RALEIGH, NC—Local software developer Tom Mutbosch has apparently been ripping off the work of the popular internet newspaper humor site The Onion recently, and doing so in blatant fashion. The Onion offers weekly satire in the form of a newspaper (available in both hardcopy and online versions at theonion.com), often with stories about general area residents in humorous situations. Some of Mutbosch's stories have a very similar style and layout, and show an obvious attempt at being humorous.
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| Above: A news story from Mutbosch's The Onion rip-off site. | |
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| Above: A news story from The Onion. |
Said The Onion editor Steven Zimmerman: "I wouldn't care as much if
he just directly took our copyright-protected material and placed it on
his site, trying to pass it off as his own. At least, then we'd know
that he actually cared about the humor value."
Said one of The Onion authors, Dave Bell, "I'm actually kind of wary about
even printing this story. I can just see Mutbosch ripping this off. 'The
Least That Area Man Who Is Blatantly Ripping Off The Onion Can Do Is Be
Fucking Funny About It' or some shit like that. That's just right up his
fucking alley."
Agreed proofreader Ted Holiday: "I mean, what is this guy thinking?
'Ooh let's satire existing satire! That'll be funny!' What type of
meta-humor bullshit is that?"
When asked about the allegations, Mutbosch replied: "The Onion? I'm
not familiar with that particular publication."
When a
court-ordered seizure of his internet browsing history records showed that he
had visited The Onion's website several times consistently over the last
few months, Mutbosch said that he had probably visited the site
erroneously while looking for cooking tips. "No, seriously. You can
check my browsing history. I've also been to thecarrot.com and
thepickle.com looking for various types of recipes featuring my favorite
vegetables--theonion.com was probably just another in a long line of
vegetable-related web visits. Once I saw that the site was some form of
humorous satire and not a site devoted wholey to one of the most
underated vegetables of our time, I didn't even bother reading anything
on there." Added Mutbosch, "I didn't even know that it was a
humor website. Actually, I really didn't get most of the stuff
anyway."
Upon being confronted with the fact that he had titled his news satire webpage "La
Cebolla",
which is Spanish for The Onion, Mutbosch responded, "Oh, is it? I didn't
know." When also confronted with the fact that his webpage contains the
additional text: "The title of this webpage is La
Cebolla, which is Spanish for The Onion", Mutbosch declined further comment.
"Look, we've been patient," says Zimmerman. "We'll give him
two more weeks to come up with truly humorous rip-offs. Failing that, we'll
definitely have to pursue litigation. We're just looking for some semblance
of humor. And we're not talking about any lame, or
"Mutboschian" as we like to call it, humor, either. No
more bullshit attempts like, oh, I don't know... Maybe 'Area Man Has Whole
Philosophy Revolving Around Pop-Tarts', or perhaps 'Area Resident Doesn't Have
Problem Adjusting His Crotch in Public.' None of that. We want quality
rip-offs. It's really not too much to ask for. "
Added Mutbosch: " 'Area Man Has Whole Philosophy Revolving Around Pop-Tarts?' That's not bad... Let me go write that down."