Whaaaaa? You're Kidding. No, seriously, you mean this isn't The Onion?

So I ran across this headline in my Google Homepage, and thought it must have been the ocassional Onion article that gets put up as "real news."
But as it turns out, it comes from The Guardian, a London, England newspaper which, as it turns out, is supposed to be a reputable news source.

A few questions:
Why now? What has changed? Was this not a viable option four years ago?
So many questions.