TAMPA, Fla. — There’s a lot of bad news out there these days, but if we can’t get any good news, local satire website Tampa News Force is making sure we can at least get some funny news.

Founded by stand-up comedian John Jacobs and videographer Josh Santos, Tampa News Force offers a hyperlocal take on the kind of sardonic “fake news” that beloved newspaper the Onion has been cranking out for decades. But while the Onion takes on national news, Tampa News Force focuses on the Bay area, leading to such headlines as “Mayor Castor Still Doing Cop Stuff,” “Osama Bin Laden’s Body Washes Up on Clearwater Beach” and other, much more profane comedy fodder.

The whole thing started when Jacobs and Santos decided to head to Tampa Bay Comic Con in 2017 and conduct some “man on the street” interviews. That led to Jacobs just showing up at newsworthy events and talking to residents, cops, politicians—whoever was willing to give them a quote.

“It's kind of like from this clueless bystander, citizen point of view, where I don't talk to people like a news reporter,” says Jacobs. “I talk to people like somebody who's just standing on the scene. I'm just like, ‘hey what's going on.’ So it's a lot more natural and I think friendly, and it makes people more comfortable to be open with me because they know I don't have an agenda.”

A key moment came when their neighborhood was terrorized by the “Seminole Heights Serial Killer,” and after months of crashing press events, gun shows and conventions, the duo realized they needed more content, and began asking their friends in the Tampa Bay comedy scene to contribute. As a result, the website became more satirical, with comics riffing on current local events and long-standing cliches, from tourism to the Bucs’ dismal record to regional politicians’ gaffes. Eventually, comedian Clark Brooks came on board, titling himself “Senior Supreme Executive Premium Content Editor.”

“I’ve been friends with John and Josh for five years or so, and was kind of an observer when they started,” says Brooks. “Then they started posting satirical content a la the Onion, and I’m a big fan of the Onion and National Lampoon, so I asked if I could write some stuff.”

Three years later, Tampa News Force boasts 44 contributors. The core crew has made three independent films together, with a fourth in the offing; there’s a comic book in the works as well, and their videos regularly rack up tens of thousands of views. The site just posted its thousandth story a few weeks ago, and seems re-energized due to the pandemic allowing Jacobs and Brooks, both currently out of work, to focus on their passion project.

“It’s a classic case of doing a job that doesn’t feel like work,” says Jacobs.

The Force balances its satire by still doing a modicum of actual news coverage, which often leads less skeptical readers to believe that some of its headlines are real—a story about “happy ending” massages being legal in Tampa still ranks at the top of the first page of Google search results. Furthermore, more than one story has riled more than one reader who took offense at the site’s less-than-reverent approach. Jacobs isn’t worried about misapprehension, however.

“Ideally, I’d like an educated audience that can tell one from the other,” he says.

With fan mail coming from as far away as Europe, and the site getting more eyeballs than ever, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that these upstarts will ruffle more than a few feathers as awareness of Tampa News Force spreads. But that’s part of the fun of satire, and for Jacobs, the sky’s the limit.

“I’d love to get on Tucker Carlson, I’d love to get on Fox News,” he says. “The business goal is for Derek Jeter to see the site and buy it.”