 | |
Type of site | Comedy |
|---|---|
| URL | https://www.thepoke.com |
| Launched | 2002 |
| Current status | Active |
The Poke is a British satirical website. It was launched in 2002 as a fanzine distributed at the Edinburgh Festival and independent music shops. The website is known[ by whom? ] for producing viral videos, which are often Auto-Tune edits of British current affairs. [1]
The Poke began as a fanzine with a circulation of 50,000[ citation needed ] that was sold in music shops across the United Kingdom and at the annual Edinburgh Festival. Later becoming an internet-only publication, the website gained some popularity when it was featured as an "Internet pick of the week" by The Guardian , which described it as "a British version of The Onion crossed with Private Eye ". [2] The site was named 'Website of the day' by pocket-lint.com on 19 January 2012. [3]
The red-top look of the site means there have been cases of the site's fictional, satirical news stories being misinterpreted as real news items. In January 2012, a number of French news organisations including Le Parisien and L’Express reported on an August 2011 article by The Poke about a BBC sign language interpreter being fired from her job for 'fabricating news' as a genuine story. French radio broadcasters RTL and France Info also reported the story as real, and television broadcaster Canal+ featuring the fictitious 'scandal' on an evening news programme. [4]
In December 2022, The Poke was acquired by Digitalbox plc. [5]
The Poke created an Auto-Tuned version of the Leveson Inquiry featuring the sampled testimonies of Rupert Murdoch, Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson. The video was featured in the Guardian's Viral Video Chart. [6]
An Auto-Tuned remix uploaded in September 2012 to YouTube of Nick Clegg's apology over going back on his promise to oppose a rise in tuition fees saw the website rise to national publicity, with the video becoming an Internet phenomenon. Following a request by the website, Clegg allowed the song to be released as a single, with proceeds donated to the Sheffield Children's Hospital. [7] The track was released on 21 September, and entered the weekly UK Singles Chart at number 136 two days later. [8]
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