Joe Randazzo


Joe Randazzo is an American comedy writer, stand-up comedian, and improvisational comedian. He is a former editor of the satirical newspaper, The Onion. In addition to performing stand-up, Randazzo has been a guest host of the improv comedy show ASSSSCAT 3000 at New York City's Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. An avid user of Twitter
and a critic of Internet memes, Randazzo was nominated for a 2009 ECNY Award for Outstanding Performance in the Field of Tweeting. Randazzo has appeared on NPR's This American Life, PBS's Charlie Rose, and MSNBC's Morning Joe. Randazzo was awarded the Burke Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse through the Arts by the College Historical Society of Trinity College Dublin in 2012.

Early life

Randazzo is from Penacook, New Hampshire. He earned a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from Emerson College, and worked for NPR in Boston shortly thereafter. After moving to New York, Randazzo met Carol Kolb of The Onion while performing improv comedy at the Magnet Theater.

''The Onion''

Randazzo left his job at Manhattan Fruitier, a fruit basket company, in March 2006 to join the editorial staff of The Onion. He was a writer and section editor of The Onion's 2007 book Our Dumb World, a parody of the standard desk atlas, and was promoted to editor in 2008. In Randazzo's tenure, The Onion published the compilation Our Front Pages, was fictitiously sold to a Chinese conglomerate, and openly campaigned for a Pulitzer Prize. Randazzo, who lives in Brooklyn, will have reportedly left The Onion when they moved their editorial offices to Chicago.

Books