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MATTHEW LYNCH, EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Here’s a data point in need of a satirical newspaper headline: It’s 2025 and The Onion is thriving. The outlet, which went through some lean years as the sharp edge of reality kind of outpaced comedy in general for a minute there, found new owners last year and a renewed purpose amid the second Trump administration. In an exclusive interview with Ben Collins, the former NBC News reporter who bought the publication with Twilio founder Jeff Lawson, VF’s Chris Murphy learns the secrets to a media stewardship so successful thus far that The Onion’s back in print. (Maybe leave the kids at home for this one; the guy is like the Andrew Dice Clay of media CEOs.) Elsewhere: Molly Jong-Fast writes, with a dreadfully earned authority, on the topic of cancer, something virtually every American family—including her own and, now, the Bidens—comes to navigate at one point or another; and Brynn Shiovitz revisits the #MeToo case against director James Toback and her own role in it. The Onion’s Funny Business BY CHRIS MURPHY What’s the biggest difference between Elon Musk and the CEO of The Onion? “I know I’m not funny—and he has no idea,” says Ben Collins. In the 12 months since The Onion’s purchase last year, it has reached new comic heights—see: viral headlines like “Nation Can’t Believe It on Harvard’s Side”—while increasing its cultural footprint. Collins sits down for a long, fascinating talk on many topics, including the publication’s attempt to purchase Infowars and how he turned The Onion around. As Collins tells VF’s Chris Murphy, “There’s nothing fascists hate more than getting truly ripped on.”

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