March 16, 2015

EP. 67 — Why Celebrities Go Crazy

Here are two scenarios that might properly contextualize Harrison Ford in light of his recent plane crash into a Santa Monica golf course:

One. He’s Hollywood’s Mr. Magoo: a hapless, sensory-challenged old man who creates a chain reaction of havoc and destruction with every misplaced step he takes.

Two. He’s Wile E. Coyote. His dream job is actually to be a pilot, so he chases that dream (Road Runner) at every chance he gets, using exceedingly shoddy 1940s era machinery and avionics, only to wind up, yet again, in a full-body cast.

Do we know anything about Harrison Ford or what drives him? No. Does Harrison Ford listen to podcasts? Probably not. Has he torn his ACL twice while acting? You bet he has. And that’s all we need for this week’s episode, wherein Cracked editor-in-chief Jack O’Brien is joined by Soren Bowie and Kristi Harrison to talk about some celebrity pet theories that explain their lunatic behavior.

They discuss Harrison Ford’s aforementioned plane crash and how it relates to Bruce Willis’ strange music career, how Garth Brooks is either the world’s greatest diva or the universe’s least humanoid space alien, and then discuss theories on the deaths of Whitney Houston and Elvis Presley.

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/