Crossballs

Crossballs, or The Debate Show, is a short-lived tv show that aired on Comedy Central. The show was meant to parody political debate shows, specifically CNN's Crossfire and MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews. Each episode involves comedians posing as experts on a specific topic. In the case of this clip, the comedians are the host, the "stoner" sitting all the way on the left, and the anti-marijuana hippy. These comedians then debate two real commentators on the topic, such as the legalization of marijuana. These real commentators have no idea that the show is fake. The comedy not only comes from the comedians poking fun at their stance on the topic, but also from the real commentators who get frustrated with the actors. If the real commentator has a weird or nonsensical point of view, it is made to look even more ridiculous by the comedian who is trying to back him up. Although the main point of the show is comedy, there is still some real debating involved.

"Drugs." Crossballs. Host Chris Tallman. Comedy Central. 8 July 2004.

The Onion News Network

The Onion News Network is the daily video broadcast from The Onion, a fake news organization established in 1988 that satirizes international, national, sports, business, entertainment and made up news. The Onion News Network (ONN) was launched in 2007 and ever since then has grown to encompass several continuing series that focus on specific subjects, such as Today Now! which mocks morning news shows, In The Know With Clifford Banes, satirizing pundit shows, O-SPAN, which spoofs C-Span and ONN International, whose coverage includes "over 821 countries and 126 languages" lampooning CNN International.

The embedded video comes from the last of these ONN's series and is titled "East Timor's First Female Dictator Hailed as Step Forward For Women." It is a fake news reel, as is ONN's style, that satirizes both the commonality of coups d'estat in developing countries (the video uses East Timor), the behaviour of dictators, and the way that some people could make it seem as if a dictator's take-over is commendable just because the dictator happens to be a woman (the fictional Amivi Gama). Throughout the video, The ONN's also shows comedic captions regarding to Amivi's Gama's capabilities as a dictator and mother ("Gama Juggles Motherhood, Butchering Political Enemies"), and the ticker is continuously broadcasting other fake news (these include: "Lucasfilm Intern Discovers Only Job Responsibility is Fact-Checking Wookiepedia" and "From Lubbock, TX: Battle Between Humans and Armadillos Rages for 6th Consecutive Day.")

The Onion, Onion News Network, accessed Feb. 22, 2009, -http://www.theonion.com/content/video/east_timors_first_female_dictator?utm_source=a-section-