August 27, 2002

11:43 AM

SatireWire is closing up shop.Andrew Marlatt, the multi-trick pony behind the site, is citing "creative differences" with himself and is opting to walk away from one of the better-known bastions of Web humor, as well as one of those rare free content sites that, according to Marlatt, is profitable:

The site actually makes money — through advertising, through the book "Economy of Errors," and (primarily) through selling pieces from the site to publications like, say, the Washington Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, or the National Post in Canada. Nice little setup, actually. I've been very lucky. But the bottom line is, it has ceased to be fun. My heart is not in it. My head is not in it.

But just because Marlatt has chosen a different route to the dead pool that those sites that gave up the ghost because they were broke doesn't make this story much more discussion-worthy than any other croaked dotcom. In proper obit style, let's instead remember the great stuff we got from the site; if you've never been, you'll find all sorts of treasures.
posted by blueshammer (15 comments total)

One of the funniest stories I've read online.
posted by jsonic at 11:45 AM on August 27, 2002

Cubists Launch Unnavigable Website.

"The site — digital graphics, text, and HTML on browser — has fared no better with art critics, who immediately accused the cubists of stealing the absurd navigation and layout from MSNBC.com."
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 11:56 AM on August 27, 2002

I really liked the Axis of Just as Evil bit.

While wondering if the other nations of the world weren't perhaps making fun of him, a cautious Bush granted approval for most axes, although he rejected the establishment of the Axis of Countries Whose Names End in "Guay," accusing one of its members of filing a false application. Officials from Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chadguay denied the charges.
posted by yhbc at 12:08 PM on August 27, 2002

Oh man, that's a great one jsonic. I had to hold on to the monitor to stop it shaking from my stifled laughter.

I never really paid much attention to SatireWire, because I was bored with all these sites that popped up after The Onion made it big. I made the mistake of painting them all with the same brush, because SatireWire stands (stood..) out as one of the genuinely funny ones.

For some reason, I'll always link SatireWire with this. "Like, for war?"
posted by SiW at 12:10 PM on August 27, 2002

That 'Axis of Evil' article has to be my favorite, but this comes in a close second.

Australia Gets Drunk, Wakes Up In North Atlantic.

"Australia bumped into us at about midnight local time," said Hawaii governor Ben Cayetano. "They were very friendly — they always seem friendly — but they refused to go around unless we answered their questions. But the questions were impossible. 'Who is Ian Thorpe? Do you have any Tim Tams? What day is Australia Day?'"

A sad day indeed.
posted by snarkywench at 12:13 PM on August 27, 2002

What is I really like is that most of the articles are just long enough. Bam! There's the joke, on to the next one...
posted by MJoachim at 12:21 PM on August 27, 2002

I always liked this one.
posted by toothless joe at 12:22 PM on August 27, 2002

I mean no offense to Mr. Marlatt or his fans, but I'm sorry, I never really found SatireWire very funny. It always seemed to me like a very very very watered down version of the Onion or Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update. Some of the articles were clever, but never really that funny. Does anyone here agree with me?

And really, how much satire can we stand in our daily lives without becoming numbed to it? (Although I do enjoy the baseball satire site The Spitter:

posted by trigfunctions at 12:36 PM on August 27, 2002

I'll miss SW terribly, but hold out hope for books. He's brave to walk away from a popular site, and he's doing it for the right reasons. Good on 'im.
posted by frykitty at 12:51 PM on August 27, 2002

sohcahtoa: I would say that, for health reasons, the recommended daily allowance of satire is equal to that of spin to which you are exposed.
posted by blueshammer at 12:59 PM on August 27, 2002

Another great Onion-rip of is the University of Michigan's Every Three Weekly (hey, the Onion itself started as the humor magazine of U Wisconsin-Madison). Best part is, it's run by college students who aren't getting paid, so you know their doing it for the love of entertaining their audience.

(I have zero affiliation with either the Every Three Weekly or Michigan).
posted by gsteff at 2:13 PM on August 27, 2002

Hail and farewell. SatireWire gave me coffee-through-nose syndrome more than any other humor site -- maybe more than all other such sites combined.
posted by jfuller at 3:14 PM on August 27, 2002

This one made me rupture an organ.
posted by Lame_Dave at 3:27 PM on August 27, 2002

The problem with micro content. How many blogs end this way, "it wasn't fun so I moved on". Kind of sad.
posted by Coop at 5:51 PM on August 27, 2002

My favourite
posted by emf at 8:06 PM on August 27, 2002