September 8, 2014

EP. 46 — Disney Orphans

Why don’t heroes have parents? Think about it: from Harry Potter to Luke Skywalker, orphans make up a dominant percentage of the heroic population. There’s something about dead parents that can make any character into an instant underdog. Even Superman, literal god-being, turns into someone we can root for when you remove his mom and dad (and also obliterate his homeworld via supernova), and the same is true of billionaire crazy-person Bruce Wayne. Why does this trend exist, and just what does it say about us?

 

On today’s Cracked podcast, editors Jack O’Brien, Michael Swaim and Jason Pargin (David Wong) sit down to hash out just why this is. Whether it’s Guardians of the Galaxy’s Peter Quill, or Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek reboot, you can’t be a hero if you’ve got a living mom and dad. Even in the Donald Duck universe, everyone’s an uncle or a cousin. There’s a reason for this- and if you click this button here, you’ll learn what it is.

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

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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/