China Thinks The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive is a Real Thing and that Kim Jong-Un Won It [UPDATE]
China may be leading the US in many areas, but, thankfully, we've still got a clear edge in both satire and snark.
Which is probably why our chief exporter of both — The Onion — was able to fool the Chinese Communist Party's official mouthpiece into believing they actually named North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-Un 2012's "sexiest man alive."
In honor of this completely real title, the People's Daily not only republished portions of The Onion's propagandist plaudits — "He has that rare ability to somehow be completely adorable and completely macho at the same time" — without commentary, but also included its own homebrewed slideshow of some of Dear Leader Jr.'s sexiest poses.
As BuzzFeed points out, one of the things that might have tipped off the paper to The Onion's less-than-respectful intentions is the list of previous honorees, which include such esteemed hotties as Bashar al-Assad (2011), Bernie Madoff (2010), and Ted Kaczynski (2008).
UPDATE: The Onion just updated its original post with the following glorious statement:
For more coverage on The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive 2012, Kim Jong-Un, please visit our friends at the People's Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc. Exemplary reportage, comrades.
