The Onion to launch Vice parody videos

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/28/the-onion-vice-parody-edge

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Spoof news site The Onion is to launch a parody of Vice Media that promises to “throw acid in the face of ignorance”.

The company, whose fake news items have been mistaken for the real thing in the past, has produced a video series called Edge that will launch on 3 August.

A Twitter account in its name began posting teasing messages on Tuesday and Onion staff told the Guardian that they were preparing to release a trailer ahead of the launch.

RT if you own a sword carved from a human femur.

We throw acid in the face of ignorance.

In bank lobby and there are cameras EVERYWHERE. Welcome to the modern-day surveillance state, people.

A teaser video claimed “With a team of more than 300 news warriors, Edge pummels readers with immersive reporting that is uncaged, unaccountable, and totally fucked up.”

“Vice is wrought with a distinct self-confidence, which of course gets our writers salivating,” the Onion’s production boss George Zwierzynski Jr said.

Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Zwierzynski added: “The Onion team is highly competitive when it comes to other companies and publishers, so its only natural we would take a stab at Vice as a whole.”

Vice, which is based in Brooklyn’s trendy Williamsburg and London’s equally trendy Old Street, has claimed to report on news stories across the world in a way that engages young people.

Its irreverent style fell foul of the late New York Times journalist David Carr, who attacked its founder Shane Smith when he claimed during an interview that the latter outlet was reporting on surfing, while its younger rival was producing a documentary on cannibalism in Liberia.

“Time out,” Carr interrupted Smith. “Before you ever went there, we’ve had reporters there reporting on genocide after genocide. Just because you put on a f***ing safari helmet and looked at some poop, doesn’t give you the right to insult what we do,” Carr told an apologetic Smith.

Chicago-based The Onion said the series had been produced by its in-house video team, Onion Studios. It follows Twitter accounts such as Vice Is Hip in sending up the organisation and comes after the launch of Clickhole – The Onion’s parody of BuzzFeed.

It is not The Onion’s first foray into video. It has previously launched Onion News Network and Onion SportsDome on American television, with varying levels of success.