{"id":392,"date":"2026-07-12T10:37:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T10:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=392"},"modified":"2026-07-12T10:37:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T10:37:04","slug":"how-comedian-tim-heidecker-turned-alex-jones-conspiracy-empire-on-its-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=392","title":{"rendered":"How Comedian Tim Heidecker Turned Alex Jones\u2019 Conspiracy Empire on Its Head"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cYou think that Alex Jones gorged himself on Whataburger? You\u2019re saying five triple cheeseburgers and how many<\/em> fry boxes?\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more What\u2019s Next for Maine Democrats After Platnerpocalypse?<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve watched the Real Infowars livestream over the past week, this is what you got: not the actual right-wing conspiracy theorist but a gloriously deranged parody from absurdist comedian Tim Heidecker, who has been impersonating Jones for the past 10 years. \u201cI\u2019m attracted to people like Alex Jones\u2014not sexually attracted, but interested in his mind and the way he presents himself,\u201d Heidecker says. \u201cEverything we do that\u2019s perceived as absurd always starts from a real place of: \u2018Something like this exists, and we\u2019re going to expand upon it and go deeper and weirder with it.\u2019\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n

For two years, after losing a landmark defamation case filed by the Sandy Hook families and declaring bankruptcy, Jones has been battling the satirical news site the Onion for control of his website Infowars. And despite still being in a legal gray zone, it\u2019s finally launched\u2014with Heidecker at the helm.<\/p>\n

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The first order of business? In the new Infowars world, Jones is dead.<\/p>\n

On a recent episode of What Next, Lizzie O\u2019Leary spoke to Heidecker about liberal wish fulfillment, baiting the real-life Jones, the ongoing legal saga, and his vision to establish a new media empire out of the old conspiracy site\u2019s ashes. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/p>\n

Lizzie O\u2019Leary: How did you get involved with this project? Did [Onion CEO] Ben Collins come to you and say, \u201cAll right, let\u2019s do this\u201d? How\u2019d that happen?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tim Heidecker:<\/strong> I reached out to the Onion a couple of years ago, when the Infowars auction was potentially going to happen. It was in the news everywhere. I was doing my podcast Office Hours<\/em>, and we use a lot of Alex Jones clips, so I was just curious\u2014I wanted to see if I could be of some kind of assistance. But I never heard back from them. I guess it fell apart.<\/p>\n

Then they reached out to me maybe six months later, and the question was: \u201cThis might be happening, we might be getting Infowars. What do you think we should do with it?\u201d They were looking for advice and thinking I could be more involved. After six or seven phone calls and meetings, it got defined as I would be the creative director of this and help them figure out how to move forward.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, I got involved because I can\u2019t say no to anything. I have to say yes and live with my decisions. I didn\u2019t want to live in a world of satirizing this guy forever. I think pretty early on, we were like, \u201cLet\u2019s goof on Alex for a little while in this conspiracy world.\u201d But this is a viable media enterprise that I\u2019m really interested in for the sake of comedy and the opportunity for outsider or fringe comedy.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re all witnessing the death or consolidation of corporate media, and there are very few outlets for the kind of comedy I like. The Onion saw that too. In my old age now, I would love to be more of a mentor and offer a place for the new generation to come up and have some funding and distribution in place. And what greater irony would it be for this empire that Alex built to be turned into this fairly diverse, progressive, artsy-fartsy comedy streaming site?<\/p>\n

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