An article saying spider eggs are used in Beanie Babies and are “finally hatching” is just satire--don’t worry.
The article was posted on Clickhole, a website operated by satirical mainstay The Onion. “If you were obsessed with Beanie Babies in the ‘90s, get ready to fall in love all over again, because the spider eggs they used to fill your favorite Beanies are beginning to hatch! Collectors all over the country have been reporting that the long-awaited day has finally arrived, with brown recluse spiderlings bursting through the seams of Beanies everywhere,” the article from Clickhole says.
On Clickhole’s Facebook page, some people commented on the post as if it were a real news story.
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“Is this a joke....I’m scared,” one person wrote on the site’s Facebook page.
Added another, “I hope this is a joke.”
But one user said: “These satire pieces are a very effective way of weeding out those whom reside in the lower reaches of the intellectual spectrum...”
Clickhole is an affiliate of The Onion and is a satire of viral “clickbait” websites like BuzzFeed.
The bogus article also features a (hopefully) Photoshopped image of a Beanie Baby with small spiders covering it.
Users on social media apparently believed the satire, and it was featured on Snopes.com, a hoax-debuking website, on Wednesday.
“The article contains several tidbits of misinformation. First, brown recluse spider eggs don’t lay dormant for 20-something years. According to Orkin, these little eggs usually hatch in about a month. Second, Ty Warner used small plastic pellets, or beans, to stuff Beanie Babies, not spider eggs,” said Snopes in a matter-of-fact article.
In case you’ve never read it, the Onion does have a disclaimer.
“The Onion is a satirical weekly publication published 52 times a year on Thursdays. The Onion is published by Onion, Inc. The contents of this material are © Copyright 2010 by Onion, Inc. and may not be reprinted or re-transmitted in whole or in part without the express written consent of the publisher. The Onion is not intended for readers under 18 years of age,” it says.
It also adds: “The Onion uses invented names in all its stories, except in cases where public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental.”
