... I love the Weekly World News.
For those of you who are too intellectual to know this, the WWN is one of those puerile supermarket tabloids; however, unlike its kin, the WWN eschews telling lies about celebrities for telling lies about aliens and monsters and the Second Coming and all that sort of thing. So it's a lot more fun to begin with.
Anyway, for years now, the WWN has been championing this weird creature they call the 'Bat Boy'. You may have seen the pictures... it resembles a computer-morphed picture of a human baby with grotesquely large eyes and pointy teeth and ears. And it's always the same picture of Bat Boy. Bat Boy is the WWN's own personal version of Bigfoot or the chupacabra, that was discovered hiding in a cave somewhere and was captured by scientists...
This week's issue, once again, featured Bat Boy. Yes. The exact same picture of Bat Boy... except this time, with an American flag bandanna tied around his head. The headline? 'BAT BOY VOLUNTEERS TO FIGHT TERRORISTS!'
Apparently Bat Boy walked onto a Marine base and told people he wanted to help fight the terrorist menace! Well, go Bat Boy! We sure could use your help!
Thank you, Weekly World News. Thank you for this timely and inspiring piece of journalism. Bat Boy is truly an inspiration to us all.
Replies: add your comment: currently 8 comments
*wipes away a tear*
Go, Bat Boy! Go, for all of us!
Bat Boy is an inspiration to us all, human and flying rat alike.
Posted by Nezumi @ 10/10/2001 09:01 AM EST
I've never been able to figure whether there are people who actually *believe* this nonsense...
Posted by Nathan @ 10/10/2001 09:12 AM EST
Who knows, we might get lucky and see a feature on Moon's pointy bits :)
Posted by Dragonfly @ 10/10/2001 10:43 AM EST
LOL!!!!
My friend once put on a test at school, for a fill-in-the-blank answer, "Zanguido the Giant Squirrel". Maybe I could geta feature on him at the WWN if I could fake a picture...And he could fight the terrorists alongside BatBoy!! Boo-Yaaah!!
I also have wondered whether or not there are people who SERIOUSLY do believe all this stuff in real life. It...seems unlikely, and yet....I wouldn't be surprised either way....
Posted by Wolf @ 10/10/2001 11:19 AM EST
Oh yeah, I forgot to ask this. Since you read comics at least occasionally, Moon, to my knowledge, you should understand this question:
Does the Bat Boy ressemble the Bat-Mite?? Sure sounds like it! LOL!!
You should post a picture of Bat Boy for all to see. Heh.
Posted by Wolf @ 10/11/2001 03:40 PM EST
You mean.....Bat Boy isn't real?!! *shock!*
Posted by Lea @ 10/11/2001 11:15 PM EST
You know, I sorta knew someone who knew someone that worked for a similar rag called the SUN. There is very little differnce between the SUN and WWN. Anyway, this person was one of the "journalists," if you can call them that, and lemme tell you, if there's a way I could work for these people, I would apply in a hearbeat. They have the coolest job next to working for the Onion.
Here's the kicker: most of the stories were based on REAL stories...with a little stretching involved. They'd take a real story like "Boy Finds Bat" ad turn it into "Boy Has Bats for Legs." Ok, so maybe there's a LOT of stretching involved. There's about 4 authors that work on the whole thing, and they all use pseudonyms that begin with the first two initials of their name. For example, John Smith, Joan Summers and Jacob Shaw would all be the same author who's real name would be something like Joe Schmoe. They also use a LOT of alliteration and very small sentences (gotta appeal to the audience) to make it sound as sensational as possible.
So next time you're flipping through these rags, look out for these little tricks of the trade sorta things. It's almost as fun as reading it for the stories! ^_^
~Teri
Posted by Teri @ 10/12/2001 04:18 PM EST
Bat boy!!! Yeah, I stared at that issue too. Gotta love it!
Interesting comments Teri!
Posted by Andrya @ 10/24/2001 07:34 AM EST
