'The Onion' Sold To 'The Chinese' (VIDEO)

Sporting a snazzy redesign and new corporate logos, "The Onion" announced today that it has been sold to the Chinese--specifically Yu Wan Mei Amalgamated Salvage Fisheries and Polymer Injection Group. The Publisher Emeritus T. Herman Zweibel made the announcement in an Op-Ed piece, explaining how the purchase was made:

"One of their representatives oozed and crawled from his dank hut to visit me in person at my bedside last week, and make known his superiors' desire to expand their clammy clutch into the Western world. After subjecting me to a good 20 minutes of infernal bowing and other assorted chinky-dinkery, he offered to pay me what I've been assured is an appropriately absurd parcel of riches to take this tiresome publication off my feeble hands for good."

Of course this is all fake, yet another elaborate prank pulled by the folks responsible for our daily does of satire. Other than the lead item "China Strong," TheOnion.com boasts stories today called "Nothing At All Happens To 28 Tibetan Protesters, Their Families," and "Potato-Faced Youngster Lauded For Memorizing Primitive 26-Character Alphabet." The lead opinion story asks Americans if they know any good state secrets, and the photo section shows idyllic landscapes with the caption "Clear American Sky A Constant Reminder Of Industrial Inferiority." The highlight, though, is the video below entitled "China's Andy Rooney Has Some Funny Opinions About How Great The Chinese Government Is."

WATCH:

The elaborate hoax fooled Gawker into publishing two stories about rumors of the sale, and CNET took it from there. Of course, in this media climate it is understandable that people believed the story, as few media outlets seem safe in this economy.

Comments

[david in austin]

11:08 AM on 07/21/2009

If you Twitter, @yuwanmei is a must follow. Brilliant.

[113]

12:41 AM on 07/21/2009

lmfao..onion never fails to disappoint...they serve 811 countries after all! lol

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

04:19 PM on 07/20/2009

The chinese Andy Rooney video is actually quite old. http://www.theonion.com/content/video/police_still_searching_for?utm_source=a-section is actually the new Onion new service.

[Anastasia]

03:58 PM on 07/20/2009

Gawker and CNET fell for it? Now that's egg fu yung in the face.

[bostongreen]

05:49 PM on 07/20/2009

oh you're really funny. by the way, egg fu yung is entirely american.

[ultracrepidarian]

11:57 PM on 07/20/2009

Next your'e going to tell me the fortune cookie was invented in Los Angeles.

[praxitas]

03:55 PM on 07/20/2009

did you go to the Yu Wan Mei website? check out " Yu Wan Mei Gel" and "Yu Wan Mei Device" and "fishing salvage and polymer injection" conglomerate? priceless.

[islandchris]

04:55 PM on 07/20/2009

Thanks for the tip - brilliant products. Frozen eel-milk comes in male or female!

[thecaramel]

03:25 PM on 07/20/2009

And they used *real* Chinese! With proper accents! And real Chinese people and not some vaguely Asian-looking person. That impressed me more than anything else. Way to go Onion on going that extra necessary step!

Also, I want paste.

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

04:16 PM on 07/20/2009

Yeah the Onion always is top notch in their material. They really are the cutting edge. If you watch their videos they obviously spend a lot of time and effort to do them and make them look like they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to do.

[jan4insight]

04:42 PM on 07/20/2009

I noticed that, too, and was equally impressed.

[Read Books]

02:01 PM on 07/20/2009

I'm not sure which is more hilarious, the video, or the media being fooled about the Onion being for sale!

[BlackYowe]

12:54 PM on 07/20/2009

Too Funny!

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

12:46 PM on 07/20/2009

http://www.yuwanmei.com/home

Nice job onion. Even youtube videos have been made.

[youwrackdisiprine]

12:31 PM on 07/20/2009

damn, the onion videos are getting better and better.

[sasson]

12:10 PM on 07/20/2009

Posters taking this way to seriously in 3...2...1...

[sasson]

12:11 PM on 07/20/2009

-too-

[Puffingt0n H0st]

12:59 PM on 07/20/2009

...exactly!

[audadvnc]

12:08 PM on 07/20/2009

"Springtime...for Hitler...and Germany!" BANG!

[jl4141]

12:27 PM on 07/20/2009

"Winter . . . for Poland . . and Fraaaaaaaaaance!"

[yogaboy]

02:08 PM on 07/20/2009

In the Onion shop, there's a Yu Wan Mei device on sale for $4,200.
Anyone try buying it?

[praxitas]

03:59 PM on 07/20/2009

that device is serious scary. WTF does it do?? huh? what does it do????