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Ex-Onion writers mock for-profit colleges in this parody infomercial

It's funny because it's (kind of) true.

 

Gaby Dunn

Internet Culture

Posted on Dec 19, 2013   Updated on May 31, 2021, 11:22 pm CDT

At around 4 a.m. all this week, Adult Swim has been running a fake infomercial for a college called For Profit Online University written by a group of former writers for The Onion. The channel hasn’t really promoted it (the ad is unlisted on their official YouTube page) but the commercial has been going viral since it was discovered by comedy blogs yesterday.

The commercial, a one-off special program, is 11 minutes long and stars Nicole Byer, Nick Corirossi, and Brian Huskey among others. The Onion writers are part of a comedy group called Wild Aggressive Dog, made up of Geoff Haggerty, Dan Klein, Matthew Klinman, Michael Pielocik, Chris Sartinsky, and Sam West.

The commercial spoofs University of Phoenix online, degree programs, and infomericals but also introduces us to a storyline involving an evil rogue spambot named Howard. But don’t worry. As long as you don’t ever tell him your real name, you’ll be fine.

H/T Splitsider / Screen grab via YouTube

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*First Published: Dec 19, 2013, 7:51 pm CST