World, this is a public service announcement: the Onion writes satire. It seems, astonishingly, that some people still don't know that. Lots of people! Actual people! And some of them are newspaper editors!
Not one but two major papers have taken the Onion at its word when it describes itself as "America's finest news source." Fine it may be, but news it certainly ain't.
Alas, neither the Korea Times — South Korea's oldest English-language newspaper — nor the People's Daily Online, the English version of China's Communist Party organ, spotted the difference.
Both reprinted a recent Onion offering that named "Sexiest Man Alive 2012."
The original article, dated Nov. 14, paid homage to young Kim's "devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame" ... "an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side" ... "his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile."
Supposed "Style and Entertainment editor" Marissa Blake-Zweibel, whose name appears nowhere else on the site, then proffers some nonsense about Kim being "the sort of man women want, and men want to be," "a real hunk with real intensity who also knows how to cut loose and let his hair down."
It's total guff, in other words, and obviously — hilariously — so.
(Read More: Your Next Vacation Destination: North Korea's 'Hotel of Doom')
For the Korea Times and the People's Daily Online, however, it was evidently all too plausible. The Times reproduced the article almost word for word, even down to the bunk list of previous winners (2011's was Bashar al-Assad, to give you a flavor).
The People's Daily, meanwhile, followed its Communist mandate and gave the people what they clearly want: 55 — yes, 55 — photos of Respected Comrade Hotty. (Allow us to direct you to No. 24: The Squat.)
Given the North Korean propaganda factory's penchant for reporting on positive press its dictator receives abroad, we're only surprised that the spoof didn't make its way onto the Korean Central News Agency's website. (Perhaps they didn't think it newsworthy: like, obviously Kim Jong Un is the sexiest man alive, hello?!?!!)
The snickers have not yet reached either newspaper's ears, since both features are still accessible online. Long may they remain so, fine additions to a pantheon of irony fails.