If one can get past basic vegetable stereotypes -- think the Outback Steakhouse and fried rings -- there's a valuable metaphor to be gained from "The Onion." Think about it. Peel back the layers of sarcasm and irony to find that succulent bit of truth underneath. Devour the truth, only to realize that it smarts, bringing tears to your eyes almost instantly. Tears of laughter they might be ... and jaded tears at that. But there you have it. "The Onion" -- one of today's largest online satirical newsmagazines -- fulfills its own metaphor quite aptly. And with its recent book release, "The Onion" unpeels all over again.
Released this past December, "The Tenacity of the Cockroach: Conversations with Entertainment's Most Enduring Outsiders" is a collection of interviews done through "The Onion's" A.V. Club. Only, of course, these aren't Hollywood interviews with Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts. The whole point is different: to capture the voices of outsiders, of little known members of the entertainment industry. To unpeel, so to speak, the lives of those actors, musicians and other artists whom you never thought you wanted to know about.
And then you realize that you do want to know. The powerful statements on the industry itself are the beauty (or pungency) of "The Onion's" interviews. When you get people on the fringes, people who aren't quite sure they even want to be a part of the business, you find out more of the truth. What is Hollywood? Who's running the music industry and the record labels? And more importantly, why hasn't Bob Barker retired from "The Price is Right? "
There are answers, even if you were never entirely sure you asked the questions. And considering the barebones Q&A method of presentation the book uses, the level of sarcasm is even lower than normal. Every one of these interviews initially appeared on the newsmagazine's Web site, highlighted in the A.V. Club's entertainment section. (A.V. stands for a simple high school audio/visual club.) Now, in this compiled form, the interviews come together to shed some rather striking light on the industry.
Take Gene Simmons of Kiss, for example, and his stated reason for becoming a musician. "I saw a Spanish girl jumping rope. I never saw her face, but it was still the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen. And I thought, 'Gee, this beats being a rabbi.' That was the first piece of the puzzle." Don't we all wish we could become at least quasi-famous 80s musicians off such a whim? One could read this a hundred times and still never see the connection between jump ropes, the Jewish faith and a rock band. But again, there you go. Unpeel the layers and things don't necessarily have to make sense.
Or take the interview with Conan O'Brien, who's definitely standing on the other side of fame at this point. He claims that he has yet to consider himself successful or famous, that he's still working through memories of early bad reviews. "There's this process, and it's never over. You never really feel like you've made it ... If tonight was not a good show, I'm depressed. I'm as depressed as I was seven or eight years ago when we had a bad show." Comforting to know that even Conan worries about his performance.
Some of these interviews, like Conan's above, are indeed with reputable and famous artists. Some are still working today ... others are not. And quite frankly, that makes the interviews all the more enticing.
Take Mr. T as another relevant example. Almost anyone born in the 80s remembers Mr. T as that, well, massive TV presence on "The A-Team." But little does anyone realize that Mr. T is still active today, working on literacy efforts for lower-income children. "If I couldn't read, I wouldn't have gotten the part in 'Rocky III.' So read on, young man! Read on, young lady! I'm an inspiration, because I'm a product of the ghetto. I was born and raised in the ghetto. But the ghetto wasn't born and raised in me."
Okay, so it's amusing to think of Mr. T as a film actor, with a part on "Rocky III" (creditable film though it may be). But taking him more seriously, it's important to realize what these actors are doing today, with careers fizzling but names certainly still recognizable. In one sense, this is what's real, beyond the Hollywood hype.
So the interviews keep digging, keep unpeeling and keep finding something that most newspapers wouldn't think to ask. Needless to say, "The Onion's" recent collection is a little sarcastic, a little pungent and definitely a read from which to take a big, juicy bite.
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