Onion News Network has done up another one of their haw-haw-making, (presumably) fake news reports, dually inspired by Iron Man 2 fandom and the Gwyneth Paltrow backlash, titled “Iron Man 2 Buzz Heats Up Over Rumors Gwynyth Paltrow Gets Punched in the Face.” Spoiler alert: it’s really funny.
Now, the low-hanging fruit here, which will undoubtedly inspire some folks to say the video is too mean, is the Gwyneth backlash: The Onion’s sister site The A.V. Club, like many celebrity snarkers, regularly ribs Paltrow for her nebulous lifestyle website GOOP.com, which, along with her children’s unusual names and her “pretend[ing] she’s friends with Jay-Z,” is featured in the video as a source of Paltrow hate. But: Iron Man repeatedly punching her in the face does seem a tad harsh.
But the real humor here, at least if you frequent the geeky news circuit over the celebrity sites, is how right the spoof gets the nerdy comic book movie hype machine and its Hollywood response: It all starts with an Ain’t It Cool rumor that Paltrow gets punched in the face, which turns into fan excitement and messageboard commenting, then the inevitable YouTube fan response videos. The Onion’s nega-Hollywood, for its part, responds by making (of course) an interactive game on the Iron Man 2 website and leaking rumors that there’ll be a spinoff in which The Hulk punches Gwyneth Paltrow in the face.
‘Iron Man 2’ Buzz Heats Up Over Rumors Gwyneth Paltrow Gets Punched In Face
(via The Onion)
