November 28, 2012

The online newspaper of China’s Communist Party ran a 55-page photographic feature hailing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as the sexiest man alive, failing to realize that the title had been “announced” by the satirical American news website The Onion. The photographs, posted to the website of China’s People’s Daily yesterday, showed Kim greeting troops, holding children, and riding on horseback. They were accompanied by ironic quotes from the Onion article praising Kim’s “round face, boyish charm, and strong, sturdy frame….” North Korea and China are close allies.

Founded in 1988, The Onion has grown popular for its sharp mockery both of current events and of journalism itself. Its deadpan imitation of newspaper style can be surprisingly convincing. This was not the first time that one of its spoofs had been picked up as fact by international media. In September 2012, an Iranian news agency had to apologize after picking up a humorous Onion article alleging that rural Americans preferred Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to U.S. President Barack Obama.

In declaring Kim Jong-un the sexiest man alive for 2012, The Onion was, in part, satirizing the cult of celebrity that surrounds North Korea’s Communist dictatorship. Past winners, according to the article, include confessed fraudster Bernie Madoff and the conservative activist Koch brothers.