Tim Heidecker Wants to Turn Infowars Into Adult Swim for the Internet
When The Onion announced that it would take over Infowars in 2024, I had a hard time imagining a single funnier and more perfect thing
When The Onion announced that it would take over Infowars in 2024, I had a hard time imagining a single funnier and more perfect thing than the ghoulish legacy of Alex Jones being stomped all over by the satirical news outlet. A few years and several legal back-and-forths later, The Onion still doesn’t quite own Infowars. But it is proceeding apace and recently announced that none other than comedian Tim Heidecker would serve as creative director (and chief Alex Jones impersonator) when Infowars’ brand is finally handed over. And just like that, something even funnier and more perfect came to be: In Heidecker’s first video as Jones, an 18-minute “Emergency Broadcast,” he offers up a spectacular impersonation of the conspiracy theorist, announces an alliance between God and Satan, and ends by imploring viewers that “Infowars is a movement, and you’re on it. You’re on our ship. Come on board.” (While drinking a wine glass full of adult blood, obviously.) At WIRED, we’re longtime fans of both The Onion and Tim Heidecker—a match made in heaven, if you ask me—so I had to take the opportunity to sit down with Tim and find out more about what kind of movement, exactly, he was busy plotting for the Infowars of the future.
We talked all things Infowars, including the latest on The Onion’s legal efforts to acquire the brand and its archives, plus the shift of Heidecker’s own comedy into newsier terrain, his thoughts on the death of late-night, and why he never tries too hard to get attention online. Read our conversation below, watch it on YouTube, or listen at the podcast provider of your choice. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. KATIE DRUMMOND: Welcome, Tim. TIM HEIDECKER: Thanks for not calling me Eric. Oh my god, I can't even imagine. Has that happened before? Yeah, and even with close friends. I have to start by asking, what goes into the uncanny parody of Alex Jones? How did you try to capture his id, if you will? I guess I just can do it. I don't know. I don't think about it. I've been doing it for 10 years or more. When he was at the first Republican convention in Cleveland, a guy I do a lot of work with, Vic Berger, we went to the convention, and at the time, there was this chat—what was it called?
Snapchat—which I guess still exists. Yeah, I missed that boat. I don't understand it. For a minute there, it did really good face-swapping—or, it probably still does. But you can do that real-time face-swapping. So I was doing it with Alex Jones, and he was there. So I just started doing it, and I could do it. I don't know how I could do it. I guess the key to it is to not stop talking, and to keep going, and filibuster as much as you can with not really any information. In the 10 years that you have been parodying him, have you learned anything about the guy? Do you have a better understanding of his whole deal? No. I think he's a great entertainer, a great talent. There's great broadcasting talent there. He’s taken it into a very dark place, where essentially it's a pills delivery system. That's the business. Right, they sell supplements.
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