I’ve been reading Cracked since 2008 or so. A few years ago, they were better than that, and some writers, such as Christina H. or David Wong, did have good, insightful thoughts, or non-attacking humor to offer. But they’re in the good minority; many other Cracked writers aren’t anywhere as reasonable or factual at all. And since three years ago or so, Cracked has basically turned into an SJW attack blog, especially with the likes of Winston Rowntree and so forth.
However- one culprit is also the title editor. Cracked is known to manipulate some titles of their articles to twist and distort. A prime example is how David Wong wrote a very good article titled “6 Reasons for Trump’s Rise That No One Talks About.” Cracked instead twisted the title into, “How Half of America Lost its F**ing Mind.” For proof, look at the URL for the original title.
Cracked used to be funny, but has become a shrill, scolding (very apt word) site whining about political and social issues crap. I used to visit it daily but for the last 6 months or so it’s sucked.
And yeah, it’s something I’ve noticed, and certainly the commenters have noticed, growing over the last few years. And it wasn’t always that hardcore—witness an article from seven years back, when illustrious contributor Seanbaby (always good for a humor article on non-serious subjects) takes on a series of somewhat questionable romance handbooks.
…always brings a jack-o-lantern smile to my face. And even if you don’t care for that humor, it was clearly going for humor, not just a platform for a lecture.
I think they fell down the well of self-importance. I had some brief dealings with them as a writer, and the pompous-assery was as high as I’ve ever encountered in thirty-plus years of freelancing. They obviously didn’t consider anyone not already on their staff really quite worth bothering with.
(And the truth is that most very tony magazines have very gracious acquisitions editor/contacts, even for evident novices. They might brush you off, but they don’t make you feel like a dick for bothering them.)
Their attitude shows on the front page, IMHO.
The move from straight humor to sort of Unca Cecil humorous facting to unfunny diatribes is predictable as well. They’re *important *now, dammit.
Yeah…the “White people you’re the worst” angle sometimes seen is grating.
But everyone has already covered what I would have said. Seanbaby, …After Hours…
I liked how Gladstone would actually respond to comments but he just got more and more bitter…especially when he would be shown to be flat-out wrong on a point and wouldn’t admit it.
The site was genuinely great and funny around 2008 when I started reading there, but I think it started to go downhill around 2010-2011, and it really has become a different kind of site over the past 2-3 years (I even did a thread on this here in IMHO a couple years ago). I still read it regularly, but I read a smaller percentage of the articles and think of it more as a news site now.
I don’t think their videos have ever been very good, pace a few commenters here. The exception was a series they did featuring Katie Willert that inexplicably ended one day. She was quite good in that.
FJ Sargent has been one of the people that have turned the site into SJW Central.
While I hate the term SJW, in this case, it’s accurate.
There’s some loser there who keeps posting “I am/was poor and o how horrible my life is/was. And bullies suxxxor! And here’s how you need to behave” articles that just set my teeth on edge.
The site stopped being really funny (IMO) about the time they stopped doing the “You Won’t Believe These Photos Are Real” feature.
My feelings, precisely. I still have the app on my phone but I probably haven’t opened it in a good 6 - 8 months.
But I have to be honest, I can say the same about my visits to regular news sites like CNN thanks to the political landscape. Would be nice if Cracked could have avoided that pitfall, but alas.
I was a regular submitter to Photoplasty for about a year, a while back; when I figured out that it was only possible to win twice a year (as I recall), I re-evaluated the amount of time I was devoting to those entries and stopped.
But despite that bitter experience, I still frequently find Cracked funny. I think it really does depend on one’s politics: the more progressive you are, the more likely you are to find it genuinely humorous. The more irritated you are by progressivism (a good tell: you use “SJW” as a serious term of opprobrium), the less likely you are to find it funny.
I don’t guffaw all the time at their stuff, mind you. They specialize in “snark” and it can be a bit formulaic. But in small doses, I like the site.
John Cheese, I believe? I originally liked them for pointing out some issues about poverty that you might not otherwise consider but I agree that the pony could stand to learn a few new tricks.
Like most everyone else, I remember Cracked being consistently funny back c.2008 – at least enough so to make reading it a habit. These days I tend to skip the social justice stuff and look for articles on funny video game glitches or film mistakes. Those are rarely laugh-out-loud funny but they don’t make me hurt myself via eye-rolling either.
The “Five things you believe about [item] that are totally false” article are maybe the worse; being a collection of things that either (a) no one has believed in a generation of (b) are being misinterpreted or the author is just wrong.
I liked John Cheese, actually. He has a great deal of wisdom about what it is like to be poor in America, and how incredibly difficult it is to pull oneself out of that pit, and how people lecture about “Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps!”
Oh there were a whole bunch. Offhand I can remember in the 50s/60s Frenzy, Sick, Crazy but there were more too. Mad of course was head and shoulders above the rest. Cracked was its poor cousin but the best of the imitators.
And even if you don’t care for that humor, it was clearly going for humor, not just a platform for a lecture.