USA Today - Parodies

Parodies

Parodies of USA Today have appeared in various films and TV shows over the years, such as:

• The Harvard Lampoon published a parody issue of USA Today in 1986.
• A futuristic 2015 edition of USA Today (Hill Valley edition) is seen in Back to the Future Part II (1989)
• A spinoff red planet version entitled Mars Today seen in Total Recall (1990)
• An animated, dynamically updating e-paper version seen in Minority Report (2002)
• A paper called BSA Today in an alternate reality where North America is still governed by the United Kingdom as the British States of America, seen in Sliders (1995)
• Universe Today appeared in Babylon 5. The newspaper is custom-printed at a booth, where each customer can choose certain sections to include or exclude. It included at least an "Eye on Minbari" section.
• An extended sequence of Doonesbury strips in the 1980s mocked the paper.
• In The Simpsons episode Homer Defined, Homer reads a newspaper called USofA Today with the cover story: "America's Favorite Pencil – #2 is #1." Homer reads aloud another headline: "SAT scores are declining at a slower rate." After Lisa criticizes it, Homer says "this is the only newspaper in the country that is not afraid to tell the truth: that everything is just fine".
• The comedy publication The Onion publishes a feature on its front page called "Statshot," patterned after similar statistics published on the front page of USA Today.
• The 1988 computer game Hidden Agenda featured excerpts from a newspaper called 'USA Yesterday' in press digests.
• The alternate history movie C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004) features a newspaper called CSA Today.
• Country musician Alan Jackson has a song entitled "USA Today" in which the paper thinks about doing a story of the loneliest man in the "USA Today". The song is on his What I Do CD released in 2004.
• On The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert frequently refers to it as "today's The USA Today." He sarcastically criticizes the newspaper for its abundant use of colors and flashy, uninformative infographics.