You might have come across some mention of this on social media. Then again, it is more than likely you have not, which speaks heavily to the inconsequence that is in play. But the “big news” is that the humor site The Onion has taken possession of the domain for the former Alex Jones site InfoWars, and we are being told this is the most brilliant media ploy that we have seen in a generation.
If you are scratching your head at this pronouncement, fret not; this is not a case of missing a joke due to subjective humor. The insistence by so many in the press that this is a landmark event sits in dire opposition to the lack of needle movement this development has generated. It is a case of insistence borne out of wishcasting, in complete defiance of common sense, regarding a bat-guano lunacy web portal.
Tim Heidecker’s first Infowars Parody for The Onion is too good.
— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) May 2, 2026
10/10 pic.twitter.com/qAcGHtFDZS
The backstory to all of this begins with the court case that the families of the Sandy Hook school shooting brought against Jones years ago. A pair of rulings handed down saw Jones held liable for damages coming in just shy of $50 million, with another ruling putting Jones on the hook for over one billion dollars. The supplement hawker did not have that kind of scratch in his accounts, so in bankruptcy proceedings, his assets were seized and auctioned off, including the very site where he had built his sandcastle-level empire.
Around the same time period, the longstanding humor portal The Onion was going through changes, with former NBC News fixture Ben Collins leaving his position with the network (he had actually quit journalism well before quitting the job) and, along with an investment group, taking ownership of the humor site just after the 2024 general election.
READ MORE: NBC’s Ben Collins' Hit Piece on Elon Musk Is So Laughably Inept He Should Quit More Than Twitter
In a profile of Collins at Vanity Fair after the sale, the newly christened CEO described why he was the right man to take over the humor site: “I know I’m not funny.” His primary motivation for purchasing The Onion was based on a sketchy mission statement; it was to keep Elon Musk from buying it. In describing his managerial style, Collins claimed to be a hands-off leader, saying, “I don’t go in that room and tell them what to do. I just do businessy stuff.” It is easy to see why the Babylon Bee runs circles around his outlet once you get a sense of his “businessy” acumen.
“I’m not saying every newspaper should get back and print immediately. The New York Observer, or whatever the fu**, I don’t think it would behoove them to start doing this sh**,” he says. “But we can be super funny in print, and people like getting a nice thing in the mail.”
And part of Ben’s businessy stuff regimen was purchasing InfoWars. During the sell-off auction, the site put up $1.7 million in cash, and credit from the Sandy Hook families pushed the winning bid to potentially $7 million, but soon the deal became mired in legal challenges from the Jones team. As of last month, the courts were still running interference to the ownership, but then — 17 months, and untold legal fees later — The Onion management says it was cleared to begin using the InfoWars property.
Recently, The Onion says it finally took over control of the property, and on top of the purchase price and legal costs, it will also be paying a monthly licensing fee of $81,000. Friday saw them put out an introductory video, with comedy writer Tim Heidecker on camera, affecting an Alex Jones impression, and delivering a string of commentary that is predictably unhinged conspiracy talk. The problems are rather evident; the challenges less so.
The primary problem with satirizing Alex Jones is that the guy was already an extreme wingnut, so you need to get even more outlandish to outdo his routine. You need to begin by being ludicrous, and at some point, you simply become grating. That point arrives quickly. Yes, we get it, Jones was an untethered conspiracist. And…is there more?
It is pretty clear what they intend to go with, based on this presentation, but the ultimate question lingers: Who is this for? Just look at the initial blast from the visuals. They modified the InfoWars iconography by inserting the logo of The Onion and additionally altered it with the rainbow LGBTπ colors. This seems intent on provoking Jones more than anything, which, sure, is the point. But beyond that, what does The Onion braintrust expect to gain from this?
Monetizing this venture seems a stretch, at best. Jones had become a distaff figure politically long ago. His audience was extremely insular, and his influence was greatly limited. No one in conventional circles paid the kook much attention, and his crackpot stances after the Sandy Hook shooting pretty much assured he would be forever occupying the realm on the fringe.
Take his lightly regarded realm, contest it for a year and a half, and the operational interest is less than minuscule. Now you are parodying content that few people are even familiar with, on a site that has not been traveled upon save for the unhinged devout, and your core audience for this is on the opposite pole of the political spectrum, so they have a severely limited familiarity with the content you are mocking.
But the press is over the moon with this development. Many have been praising the move and raving about its release. What we see very little of from these outlets is analysis. The Jones audience will not arrive, his opponents know little of what is being spoofed, and The Onion is delivering a warped version of a lightly regarded product that its intended audience did not like to begin with. This is hardly the formula for explosive interest.
However, even as of last Wednesday, the legal wrangling was not over, with another court appeal from Jones being upheld. So it still remains to be seen if this dream by The Onion comes to fruition. All said, based on the preview from these comics, this really appears to have a brief shelf life, unless the creators can figure out how to pull something substantial out of this property. And even if they do, who will care?
The only people who are not already aware that the Alex Jones brand is a carnival barker fever dream are the people who actually favor his content, and they will loathe the satire. The rest will likely nod at the parody before moving on…much like they had already done over a decade ago.
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