Earlier today, Facebook confirmed it was rolling out a system that labels links from The Onion and others as “satire,” so that your idiot friend from high school would (hopefully) realize that the President didn’t run over Jimmy Carter with his car, or that Dick Van Dyke may not have been the Zodiac killer. Oddly enough, the esteemed news source’s response to the Facebook announcement is much closer to truth than it is to satire. [More]
satire
Facebook To Point Out To Your Idiot Friends That The Onion Is Not Real News
By 8.18.14
It’s both hilarious and depressing when I go onto Facebook and see that someone I know is expressing outrage — OUTRAGE!! — in response to a shocking news story they came across online on a little-known news site called The Onion. Just this morning, I awoke to find that several of my idiot friends on Facebook had shared this Daily Currant story as if it were true, and one continued to insist it was authentic even after others pointed out in the comments that it’s a satire site. In order to cut down on the humiliation suffered by its users, Facebook is now testing a “satire” tag… that people will probably still ignore. [More]
No, That Sansabelt “Action Pants” Ad You Saw On Facebook Is Not Real
By 1.23.14
Everyone loves vintage ads, especially the ones that haven’t aged particularly well. You know, the sexist and racist ads that look horrible to modern eyes, and the ones that sixty years of unrelenting irony have rendered unintentionally hilarious. However, before you hit “share” on Facebook, stop and think: is this vintage ad simply too hilarious? [More]
We Disagree With This Fake Overview Of Black Friday Sales
By 11.12.13
This satirical Onion overview of Black Friday sales is funny and all, but we’re pretty sure that they printed an error. The store that’s offering a “[c]omplimentary all-encompassing sadness and pervasive sense that your life wasn’t supposed to be like this with every purchase” is actually Kmart. And it starts at 6 A.M. on Thanksgiving Day. [The Onion] [More]
Time Warner Cable Impersonators Ask: What Can We Do Worse For Our Customers?
By 4.17.13
Clearly disappointed that they weren’t able to progress beyond the second round in Consumerist’s Worst Company in America Tournament, Time Warner Cable has put out a call to their customers asking for tips on how they can possibly do things worse. No… that can’t be right. We have a strong suspicion that this press release did not actually come from Time Warner. [More]
Who Dares Visit A Restaurant Without Reading Online Reviews First?
By 8.31.12
The best satire is deeply rooted in reality. That’s why an article from this week’s issue of the Onion shook us to the core. “Brave Woman Enters Restaurant Without First Looking It Up Online,” the headline blared. At Consumerist HQ, we asked each other: is there really anyone out there who is so bold and reckless that they would do such a thing? [More]
Bank Of America Has Gotten So Bad, It's Hard To Tell Satire From Reality
By 4.19.12
Bank of America may have avoided the stain of the Worst Company In America Golden Poo for the second year in a row, but the perennial runner-up still has plenty of haters out there, including some who put together YourBofA.com, a satire site that will probably be taken down any minute now. [More]
Colbert Makes Dude Version Of Summer's Eve Hand Puppet Ads
By 7.26.11
In order to rectify a troubling imbalance in the world, the Colbert Report made a spoof commercial of the Summer’s Eve talking vaginal hand puppets, just for men. [More]
Get A Free Inhaler From Coal Cares
By 5.12.11
May is Asthma Awareness Month and you can celebrate it with a free asthma inhaler courtesy of Coal Cares. They’ve put together a fun and informative site to help teach kids that inhalers are cool, and so is coal! [More]
Inside A "Big Food" Product Development Meeting
By 5.12.11
Where do they come up with all those great ideas to make 500 different snack foods out of the same four crappy ingredients and then try to trick us into thinking they’re healthy? This amusing xtranormal video takes you inside a hypothetical product development meeting at a “Big Food” company. It starts off slow but then delivers hit after hit as they skewer each of the different labeling and ingredient tactics food manufacturers use, like adding Vitamin D to Cheetos and saying they “support healthy bones.” [More]
H2O Police Says Just Light A Match Before Drinking
By 5.5.11
At first glance this sticker I spotted on a water fountain appears to be from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, telling citizens that they’ve checked out the water and it’s probably safe. If you have any doubts about there being chemicals in there that seeped in because of hydraulic fracturing, don’t worry, just turn on the spigot and do the ‘ol match test and see if it bursts into flame. Wait, what? [More]
10 Ways To Make The TSA Crotch Grabbers Profitable
By 3.7.11
Last week, the the Director of Homeland Security suggested to Congress that the TSA get a cut of airline baggage fees. The fees encourage travelers to carry on their bags, and this in turn leads to more bags that have to be inspected by hand at security checkpoints. Should taxpayers keep picking up the tab, or should airlines give the TSA a piece of the baggage fees? How about neither? What if instead the TSA looked for more creative ways to offset costs and even increase revenue? Here are 10 modest proposals: [More]
Smoke Pink Cigarettes, Fight Breast Cancer
By 11.1.10
For every pack of pink cigarettes you smoke, RJ Morris will donate half a cent to breast cancer research. [More]
What Really Happens To A McDonald's Burger When You Leave It Out
By 10.18.10
Recently photos of a McDonald’s burger left out for 180 days with no visibile signs of decomposing went viral. Consumerist reader GitEmSteveDave decided to recreate the experiment using time-lapse photography and came up with drastically different results. The burger was completely gone within just a short period of time! Also discovered? Time-lapse cats are hilarious. [More]
New Google Phone Whispers Targeted Ads In Your Ears
By 5.18.10
So this is how Google is going to make the Nexus One work: Advanced voice-recognition technnology will whisper targeted ads directly into your ears, reports The Onion. [More]
Samsung Sues Journalist For Satirically Pointing Out That Its Chairman Keeps Getting Convicted Of Crimes
By 5.11.10
Did you know that the chairman of Samsung, Lee Kun-hee, was convicted in 2008 for tax evasion in South Korea? Or that he was convicted in the 90s for bribing politicians? A British journalist, Michael Breen, wrote a satirical column in a South Korean newspaper last December, and now the electronics giant is suing him for libel. If found guilty, Breen could face jail time. [More]
Somali Pirates Disclose They're A Goldman Sachs Subsidiary
By 4.27.10
A mosquito-boat’s worth of Somali pirates stunned the courtroom today when they disclosed their entire piracy enterprise was in fact a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs. [More]
See The Fortune 500 Magazine Cover That Was Too Brutally Honest To Run
Fortune magazine commissioned artist Chris Ware to design a cover for their 2010 Fortune 500 issue, so he did. Unfortunately, what he delivered was a detailed, funny, and biting commentary on the current state of our economy–with banker types dancing on the top of mega-buildings that spell out “500,” a factory in Mexico churning out big box merchandise, and a “401k cemetary.” Fortune rejected it, but hasn’t provided any comment on why. Well, okay, it’s probably self-evident why they killed it, but it’s still funny. [More]