GUILDERLAND — Town officials are being "spoofed" on the Net.

An international, Internet-based satire newspaper called The Spoof, has run several articles using the names of local politicians and political challengers.

The articles, on www.thespoof.com, appear to be a take-off on Enterprise coverage of the current political contentions between Democratic Councilman Michael Ricard and Republican hopeful Warren Redlich.

The website uses parodies of current events written by anonymous authors from around the world to mimic a real newspaper, much like the more widely known The Onion, which started in 1988 as a college paper in Wisconsin. There are many disclaimers throughout The Spoof website that state, "All items on this website are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental or is intended purely as a satire, parody, or spoof."
The Spoof describes itself on its website as "providing an irreverent and satirical slant to the current big news stories throughout the world, bringing you more funny stories than you can shake a stick at."
It was created in 2001, but had a predecessor website called "There’s no place like home," which was created by Paul Lawton in 1997. The website was then called "Laughsend" in 1998 before becoming The Spoof nearly seven years ago.