Will today's World Cup opening ceremony feature a 380 foot replica of President Vladimir Putin's penis? No, that's not true: that story was published by a satirical website. It is not true and you can tell anyone who shared it as real news that there has been a bit of a cock-up.
The satirical article was published on June 14, 2018 by The Daily Mash under the headline "World Cup opening ceremony to centre on 380ft replica of Putin's cock" (archived here). It opened:
TODAY'S World Cup opening ceremony will feature a monstrous replica of Russian president Vladimir Putin's 'magnificent' penis.
The cock, which is accurate in every detail, will enter Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium bellend-first in a blizzard of ticker tape with official mascot Zabivaka the cartoon wolf dancing on top.
After several circuits of the stadium allowing spectators and FIFA dignitaries to admire it from every angle, the grossly outsized member will then be hoisted erect to the sound of Placido Domingo belting out some opera.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail and some of them might have been daft enough to believe it:
World Cup opening ceremony to centre on 380ft replica of Putin's cock
TODAY'S World Cup opening ceremony will feature a monstrous replica of Russian president Vladimir Putin's 'magnificent' penis.
But The Daily Mash is a satirical website from the U.K. which sports following disclaimer on its about page:
About the Daily Mash
The Daily Mash is a satirical website which publishes spoof articles, i.e. it is all made-up and is not intended, in any way whatsoever, to be taken as factual. Glad we've got that sorted.
Their articles are generally quite funny but now and then they get interpreted as real news.
We wrote about thedailymash.co.uk before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
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