EPISODE 168 | Eating the Onions: War of the Worlds & Other Scares

In an environment of experimental fiction, metanarratives, postmodern satire, disinformation, deep fakes, and fake news, a sizeable portion of the content gobbling audience takes things that are not true as being actually true. Online, this happens with alarming regularity with articles published by satirical news site The Onion; so often, in fact, that there’s a term for this phenomenon – it’s called Eating the Onion.

The subjects of intentional disinformation, deep fakes, and fake news are one thing, but what we’re looking at here at times when something that was never intended to be taken seriously (though it used real world tropes and structures for narrative effect), were accidentally thought to be base din reality. And people quite rather lost their shit. Like the 1938 Orson Welles broadcast of The War of the Worlds. But there are other instances as well.

Review us here or on IMDb.

And seriously, subscribe, will ya? Like, just do it.

SECTIONS

1. Here Come the Martian Martians - War of the Worlds
2. Life on Mars? - Alternative 3, Special Bulletin, The War Game & The Day After
3. Happy Phantom - Ghostwatch, Without Warning
4. Two Little Men in a Flying Saucer - April Fool's gone awry
5. Part of Your World - Mermaids, dragons, megalodon
6. Music by Fanette Ronjat

Follow us on social:

• • Facebook
  • X (Twitter)