium on Monday, Sept. 21.The event starts at 4:30 p.m. and is open to the general public. Tickets, which are available at the Page Auditorium box office, are free but limited to two per person. The Onion is one of the country’s best-known satirical publications, featuring contrived news headlines such as this recent one: “Quantum Political Scientists Hypothesize Country Headed In Both Right and Wrong Directions Simultaneously.”Dikkers helped launch the print version of The Onion before founding the humor website TheOnion.com in 1996. He has served as The Onion’s owner and editor-in-chief, on and off, for much of the last quarter century. Dikkers co-wrote and edited the best-selling book, “Our Dumb Century,” a look at recent history through the front pages of The Onion. He also co-wrote and edited “Our Dumb World,” a world atlas parody. In the mid-2000s, he served as director and executive producer for “The Onion News Network" Web series. The online shorts won a Peabody Award in 2008 and the series gave rise to a television series on the IFC channel.Dikkers also hosts a weekly podcast, “The Comedy Insider,” a discussion with comedy-industry professionals about their comedy journeys, philosophies and processes.Dikkers’ appearance is sponsored by the Duke Program in American Values and Institutions and co-sponsored by Polis: the Center for Politics, Leadership, Innovation, and Service; Duke Political Science; the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy; the Center for European Studies; Duke Political Union; Duke College Republicans and Duke Democrats.
