About r/nottheonion
In its own words:
For true stories that you could have sworn were from The Onion.
The community was created on Oct 25, 2008, which makes it 18 years old. Since Oct 19, 2026, it has gained 3,067 subscribers (+0.01%). It sits just behind r/askscience (#20) and ahead of r/mildlyinteresting (#22) in our ranking.
What sets r/nottheonion apart
Its rhythm is strongly tied to time zones: the busiest hour (12:00 UTC) sees about 4.3× as many posts as the quietest (08:00 UTC).
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026, r/nottheonion climbed from 26,121,803 to 26,136,210 subscribers (+14.4K, +0.06%). That is about 360 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (8 so far), so it gets longer every week.
Top posts on r/nottheonion this week
This week’s highest-ranked posts, in Reddit’s own order (collected Oct 29, 2026).
- US to Nominate Viktor Orbán as UN Secretary Generalu/Efficient-Freedom517 · Oct 26 · link
- Ohio pastor reveals he’s had 2 wives for 3 years: Having only 1 wife is 'unbiblical'u/laybs1 · Oct 27 · link
- Husband accused of taping his wife to a chair in the basement so he could watch football in peaceu/Disastrous_Award_789 · Oct 23 · link
- Mom speaks out after son found alive in Arizona hospital's morgueu/Environmental-Math89 · Oct 25 · link
- ‘Fart police, fart the wood’: Aurora officers gave nonsensical warnings in Spanish before police dog bit unarmed tourist, lawsuit allegesu/justalazygamer · Oct 23 · link
- Army officer suspended for leaving post 64 times in 10 months to 'feed his lizard'u/woeful_haichi · Oct 29 · link
- Former Texas Tech professor sentenced to 40 years for making, selling fentanyl including ‘pink flamingo’u/laybs1 · Oct 24 · link
- Six Flags says it will install seat belts on Georgia roller coaster after rider’s deathu/bluffcitynews · Oct 24 · link
- It started with a joke about gold decor—now two presidents are fighting over the cheesecake factoryu/everythingistaken500 · Oct 28 · link
- Brazil's Flávio Bolsonaro and family will get US visas after election loss, State Department saysu/ddx-me · Oct 27 · link
All-time top posts
The highest-ranked posts in the history of r/nottheonion, from 2017 to 2022, ranked by Reddit.
- People Are Accusing Robinhood Of Stealing From The Poor To Give To The Rich After It Limited Trading On Gamestop Sharesu/hilbertthedog · Jan 28, 2021 · link
- US Military Could Lose Space Force Trademark to Netflix Seriesu/jigsawmap · Jun 8, 2020 · link
- Meta's threat to close down Facebook and Instagram in Europe backfires as EU leaders embrace shutdown: 'Life would be very good without'Feb 9, 2022 · 127,138 points · 3,775 comments · link
- White House threatens to fire anyone who tries to quitu/Durendal_1707 · Nov 10, 2020 · link
- Don't eat or inject yourself with disinfectant, warns FDA commissionerApr 24, 2020 · 116,624 points · 7,242 comments · link
- Hiker lost on mountain for 24 hours ignored calls from rescuers because he didn’t recognize phone numberu/thebigdonkey · Oct 25, 2021 · 122,507 points · 3,354 comments · link
- Coronavirus homeschooling: 77 percent of parents agree teachers should be paid more after teaching own kids, study saysMay 1, 2020 · link
- United States Risks Sanctions From Zimbabwe If Elections Are Not Free And Fairu/ceylon_butterfly · Nov 4, 2020 · link
- DoorDash Spent $5.5 Million To Advertise Their $1 Million Charity Donationu/bubblydeadpan · Feb 13, 2021 · link
- Jake Angeli, horned man who stormed Capitol, refuses to eat as guards won't feed him 'organic food'u/3dprinteddildo · Jan 12, 2021 · link
What r/nottheonion talks about
We read the titles of 436 recent posts (Oct 21–Oct 28), the words that come up most are “trump”, “police”, “florida”, “man” and “called”. Other frequent themes are soccer, 3-year-old, house, white, woman and secretary. Recurring phrases include “white house”, “police called”, “nicki minaj” and “press secretary”. By format, 100% are links and 0% are videos.
Activity and best time to post
r/nottheonion gets about 72 new posts a day. The public archive holds 764,083 posts and 20,170,155 comments in total, about 26.4 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Wednesday (87 posts) and the quietest was Sunday (43). Posting peaks around 12:00 UTC and is lowest around 08:00 UTC.
Rules of r/nottheonion
The moderators of r/nottheonion list 13 rules. In short:
- Do not alter headlines.
- Submissions must be oniony.
- Only submit news articles.
- Use original, reliable sources.
- Do not repost similar articles.
- No satire articles
- No tabloid sources
- No old news.
- Only submit articles in English.
- Do not post mobile links.
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/nottheonion and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many subscribers does r/nottheonion have?
r/nottheonion has 26,136,210 subscribers (Oct 29, 2026), which makes it the #21 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 14,407 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026.
How old is r/nottheonion?
r/nottheonion was created on Oct 25, 2008, so it has been around for 18 years. The oldest post in the public archive is from Nov 4, 2008.
How active is r/nottheonion?
Very active: r/nottheonion gets about 72 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 764,083 posts and 20,170,155 comments. In a sample of 436 recent posts we counted 245 different authors.
When is r/nottheonion most active?
Based on post counts from Oct 21, 2026 to Oct 27, 2026, the busiest day was Wednesday and the quietest Sunday, and most posts arrive around 12:00 UTC, with the fewest around 08:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What is r/nottheonion about?
The community describes itself as: “For true stories that you could have sworn were from The Onion.” Recent post titles often mention trump, police, florida, man and called. Most posts are links (100%).
Is r/nottheonion safe for work?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/nottheonion as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
How do I post on r/nottheonion?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/nottheonion accepts link and media posts (no plain text posts). It has 13 posted rules, starting with: “Do not alter headlines.”; “Submissions must be oniony.”; “Only submit news articles.”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
Which communities are like r/nottheonion?
Communities with similar topics include r/Whatcouldgowrong (8M), r/news (31.6M), r/politics (9.3M), r/WatchPeopleDieInside (8.2M) and r/todayilearned (41.7M).
Stats from public data (data updated Oct 29, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Oct 29, 2026; top posts from Reddit’s public feeds). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/nottheonion.