All the News That's Fit to Invent: The Onion Hits 20

When a wisecracking newspaper was born in a Wisconsin dorm room in 1988, no one predicted it would one day be installed in sleek Manhattan offices, producing fake print and television news, and rolling in dough. But the Onion's president isn’t surprised, CBS reports. The paper “attracts this really great audience. And advertisers really wanna reach these people."

The Onion last year launched video podcasts that topped iTunes' most-downloaded list, and its global reach makes for amusing gaffes. “The Beijing Times ran one of our stories verbatim," says an editor. When told the story was a hoax, it responded, "What kind of paper prints falsities?" A successful one, apparently. (More The Onion stories.)