If THE ONION had a single most important ancestor, it was probably Paul Krassner’s THE REALIST, which also anticipated Andy Kaufman and similar folks (including Pat Paulsen, who also was doing what we can call Extreme Deadpan at least at times before Kaufman–Paulsen did his repeatedly failed “attempts” at levitation bit on a very early LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, a number of years after his presidential runs beginning in ’68)…THE REALIST first got a Lot of attention with its intentionally grotesque “The Parts Left Out of the Warren Report”…which entirely too many gullible sorts took to be true reportage.

First film where I was impressed by special effects…the original KING KONG. I am just the right age to have seen that one endlessly repeated on tv when I was a Very young child, and it was sold outright to stations to run as many times as they wanted…not quite a public domain deal, but close enough. The first recurring nightmare I remember was inspired by the movie, and the first time I learned I could consciously (or semi-consciously!) control my own nightmares to a certain extent followed on that.