NewsBiscuit

Newsbiscuit (I guess that translates as "news cookie" for the US audience) is the UK's answer to The Onion, spoofing the top events of the day with a distinctly English bias. The rest of the world is represented, of course, or at least the civilized bits and the USA, but it will enhance your experience enormously if you have some grasp of British politics and politicians, TV celebs and other media personalities.

It has the very cool feature of allowing anyone to contribute, offering up whole articles, one-liners and headlines which are then considered for reproduction on the front page of the main site. Or as the writers' guidelines explain,

"NewsBiscuit is founded on the traditional capitalist values of getting others to do all the work and then not paying them for it."

Founded by comedy scriptwriter and author John O'Farrell, who wrote for such British institutions as Spitting Image and Have I Got News For You along with colleague Mark Burton, another contributor here, the site is now largely driven by reader contributions and is a great way to try out your English humor and see who throws the rotten tomatoes. It's free to register and post, it's free to vote on other writers' work, and there's even the challenge of a prestigious Writer Of The Month award if you're prepared to bribe the site owners enough.

All your work remains in your copyright, which is getting less enforceable these days but is still a welcome and appreciated touch. At least you can threaten to sue anyone who uses your work, on the remote offchance that it might be good enough to be worth plagiarising.

If you just want to read, you'll find there's a wide range of talent here and being a wide range, it does have a bottom, no-votes end as well as occasionally reaching into the realms of comedic greatness. As with all user-driven ideas, you'll understand the challenges and appreciate the successes that much more if you register and try it out for yourself, so don't be too dismissive of the failed attempts to entertain until you've had a go, yourself. It's fun and free, what more do you need?