2/19/02 - Local Man and Area Man have filed a joint multi-million dollar lawsuit against website The Onion for "defamation, misrepresentation, libel, and harassment" on Tuesday, according to inside sources at an undisclosed area courthouse.

The landmark suit alleges that the Onion has been "continuously and unapologetically" harassing Area Man and Local Man with wiretaps, incessant interviews, and various acts of unwelcome trespass. Local and Area Man also claim that, when they protested The Onion's practices, they were offered bribes to "keep quiet and cooperate".

In a related suit, The Onion has sued The Onion for plagiarizing content. The suit seeks unspecified damages for each article The Onion has reprinted from prior articles, and each article that holds the same exact content where only the names have changed from "Local Man" to "Area Man" and vice-versa. This also includes instances where "Area Man" becomes "Area Woman." Mad Magazine filed a similar suit against itself after seeing a decline in sales and a rash of angry letters from young readers complaining about references to Bob Newhart, Spiro T. Agnew, and Leif Ericsson.

Local Man, Area Man, and Local friends partying in their local home in their local town.

It was later revealed that features with such references were used continuously for over thirty years by the magazine, leading to a lawsuit in which the editors were found guilty of 30 counts of plagiarism. In a memorable court scene, Al Jaffee, while cross-examining himself, suddenly lunged and grabbed his own neck in a choke hold. Court security personnel had to wrestle him from himself.