If there's a Yes/No question in the headline ...

I enjoy reading Cracked…the articles are funny and informative, if taken with a grain of salt. Their model is short lists like “6 Urban Legends That Were Totally Made Up By Celebrities” (to pick one from today).

But everything on their site is either “insane” or “mind blowing”
My mind is still intact, so their hyperbole is growing tiresome.

(I just checked…I had to scroll down to May 28 to find “Mind blowing” in a title–maybe they are getting the message. “Insane” is still daily.)

Nu-uh…

Does anyone here think I’m the only one who thinks the answer to this headline is “no”?

Major news sites are doing this. I’ve stopped going to CBS’ site because they have stories – not ads, but stories – with headlines like, “Major celebrity takes a tumble!”

It used to be the headline told half the story, then the story itself told the details.

Now I stick to Reuters and AP for most of my news.

By the way, what happened to the old sales trick of only asking a question you could say “yes” to? “This $9,000 vacuum will pick up stray electrons! That’s a good deal, right?”

Am I the only one here that doesn’t think ‘Does anyone here think I’m the only one who thinks the answer to this headline is “no”?’ is the wrong way to ask Isamu’s question?

Besides RobDog, that is.

You can just put that on the list of obvious clickbait titles. Other top hits include:

“Solve your mortage / chronic illness / weight loss goal with this one weird trick.”
“Professional educator / technical expert hates this guy!”
“See this product / program / thing the government doesn’t want you to know!”
And of course, it’s close cousin: “See this product / thing / whatever that was BANNED by the government!” (For people who don’t realize the government doesn’t ban information and has basically no power to do so, even when national security is compromised)

My other favorite is “Sir Not Appearing In This Film.” The provocative headline is accompanied by a photo of a famous celebrity, but when you click on the link the celebrity does not actually appear in the article. Another example is when they advertise a shocking photo that either doesn’t appear in the article or is an admitted hoax.