When Infowars, the website founded by the right-wing conspiracist Alex Jones, came up for sale two years ago, an unlikely suitor stepped up. The Onion, a satirical news outlet, planned to convert the site into a parody of itself.
That sale was scuttled by a bankruptcy court. Now, The Onion has re-emerged with a new plan: licensing the website from Gregory Milligan, the court-appointed manager of the site.
Technically not approved until the judge oks it?
On Monday, Mr. Milligan asked Maya Guerra Gamble, a judge in Texas’s Travis County District Court overseeing the disposition of Infowars, to approve that licensing agreement in a court filing. Under the terms, The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, would pay $81,000 a month to license Infowars.com and its associated intellectual property — such as its name — for an initial six months, with an option to renew for another six months.
The licensing deal has been agreed to by The Onion and the court-appointed administrator. But it is not effective until Judge Gamble approves it, and Mr. Jones could appeal any ruling. That means the fate of Infowars remains in limbo until the court rules, probably sometime in the next two weeks. Mr. Jones continues to operate Infowars.com and host its weekday program, “The Alex Jones Show.”
Tim Heidecker, one of the comedians behind “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, has been hired to serve as “creative director of Infowars.” He said he initially plans to parody Mr. Jones’s “whole modus operandi.”
Feels too soon for The Onion to be popping champagne if this could fall through, and then they're on the hook for trademark infringement. I'm not a marketeer, but I'd at least wait until the URL...
Feels too soon for The Onion to be popping champagne if this could fall through, and then they're on the hook for trademark infringement. I'm not a marketeer, but I'd at least wait until the URL is pointed to the right place.
The InfoWars of old was only the prototype for the hell I know we can build together: A digital platform where, every day, visitors sacrifice themselves at altars of delusion and misery, their minds fully disintegrating on contact.
With this new InfoWars, we will democratize psychological torture, welcoming brutal and sadistic ideas from everyone, even the very stupidest among us. It will be like the Manhattan Project, only instead of a bomb, we will be building a website.
Ben Collins (Onion CEO) posted this on Bluesky. https://bsky.app/profile/bencollins.bsky.social/post/3mjwx7iv5kk2m https://theonion.info/ The original infowars.com website still seems to be up for...
No one else is corroborating at this time, but Ben Collins (Onion CEO) posted this on Bluesky.
For as long as the site remains up in its current abhorrent form, I don’t think anyone should be celebrating just yet. Would’ve expected better from a credible journalistic outlet like the onion… /s
For as long as the site remains up in its current abhorrent form, I don’t think anyone should be celebrating just yet. Would’ve expected better from a credible journalistic outlet like the onion…
/s
NYT gift link
Technically not approved until the judge oks it?
This was news to me:
If this goes through this will be one of the funniest things of all time, Tim is a master.
https://youtu.be/0gnnFVRlucg
Treading a path cleared by Stephen Colbert, I think Tim will be much drier and harder to tell whether serious or not.
At the very least he will more than likely humorous on his own, unlike Colbert which requires an entire writing team that still tends to fall flat.
Feels too soon for The Onion to be popping champagne if this could fall through, and then they're on the hook for trademark infringement. I'm not a marketeer, but I'd at least wait until the URL is pointed to the right place.
I can't find the details, but I am assuming they won the 'rights' and trademark to the name, not necessarily to the entire platform (yet).
It sounds like they're licensing it atm, or trying to.
But the merch might fall under parody if they fail.
Best line from the article:
Is it just me or has the moment of relevance passed here? The last six months makes Alex Jones troubles feel like a lifetime ago.
No one else is corroborating at this time, butBen Collins (Onion CEO) posted this on Bluesky.https://bsky.app/profile/bencollins.bsky.social/post/3mjwx7iv5kk2m
https://theonion.info/
The original infowars.com website still seems to be up for now.
Edit: DNAF has it covered
You can also buy an "Inf🧅 Wars" tote bag from their merch. They must feel confident about having the trademark
For as long as the site remains up in its current abhorrent form, I don’t think anyone should be celebrating just yet. Would’ve expected better from a credible journalistic outlet like the onion…
/s