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NMA has its own absurd interpretation of the Manti Te’o story

The clip features an animated leprechaun, uncommonly awesome fake tears, and the symbolic transformation of Te'o's body into a Transformer.

 

Chase Hoffberger

Streaming

Posted on Jan 17, 2013   Updated on Jun 2, 2021, 3:22 am CDT

Just 17 hours after news broke that esteemed Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o had engaged in a loving, strange relationship with a woman who never actually existed, the mad wizards at New Media Animation have bestowed upon the saga the Internet’s most fascinatingly terrible tribute: a full two minutes of the great Taiwanese Animation treatment. 

The laughably entertaining video, which posted today, recounts Te’o’s emotional autumn and Deadspin’s eventual discovery that he’d been either lying about the existence of a girlfriend or got tricked into thinking that there was ever a girlfriend he could call his own in the first place. 

The clip features an animated leprechaun, uncommonly awesome fake tears, and the symbolic transformation of Te’o’s body into that of a Transformer’s so that he could perform a little better when his team faced off against longtime rivals Michigan State. It’s hilarious, witty, and covers every base if you’re too preoccupied to read the actual report. 

New Media Animation has become notorious for its knack of covering major media stories in hilarious, low-tech ways. Since May 2011, the site has covered every scandal from human barbies to Kim Kardashian’s pregnancy to Lance Armstrong’s doping investigation.

It’s most popular video, April’s “Russian Women,” a look at a Russian model who looks like a real-life plastic doll, has attracted more than 620,000 views. 

Photo via NMA/YouTube

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*First Published: Jan 17, 2013, 4:34 pm CST