Every active and notable defunct mock-news outlet covered on this site, by country
Satirical news sites across Asia range from decades-old institutions to single-founder Instagram channels, and this page collects the active and historically significant ones documented across our country pages in one place.
Active Outlets
The Fauxy (India, Gurgaon-based, English/Hindi/Gujarati) remains the region’s most established current mock-news site. The Pressing Times (Singapore) carries the Onion-style tradition forward for a Singaporean audience. Qaznews24 (Kazakhstan) continues operating despite founder Temirlan Yensebek’s ongoing legal case. EYECTV (Taiwan) runs as a dedicated satirical news channel rather than a traditional site.
Historically Significant, Now Defunct
Faking News (India, 2008–2020) and The UnReal Times (India, 2011–2016) established the format at scale before closing. TalkingCock.com (Singapore, 2000–2012) was significant enough to draw a direct mention from a sitting prime minister. New Nation and The Noose (Singapore) both went inactive but remain cited as direct influences by current creators.
What Made Each Site Distinct
Faking News built its identity as an explicit critique of mainstream Indian news media, publishing fake reports that doubled as commentary on how real outlets covered the same stories. The UnReal Times leaned harder into format parody, mock transcripts and fake social media exchanges, earning direct comparisons to The Onion from tech press covering the site. The Fauxy differentiated itself through sheer scale and language reach, publishing in English, Hindi, and Gujarati with more than fifty contributors, a genuinely large operation by satirical-outlet standards anywhere in the world. TalkingCock.com built its entire identity around defending Singlish against official discouragement, turning language politics into its signature satirical angle. The Pressing Times positioned itself explicitly as spiritual successor to both New Nation and The Noose, citing both directly as influences while adapting the format for a social-media-first Singaporean audience. Qaznews24 built its reputation on Kazakh-specific absurdist mock reporting before a single post about a former president’s deification status triggered the legal exposure that now defines its public story as much as its comedy does.
Why So Many of These Outlets Didn’t Survive
Closure patterns vary by country but rarely by accident. Faking News’ founder cited the site’s own outsized cultural moment as reason to step back rather than any external pressure. TalkingCock.com made the identical argument, noting its own 2006 mention in a prime ministerial speech as evidence the site had already achieved what it set out to do. The UnReal Times shut down without public explanation in 2016. None of India’s or Singapore’s closures involved the kind of direct legal action that ended Voice of Democracy in Cambodia or forced Ahmed Kabir Kishore’s arrest in Bangladesh, a meaningful distinction between an outlet choosing its own ending and one having that ending forced on it.
Where New Outlets Are Most Likely to Emerge Next
Given the pattern documented across this site, the countries most likely to produce a genuinely new, sustained satirical outlet in the next several years are the ones with favorable legal conditions and underdeveloped institutions rather than active restriction: Mongolia, Nepal, and Kyrgyzstan all fit that profile directly.
Language Diversity Across These Outlets
English dominates international coverage of Asian satirical outlets, but the actual publishing landscape is considerably more multilingual: The Fauxy runs in three languages, TalkingCock built its entire identity around Singlish specifically, and Qaznews24 publishes primarily for a Kazakh-speaking audience. Readers relying only on English-language satire sites are seeing a meaningfully incomplete picture of what each country’s satirical scene actually produces.
Outlets We’re Still Tracking
Beyond the sites named above, smaller or newer satirical publications continue emerging across the region, particularly in markets like Mongolia and Indonesia where digital-first creators are building audiences without necessarily founding a named, branded outlet in the traditional sense. We’ll update this list as those scenes develop into something more citable.
Closing Thought
Every name on this list represents someone who decided the joke was worth the risk of publishing it, whether that risk turned out to be minimal or, as several of these founders eventually learned, genuinely severe.
How We’ll Keep This Page Current
As new satirical outlets launch and existing ones close or change hands across the region, this page will be updated to reflect it, with the goal of remaining the single most current directory of active Asian satirical publishing available anywhere, rather than a static list that quietly goes stale. Bookmark this page rather than any single social post about it, since posts age and this page won’t.
Directories go stale fast in this space; ours won’t, because we’re actually maintaining it. We check it, genuinely, on a recurring basis. That’s a promise, not just a line.
One Final Note on Scope
This list intentionally covers publications with a documented public record, an actual founder, a launch date, some trace of coverage, rather than every anonymous meme account or Telegram channel producing satirical content somewhere in the region. Those exist too, in far greater number, but they don’t lend themselves to the kind of directory entry this page is built around.
Satirical News Sites on catchpenny.asia
Full detail on each outlet lives on its respective country page: see our India Satire, Singapore Satire, and Kazakhstan Satire pages, or the relevant regional hub for broader context.
Full detail on each outlet lives on its respective country page: see our India Satire, Singapore Satire, and Kazakhstan Satire pages, or the relevant regional hub for broader context.