Have you ever left an art museum and suddenly seen something—a single leaf, say—in a new light? My perceptions have been altered in a similar way by reading 'America’s finest news source,' The Onion (33 University Square #270, Madison, WI 53715; $39.95/46 issues; www.theonion.com). Parodying USA Today and hometown papers alike, its straightforward style tweaks politics, society, and current events in a hilarious way that makes 'real' news seem twisted by comparison.

'Twelve Customers Gunned Down in Convenience-Store Clerk’s Imagination,' one headline announces, while another reports: 'Newly Unearthed Time Capsule Just Full of Useless Old Crap.'

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In The Door Magazine ('the world’s pretty much only religious satire magazine') (Box 500, Missouri City, TX 77549-0500; $29.95/6 issues; www.thedoormagazine.com) one can find tips for repelling Jehovah’s Witnesses, preview Southern Baptist amendments to the Bible, and read about a book titled Jews in the Village: The Secret Alliance Between Judaism and the Village People. Put out by professed Christians, The Door avoids meanness despite all its skewering. Like The Onion, it also runs serious interviews in each issue.

The Journal of Irreproducible Results (Box 234, Chicago Heights, IL 60411; $19.85/6 issues; www.jir.com) offers occasional comic relief for those who have steeped too long behind the ivy walls of academia. It lampoons jargon-laden scientific and sociological writing with pieces such as 'Seat Up or Seat Down? The Bioenergetics of Unisex Toilets.' Geared mostly for scholars, JIR annually awards the Ig Nobel Prizes 'for irreproducible achievements that cannot or should not be reproduced.'

One need not be any kind of an insider to enjoy Funny Times (Box 18530, Department 4CJ, Cleveland Heights, OH, 44118; $21/12 issues; www.funnytimes.com). It’s the best one-stop source of cartoons, comics, and political humor in print. Published monthly, the tabloid runs columns and essays by Molly Ivins, Daniel Pinkwater, Jim Hightower, and Dave Barry, not to mention cartoons by Keith Knight ('The K Chronicles'), Lynda Barry, Andy Singer, Marian Henley, and others.