Thud

Submission 2,565

Part of a series on The Onion. [View Related Entries]

About

Thud is a satirical comedy website that parodies numerous sectors of American culture, particularly technology, consumerism and media. Originally founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Thud's writing staff consists primarily of former writers and editor of the news media satirical publication The Onion.

History

On March 13th, 2018, The Daily Beast^[1] reported that Elon Musk had hired former Onion Editor-in-Chief Cole Bolton and former Onion Executive Editor Ben Berkely to work on a then-secret comedy project. At the time, Berkley and Bolton told The Daily Beast, "We can confirm that we have learned nothing from prevailing trends in media and are launching a brand-new comedy project."

The following day, Musk tweeted, ^[2] "Thud! that's the name of my new intergalactic media empire, exclamation point optional." Within 24 hours, the two posts received more than a combined 5,000 retweets and 70,000 likes (shown below).

One year later, on March 12th, 2019, Vulture^[3] reported that the website, now officially called "Thud," had launched. Additionally, the site reports that Musk had sold the project, in its entirety, to Bolton and Berkley. They wrote, after teaming with Berkley and Bolton, "Berkley assembled a writing staff, only for Musk to worry that his own humor site might make fun of him one day, and he sold the whole enterprise to Bolton and Berkley. So it’s no longer Musk’s project whatsoever -- it’s Bolton and Berkley’s baby."

Features

At launch, Thud consists of a splash page that reveals the credits for the website. The page describes the website as "comedy project that creates immersive satirical experiences."

From the splash page, the main navigation leads users to a selection of five separate websites, each offering a different satirical take on a subject. These include: "6 Minute Test," a personality questionaire; "DNA Friend," a genetic test similar to 23andMe; "Ploog," a multiport adapter that mimics any appendage and oriface; a hotline number; and "Tacstorm," a continuously firing gun (Ploog and Tacstorm videos show below, left and right, respectively).

Each of these websites features a fully-functional series of features, games, tests and videos to explore. For example, "6 Minute Test" require users answer a series of 36 questions, resulting in one of 16 different personality types (shown below). The site also includes reviews, a description of the personality types and a methodology page.