January 18, 2016

EP. 105 — Ways America Was Shockingly Evil Very Recently

If you look back at the most popular comedies through the years, there are always parts that don’t hold up. A lot of the time when it’s a sex, bro, or gross-out comedy, the stuff that doesn’t hold up is usually a cringeworthy scene or two where you think, “they could never do this today.”

For example, Vince Vaughn getting raped in ‘Wedding Crashers’ is played for laughs, but then we feel better about it at the end because he falls in love with his assailant. Shannon Elizabeth’s Nadia in ‘American Pie’ is secretly taped getting naked and her character is deported for it while no punishment comes to the men who do this to her. The villain in ‘Ace Ventura: Pet Detective’ is trans woman outed by a bunch of grossed-out dudes. Funny!

The fact that you can’t get away with stuff like this anymore isn’t a bad sign, or a sign that comedies are becoming PC or watered down. This is a good thing. It means we’re not making fun of genders, races, sexual orientations at their expense for no reason.

On this week’s podcast, Jack O’Brien is joined by Cracked editors Soren Bowie and Alex Schmidt to talk about some very recent movies, commercials and bits of pop-culture like these where what was once funny or en vogue is now horribly insensitive.

Recent Episodes

January 26, 2020

Freedom sucks…and that is why we have to defend it. Because our democracy involves doing a lot of stuff that takes energy, takes time, and lacks that Michael Bay Quality that only a surprise missile launch can provide. So on this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt and special guest Jason Pargin (who writes for Cracked as David Wong) are exploring the ways being afraid of everything (an easy action) can stop us from being free. Discover the decades-long tradition of some Americans wanting to give up everything in exchange for not needing to think, the centuries-long tradition of people inciting fake panics, and the reasonable ways you can help change things for the better.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/why-fear-based-democracies-arenE28099t-free-with-jason-pargin/

January 19, 2020

How’s your local shopping mall doing? Have you checked on it lately? Swing by sometime, because its department store might’ve turned into a call center or a hospital or a go-kart track. On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by the one and only Kai Ryssdal (Marketplace, Make Me Smart) for a look at surprising, strange, and shocking stories from all over the U.S. economy. Discover an international pig flu, a 26-word statement that built the modern Internet, and more amazing ways cash is ruling everything around you. By the way, if you’re an American listener, you spent the past few years funding an astonishingly huge bailout. Surprise! Listen for details!

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/5-parts-u.s.-economy-that-are-stranger-than-you-think

January 12, 2020

Movies, TV, gaming: three things that are theoretically a waste of time. Oh sure, they deliver value in the art sense, and comfort in the goofing-off sense. But what if they’re more valuable than that? What if consuming shows and playing video games (accidentally) turns people into real-life heroes? On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians/writers Caitlin Gill and Alex Watt for a look at the surprising number of times that exact thing happened. They’ll explore stories of regular people who saved a life thanks to skills gained randomly from cartoons, sitcoms, ‘World Of Warcraft’, and more silly entertainment.

Footnotes: https://www.cracked.com/podcast/9-times-pop-culture-accidentally-taught-people-to-save-lives/