The Hard Times

[Jerkatorium]

Forgive me if everybody already knows about this, but if you aren’t already familiar with it, “The Hard Times” is a parody news site that is geared exactly towards me (and I suspect it’s geared towards many other SongFighters too). The content is a lot like The Onion, except the focus is mostly punk/alt/skateboard. More specifically, the focus leans towards middle-aged ex-punk/alt/skateboarders.

I found the site several months ago. While poking around online for more Jeff Rosenstock content, this headline popped up: “Has Jeff Rosenstock Sold Out Now That He Found a Ten Dollar Bill on the Ground?” Hilarious. Perfect.

In general The Hard Line headlines are a little hit-or-miss (much like The Onion), but it’s reliable for some good guffaws every week, with headlines like:

“Wife Installs Breathalyzer Lock on Husband’s Acoustic Guitar”

“Punk Venue Requires Proof of Vaccination and You to Name 10 Real Punk Bands”

“New Sid Vicious Signature Bass Doesn’t Come With Output Jack”

“Daylight Saving Time Causes Punk Show To Accidentally Start on Time”


Anyway, I recommend it. I get more laughs from The Hard Line than I do from The Onion these days.

https://thehardtimes.net




Side note: If any of you are following news items about that increasingly self-radicalizing troll Elon Musk, you might have heard about a recent quasi-controversy when Musk removed the attribution of a parody article/meme before tweeting it. The article he stole was from The Hard Drive, which is a sister publication to (and a direct spinoff from) The Hard Times. The Hard Drive is supposedly mostly for parody articles about video/computer games, but they often branch out to general geek-related and geek-adjacent topics. It's pretty humorous, occasionally hilarious, and if you’re a gamer then you’ll probably enjoy it even more than I do. https://hard-drive.net

[Also: There’s yet another spinoff called Hard Money at https://hard-money.net, but it doesn't appeal to me much.]