On Monday, InfoWars founder Alex Jones flipped out, crashing an X livestream shirtless, in reaction to The Onion's bid to license his website and all associated branding potentially moving forward.
In November 2024, Global Tetrahedron, parent company of The Onion, attempted to buy InfoWars through a bankruptcy auction, but the move was blocked by the judge overseeing sales of Jones' property.
Jones' assets have been held in receivership after the right-wing conspiracy theorist declared bankruptcy in 2022 to avoid paying settlements to the families of those killed in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The families successfully sued Jones, who made millions driving traffic to his website with lies about the victims and their families.
Jones' misinformation campaign, calling the mass murder of 20 children and six staff members a hoax designed to take people's guns, led to years of threats and harassment for their families. The courts ordered Jones to pay almost $1.4 billion as a result.
Before Jones took to X to whine, Global Tetrahedron announced that a new licensing deal for the InfoWars’ brand names and IP, including its website, was just awaiting court approval. The Onion CEO Ben Collins has said the plan is to make InfoWars a parody of itself with comedian Tim Heidecker starring as a parody of Jones.
In response, Jones spouted on the Monday livestream:
"Look, just because you’re wearing my shirt don’t mean you’re me, so let’s be 100 percent clear about that."
You can watch his meltdown here:
Jones appeared unexpectedly on the set of The War Room while host Harrison Smith was live on air. Seeing Jones, Smith quipped that The Onion had stolen his shirt.
Jones launched into a rant about his misfortunes, saying:
"They’re gonna misrepresent that they’re us to confuse people and quote, 'Rip people off like Alex Jones did.' They’re gonna make money. The whole thing’s about defaming me."
"You can’t take something over and then act like you’re somebody, even if you say it’s a parody. You could do a parody of somebody, but not if you took something from them."
Jones then made dubious claims about his legal standing.
"I’ve already checked with lawyers, so they’re in deep sh*t. I’m already suing the Democrat Party law firms, already got civil rights lawsuits."
"Look, just because you’re wearing my shirt don’t mean you’re me, so let’s be 100% clear about that."
Ramping up his rant, Jones declared:
"This is what the left do. They try to silence you, then they misrepresent who you are. They’re body snatchers! They’re skin walkers! They literally take your skin! This is gonna backfire big time, folks."
Keeping with his standard practice, Jones included a push for people to buy his merch.
Sympathy for Jones was low to nonexistent from all points on the political spectrum.
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In a statement, Onion CEO Collins shared:
"[The deal is a] significant step in an effort to transform one of the internet's more notorious misinformation platforms into a new comedy network for satire."
"Eight years, almost to the day, after the Sandy Hook parents first filed suit against Alex Jones, they'll finally get some justice, and even some money."
"This is a chance to make something genuinely new out of a very broken piece of media history."
The company said it could announce the rollout of InfoWars in a matter of weeks once the judge approves the deal.
The proposed licensing deal would have The Onion paying $81,000 per month to the bankruptcy manager for their use of the InfoWars brand for six months with an option to extend for another six months.
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