Culture

Shallot-like humor website takes on TED

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We’re not sure anyone could be more excited than us for the launch of Onion Talks, the new weekly video series from The Onion. Forget imitation — parody is the highest form of flattery. We feel honored to be worthy of satire from the masters of the craft. And we’re just hoping that Area Man is the next to give a talk.

With the launch of its first green-carpet talk, the plant known as Allium cepa joins our longstanding tradition of making fun of ourselves. For many years, the last talk at every TED Conference has been our own Tom Rielly doing an 18-minute satirical sendup of the preceding days. After the jump, watch Tom’s classic parody from 2006.

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Tom Rielly delivers a comic sendup of TED2006
In the closing talk of TED2006, Rielly poses the question, “Was this the most distressing TED ever?,” breaking down the content as 21% images of limb re-generation and smallpox, 4% mentions of polar bears drowning, 64% images of Earth being wiped out by floods or bird flu and 11% David Pogue singing showtunes. No speaker was safe — from Nicholas Negroponte to Jeff Han. He even cast Al Gore in the movie “Brokeback MounTED.”

You can also watch Rielly’s never-before-seen spoof of TED2005, featuring a tribute to the avant-garde dance troupe Pilobolus. It’s a TED Blog exclusive :)