The DAF x The Onion workshop is a 2-day event when students come together to learn how to write satire, specifically headlines, features, and brief news articles for The Onion. We also provide networking events including panels on relevant comedy topics, tips on comedy career development, and other social events to meet other members of the DAF and Onion communities.

The DAF x The Onion workshop is for individuals who belong to groups that have historically been excluded from participation in mainstream comedy, such as BIPOC, women/femme, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, people with a disability, and/or people of ages 45+.

Lectures and feedback sessions are led by staff writers and editors at The Onion.

The Onion is a digital media company that satirizes local, American, and global news by parodying the tone and format of a real news outlet, such as Associated Press or The New York Times, often using a deadpan, AP-style writing voice. The website publishes satirical news in the form of headlines, brief articles, cartoons, and other special features. Its humor often lies in presenting absurd, surreal, or mundane events with the gravitas of serious journalism.

DAF is a unique entity that collaborates with The Onion.

The Onion highlights the absurdities of our real world, critiques the media industry, and makes commentary on politics, sports, entertainment, science, everyday observations, love, dating, family, education, society, trends–basically everything. Content ranges from evergreen news (stories that could be published at any time) to timely (stories based in a specific media cycle).

First things first, we suggest reading the website–not just to laugh and have a good time, but to also study what is happening when you read a headline for The Onion. Ask yourself how it looks different from headlines in other satire and humor websites.

A good Onion headline mimics language used by real news outlets along with a punchline, capitalizes every letter, and uses as few words as possible. Imagine the headline on a physical newspaper (which has limited space) and look at words you might be able to cut/condense while still expressing your headline’s joke.

Oftentimes a bad Onion headline can be too outlandish, sounds more like clickbait or “meme language” than mainstream media news, tries to be “fake news” instead of making a point or observation, punches down, and/or is low-hanging fruit/cliché/overdone.

Overall, please make sure you submit a variety of headlines (a mix of local news, politics, sports, entertainment, product/brand announcements, BREAKING, Study, Report, etc.). Do not submit headlines The Onion has already published verbatim. 

If you have previously applied for employment at The Onion (fellowship, staff writer, etc.) or to a previous DAF x The Onion workshop, we recommend submitting brand new headlines to reduce the possibility of reviewers seeing a headline they’ve already seen and passed on.

Reviewers look for applicants who are interested in writing satire for The Onion and will offer new jokes and contribute fresh perspectives to the existing publication. Applicants do not have to have previous experience performing comedy or writing satire. Strong applicants are also skilled at describing how their background, identity, upbringing, etc. are outside or actively excluded from what is often discussed in mainstream or historical comedy.

Ultimately we want to see people who engage themselves with the content and style of The Onion and show an earnest attempt at adhering to their style when writing headlines.

The DAF x The Onion  workshop takes place in Chicago, IL (exact location disclosed upon acceptance) over the course of the weekend (in-person). At the same time, we create virtual classrooms at these events so our remote participants can watch lectures and panel events from wherever they are. The virtual folks are all together for the feedback sessions.

Before the pandemic, the DAF x The Onion workshops were entirely in-person then entirely virtual during the lockdown years. After we discovered the type of participation this granted to many writers, once strict restrictions were loosened, we’ve been aiming to maintain a hybridized version of the workshop (to the best of our ability).

There are more spaces available in-person than there are for the virtual section. Because it changes year to year, we cannot predict the competitiveness of either classroom environment, but if you can participate in-person then we recommend applying for the DAF x The Onion workshop as an in-person student.

We prioritize these limited spaces for individuals who disclose a status that impacts their ability to travel or general mobility, such as, but not limited to: living with a disability, caretaking status, or financial status.

Participating in a DAF x The Onion workshop does not guarantee any level of employment with The Onion. That opportunity is decided by The Onion, not DAF.

Both applying to and participating in the DAF x The Onion workshop are free. Participants are responsible for their own costs if travel and lodging are required.

Unfortunately we are not an organization with funds to offer support at this time, but we hope to some day!

Rich philanthropists and top one-percenters—please! Our DMs are open!!

You may apply again, particularly if you participated in the earlier years of the DAF x The Onion workshop or participated during the lockdown years of the pandemic, but note that we prioritize applicants who have never completed a DAF x The Onion workshop before.

It is something we consider, but it’s one of many factors that impact the assessment of an individual application. It’s not make-or-break.

We love to hear it! Email us at daffestnyc at gmail dot com. 

Official communications exclusively come from the email above. Any entity or individual claiming to represent DAF or any collaborative event is not credible within DAF.

Right now we are focusing our efforts on programming and scaling the DAF x The Onion writing workshops, as well as networking events for alumni of the DAF x The Onion workshop. Historically we have also produced the DAF Comedy Festival and Career Day events (which may return–stay tuned). Any event outside of this scope or entity communicating announcements outside the daffestnyc email is not affiliated with or supported by DAF.

At the moment, we are happy that we can share DAF x The Onion workshops in Chicago in late April and early October.

After clicking submit, a message will appear that we have received your submission. We cannot guarantee that an email will appear in your inbox.

The review process takes a minimum of 4 weeks in order to keep the review holistic and anonymous. For example, we are aiming to notify spring DAF x The Onion applicants in early March.

Yes! In October 2026.

It gets increasingly competitive every year. In Fall 2025, we accepted 1 person for every 8 applicants. Just know that we don’t want this to be a competitive environment and we genuinely endeavor in several ways to host as many interested people as possible.

We recommend that you apply to a future DAF x The Onion, since participation is required both days.