By DIETER BRADBURY

MaineToday Media, Inc.

The Onion, arguably the most popular news parody site on the Web, is having some fun at the expense of L.L. Bean.

A two-minute "special report" went up Monday on the Onion News Network about a fictional African-American boycott of L.L. Bean products that has been in effect for 80 years.

Shot on the streets of New York, the video features several black people in sidewalk interviews dissing Bean clothing as they leaf through one of the company's catalogs.

"I would never, in a million years, order anything out of this catalog," says a young man in a New York Yankees baseball cap and warm-up jacket.

"Quite frankly, I wouldn't feel comfortable in these clothes," says a middle-aged man in a sports jacket, shirt and tie.

"If I ever caught my mom, or me in this, or you in that outfit, uh-uh, I would not talk to you," a teenage girl remarks to a companion, who shakes her head.

The video features a studio interview with L.L. Bean President Thomas McCormick (the actual Bean president is Chris McCormick), who expresses mystification at the boycott.

He pleads with leaders of the black community to step forward and explain why they won't buy the company's merchandise.

McCormick says Bean researched its records and found it has sold fewer than 30 items to African-Americans since the company was established 80 years ago in "Greenwood, Maine."

He says the company is reaching out to African-Americans by offering them a special deal: Order two Casco Bay knit pullovers from the Bean catalog and get a free pair of fly-fishing waders.

"L.L. Bean, like all of America, should be a place for everyone," McCormick says, "white kayaking enthusiasts and black kayaking enthusiasts alike."

Will Graham, executive producer and director at The Onion, said the idea for the Bean parody came from the site's writing team.

Some are familiar with L.L. Bean and submitted the proposal as part of a group of ideas for stories, he said.

The news anchor in the video and McCormick are actors but the subjects of the sidewalk interviews are people the production crew encountered on the street, Graham said. They were not given a script and commented spontaneously after being shown L.L. Bean catalogs, he said.

Graham said he didn't know how much Web traffic the Bean report is generating, but as a rule Onion videos collectively, on all platforms, get about 1 million plays a week. The Bean story was listed as the most e-mailed and most viewed video on The Onion site Thursday morning.

Graham said he was unaware of any complaints or negative feedback on the story.

"This is sort of on the tamer end of what we do," he said. "We try to be equal opportunity offenders. We're skeptics and cynics looking at the world and looking at it without bias."

L.L. Bean, which includes black models in its catalogs, seems to be taking the spoof in stride.

A company spokeswoman, Laurie Brooks, said she was unaware of The Onion segment until contacted by a reporter.

After watching the two-minute video, she said it was simply the latest in a long line of Bean take-offs.

"It's nothing new to us to be parodied," she said. "We've got an entire wall in our corporate offices covered with cartoons about L.L. Bean. We've been parodied countless times."

Rachel Talbot Ross, president of the Portland chapter of the NAACP, said the video was troubling, though clearly a spoof.

"It's not to be taken seriously, but the characterization is offensive," she said. "To suggest that black people only wear certain types of clothing or only shop at particular stores is ludicrous."

Ross also noted that Bean makes many charitable contributions to the community, including support for the NAACP chapter's annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast.

"Given the charitable giving the company has done, it's not a fair characterization," she said.