“Legally, we have to say it’s a direct parody of Alex Jones and all that nonsense, until we’re allowed to get hold of all of his stuff,” Collins tells WIRED. “But for now, we’re going to have a lot of fun.” Attorneys for Jones did not respond to requests for comment from him; messages to Information war email accounts were returned as undeliverable.
Lawson calls capture Information war the name “karmic justice” for Sandy Hook families who have has not yet received any settlement money from Jones. The Onion plans to initially donate $100,000 from merchandise sales directly to the families, Collins said Associated Press.
The Information war parody also meets the needs of business and culture, Lawson explains.
“At some point we realized that we needed some sort of satirical product that was primarily Internet satire,” Lawson says. “But the problem is that the Internet is so difficult to satirize because there is no single Internet. In order to satirize it, you need a common understanding of what you’re breaking.”
When Collins conceived the acquisition of the gimmick Information warthey began to see it as an opportunity to target one all-too-common digital format: “These hard-ass assholes who have millions of listeners (and) will say and do anything to make money,” Lawson says. “It’s these podcasters, they’re the ones to satirize, Joe Rogans and Alex Jones.”
The idea, Collins said, is to poke fun at the internet conspiracy brain rot that has infected the entire social media ecosystem. “It allows us to look at how bloody stupid everything is and how people are talking now,” he explains. “People are just constantly trying to find the big secret that runs the world, but really, the big secret that runs the world is right in front of us, it’s the big fucking government that we live in under threat.”
In addition to Heidecker, the live broadcasts will feature other familiar faces and voices. Tim Robinson of I think you should leave and Company “Chair”. calls as “Tim from Ohio” in the premiere episode, leading to some debate over whether the Boss the Clown was actually several different people. Fictional news anchor Jim Hagerty (Brad Holbrook) also returns, having left his Onion News Network anchor job to teach paranoid lunatics promoting products like “Hog Water.”
And a delirium opening topic provided by comedian-musician Nick Lutzko, who has often gone viral with tunes mocking Jones and other right-wing individuals. This song is immediately derailed when the idea for a cartoon appears in Lutsko “Information war Elf’s mascot is rejected by corporate higher-ups, but he keeps the character coming back to the topic anyway.
“It’s a lot like ‘The Avengers Assemble’ for everyone who’s been making fun of these jerks for years,” says Collins. “I really think that if (this cast) had been directly anti-Trumpism all along, we probably wouldn’t have Trumpism.” Lawson adds, “I’m concerned about democracy, and I think the answer to that is satire, which can point out things that we look back on and say, ‘That’s not right.'”