Cracked.com explained

Cracked
Type:Entertainment
Owner:Literally Media

Cracked.com is an American website that was based on Cracked magazine. It was founded in 2005 by Jack O'Brien.[1]

In 2007, Cracked had a couple of hundred thousand unique users per month and three or four million page views. In June 2011, it reached 27 million page views, according to comScore.[2] [3] [4] [5] According to O'Brien, the site had about 17 million unique visitors and 300 million page views in February 2012.

History

Cracked was founded as a magazine in 1958.[6] In early 2005, its owner Dick Kulpa sold the magazine to a group of investors who announced plans to revive a print version of Cracked with a new editorial focus and redesign.[7]

In October 2005, Cracked.com launched as a separate website under editor-in-chief Jack O'Brien, a former ABC News producer.[8] [9] [10] Although the magazine folded soon after launch, the Cracked website gained popularity and was purchased by Demand Media in June 2007, setting off Cracked's rapid growth period.[11] [12]

In 2007, Cracked had a few hundred thousand unique users per month and three to four million page views. The site fit well within Demand Media's network, with Jack O'Brien noting "They understand the web, and they made us nail down a voice".[13] The editorial staff includes original editor-in-chief Jack O'Brien, Jason Pargin (under his pen name, David Wong), who was added as an associate editor later in 2006, and Oren Katzeff, who became Cracked.com's general manager in November 2007 after running business development for Yahoo Media Group.[14] Cracked.com published two to four articles daily (2,000 – 3,000 words each), along with video content, short-form content, and contests. The feature articles were the most popular, usually pulling in around one million views in their first week.[15] [16]

In 2010, Cracked drew over one billion page views.[17] [18] [19] By 2012, Jack O'Brien reported over 300 million page views in February and 7.3 million unique monthly users, making it the most visited humor site in the world, ahead of The Onion, CollegeHumor, and Funny or Die.

Writer Daniel O'Brien was questioned by the FBI and United States Secret Service after writing an article titled "How to Kidnap the President's Daughter".[20]

In November 2013, the Cracked web site was hacked and was unwittingly delivering malware to site visitors. The hackers injected JavaScript that caused malicious software to be distributed to page viewers.[21]

In 2013, Cracked.com launched "The Cracked Podcast" on the Earwolf podcast network.

On April 12, 2016, Cracked was purchased by the E. W. Scripps Company for $39 million.[22]

In June 2017, Jack O'Brien stepped down from his position as editor-in-chief and left Cracked to build up the new comedy podcasting division at HowStuffWorks.[23] [24] Jack O'Brien chose Alex Schmidt as the new host of "The Cracked Podcast".[25] Schmidt hosted more than 150 episodes, and toured the podcast in the U.S. and to London.[26] [27]

In October 2017, Soren Bowie left Cracked to become a writer on American Dad!, while Michael Swaim left Cracked to pursue other interests.

On December 4, 2017, E. W. Scripps laid off 25 staff members from the website, including Daniel O'Brien, Cody Johnston, and the entire video team, in an effort to cut costs.[28] [29]

On September 10, 2019, Cracked was acquired by Literally Media, home to KnowYourMeme, Cheezburger, and eBaum's World.[30] [31]

Literally Media fired Robert Brockway in February 2020.[32] Afterward, Brockway and fellow longtime Cracked writer Sean "Seanbaby" Reiley then co-founded their own comedy website, 1900HotDog.com.[33] Alex Schmidt was fired by Literally Media in June 2020. Afterward, Schmidt started his own podcast "Secretly Incredibly Fascinating" and won Jeopardy! four times.[34] [35] [36]

Features

The Cracked "front page" formerly contained columns by a staff of regular contributors, including Sean "Seanbaby" Reiley, Daniel O'Brien, Robert Brockway, Cody Johnston, Soren Bowie, Chris Bucholz, host and writer of the web series Hate by Numbers Wayne Gladstone, John Cheese, Christina Hsu, and Michael Swaim, head writer and performer of the sketch comedy group "Those Aren't Muskets!". It also published videos, weekly image manipulation contests called Photoplasty and Pictofacts, and a daily "Craptions" contest where users added funny captions to odd photographs. The site also hosted Pointless Waste of Time, Pargin's old forum, which contained a writer's workshop, a section for readers to submit content for the Photoplasty and Pictofacts contests, and a template for generating small, one-shot articles called "Quick Fixes," along with general and specific discussion threads on a variety of topics. Eventually the Craptions contest was moved from the front page to the forums.

The Writer's Workshop section of the forum was limited-access (by request only), and it functioned as a "virtual writer's room", where more than 2,500 would-be writers pitched articles to which other users and editors provided feedback.[37] According to former general manager Oren Katzeff, "Nothing gets on the homepage without heavy editing"; [writers] "pitch the site's on-staff editorial team, who give out assignments and feedback to writers after an idea is greenlit". O'Brien and five other editors picked and refined the best material. More than 90% of the stories on the top spot of Cracked's homepage came from the Workshop. Cracked became known for its popular listicles, which include titles like "The 6 Most Insane People To Ever Run For President" and "7 Basic Things You Won't Believe You're All Doing Wrong".[38]

After being sold to Literally Media, the forums were taken down and all reader-generated content was discontinued in favor of Image macro sets created by a few regular inside contributors, due to their suitability for posting on social media. Old articles, columns, and image sets are still hosted on the site (some with broken formatting or missing images) but many of the old videos are only available on the Cracked YouTube channel.

Video content

About 30% of Cracked's content is video.[39] [40] As of October 2014, Cracked had 22 web series exclusive to their site.[41] In 2009, Cracked debuted the web series Agents of Cracked, which generated 20 million views over three seasons. In July 2010, Cracked debuted After Hours, a video-debate version of Cracked's lists which features four Cracked staffers discussing topics such as "Why Batman Is Secretly Terrible for Gotham" and "Why 'Star Wars' Is Secretly Terrifying for Women".

Original run of video content (2009–2017)

Cracked has the following series throughout the years.

In December 2017, Cracked ended its original video productions when E. W. Scripps Company, the parent company of Cracked, laid off the entire video production and writing staff.

Revival of video content (2020–present)

In April 2020, new video content was being produced once again for Cracked by Dr. Jordan Breeding.[47] The following are the new series created since Cracked's video content was revived:

Cheat Sheets

In 2011, Cracked partnered with Rotten Tomatoes and Movieclips to launch Cheat Sheets, a comedic, user-generated guide to popular movies.[50] For example, Ratatouilles description reads "Remy the rat is obsessed with good food, and he has learned to cook by watching television in the same way that Jackie Chan fans have all become Kung-Fu masters. Remy stumbles upon an unsuspecting janitor working in a Parisian restaurant and figures out how to tap into his central nervous system, controlling his every movement".[51]

Books

See main article: You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News. Cracked.com released its first book, You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News, in 2010.[52] Published by the Penguin Group's Plume division, the book features 20 articles that had previously appeared on the website, and 18 that are new to the book.[53] The book is formatted as a comedy trivia book, and includes chapters like 'The Four Most Badass Presidents of All Time' and 'The Awful Truth Behind Five Items on Your Grocery List'.[54]

It reached #9 on The New York Times secondary "Paperback Advice & Misc." best sellers list, and sold more than 40,000 copies.[55] [56] As part of the marketing campaign, Cracked encouraged fans to post pictures of themselves alongside the book with 50-word captions.

Crown Publishing Group acquired the rights to Cracked writer Daniel O'Brien's How to Fight Presidents, for more than $60,000. The book will be a comedic look at the secret to fighting and defeating every U.S. President in history.

Cracked.com released its second book, The De-Textbook: The Stuff You Didn't Know About the Stuff You Thought You Knew, on October 29, 2013.[57]

Live shows

Cracked has also expanded into live shows. At the 2011 SXSW festival, Cracked hosted Cracked Live, which featured live performances from Michael Swaim, Soren Bowie, Daniel O'Brien, Katie Willert, and Cody Johnston.[58] [59] In November 2011, Cracked hosted three panels at Comikaze Expo, a multi-media, popular culture convention.[60] They hosted "The Making of 'After Hours': How a Conversation Becomes an Episode", "Comedy Troupes Are the New Rock Stars", and a performance of the sketch comedy showcase "Cracked LIVE: The 6 Most Bafflingly Hilarious Things Happening in Front of You (Right Now)!".

Reception

The magazine Wired has called Cracked "addictive", "hauntingly funny" and "terrifyingly well-informed".[61] Mother Jones called Cracked.com "one of the hottest humor sites on the web" and said its content includes "some of the most uproarious and sage commentary on the interwebs", describing it as "striking the right balance of pop culture, bawdy humor, and intellect".[62] In one month, Cracked users spent over 255 million minutes on the site, which is 5 times more than Comedy Central's site and 9 times more than Funny or Die.

In 2010, the web series Agents of Cracked, featuring Daniel O'Brien and Michael Swaim, won the Audience Choice Award at the second annual Streamy Awards. In 2012, Cracked received a People's Choice Webby Award for Best Humor Website.

In 2013 Cracked was accused of disseminating factually incorrect information by Vice.com, specifically in their "5 Depressing Realities Behind Popular Reality TV Shows" article.[63]

Due to ownership and staffing changes that occurred mainly beginning in 2016 when the website was purchased by the E. W. Scripps Company, and again in 2019 when it was purchased by Literally Media, public reception of the quality of content and articles offered by Cracked.com has dwindled. One noteworthy example of criticism came from Ashley Mangtani, as he wrote in his October 24 2021 piece on Medium, titled "The Downfall Of Cracked.com & The Cancellation Of The Once Famous Cracked Podcast." Mangtani concluded that: "The bottom line is simple, Cracked were bought by a company that wanted nothing more than to break into the digital media market. But they knew nothing about the nuances of managing a creative media stream and vainly tried to cut costs wherever they could. This resulted in all of the best people at Cracked being fired until the company self-destructed into oblivion and stopped creating great content."[64]

As of January 2023, their YouTube channel has 1.0 billion views and 2.76 million subscribers.[65]

Featured writers and editors

Source:[66]

Current
Former

See also

Notes and References

  1. Axon, Samuel. Streamy Awards 2010: Here Are the Winners. Mashable. April 11, 2010.
  2. Kung, Michelle. Cracked.com Grows Up. Wall Street Journal. August 1, 2011.
  3. https://web.archive.org/web/20120525071138/http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/02/idUS20429+02-May-2012+BW20120502 Demand Media Wins Two People's Voice Webby Awards
  4. Osburn, Paige. The (prat)fall of Cracked Magazine-- and the rise of Cracked.com. 89.3 KPCC. April 12, 2012.
  5. Shields, Mike. Demand Media's Unlikely Success Story . Digiday. October 14, 2011.
  6. http://www.demandmedia.com/properties/cracked/ America's Only Humor Site Since 1958
  7. "Newswatch: Cracked Purchased by Mideast Group," The Comics Journal #267 (Apr./May 2005), p. 45.
  8. Web site: Mike Durrett: Online content. 2010-09-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20110707075151/http://humor.about.com/od/ezines/a/cracked.htm. 2011-07-07. dead.
  9. Abraham, Josh. Jack O'Brien, Cracked.com . Gothamist. October 12, 2005.
  10. http://www.inquisitr.com/170630/exclusive-crackeds-eic-jack-obrien-talks-to-inquisitr-about-top-8-of-everything-2011-list/ [Exclusive] Cracked's EIC Jack O'Brien Talks to Inquisitr About 'Top 8 of Everything' 2011 List
  11. Web site: Cracked.com . Demand Media . 2012-04-26 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100322232717/http://www.demandmedia.com/brands/cracked/ . 2010-03-22 .
  12. January 19, 2011 . Cracked.com Editor warns You Might Be A Zombie! INTERVIEW . Mr. Media Interviews By Bob Andelman . . March 20, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220403123604/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHAxDVZrWDE . April 3, 2022 . live.
  13. Leckart, Steven. Why Numbered Lists Are Comedy Gold. Wired. May 31, 2011.
  14. Weinroth, Adam. Interview with a Zombie: Oren Katzeff of Cracked.com . Demand Media. December 28, 2010.
  15. http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP9617 Tricking People into Reading Again
  16. Humphrey, Michael. Cracked Writers' Room: Jack O'Brien Describes How To Crowdsource Laughs. Forbes. October 19, 2011.
  17. Merino, Faith. Cracked.com launches hilarious movie guide. VatorNews. April 29, 2011.
  18. Kerner, Lou. Demand Media Will Be The First $1 Billion Tech IPO Since Google – Here's Why . Business Insider. April 20, 2010.
  19. http://www.thestreet.com/story/11018610/2/demand-media-reports-fourth-quarter-and-fiscal-2010-financial-results.html Demand Media Reports Fourth Quarter And Fiscal 2010 Financial Results
  20. Web site: October 26, 2010 . 'Agents of Cracked' Infiltrating the Interwebs One Video at a Time . asylum.com . November 30, 2010 . Gould . Wendy Rose . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101030030217/http://www.asylum.com/2010/10/26/agents-of-cracked/ . October 30, 2010 .
  21. Web site: Humor Website Cracked.com Hacked, Set Up to Serve Malware. Eduard. Kovacs. softpedia.com.
  22. Web site: Dan Monk . E.W. Scripps Co. (SSP) acquires online humor site, Cracked – 23ABC News . Turnto23.com . 2016-04-12 . 2017-03-23.
  23. Web site: 2017. Saying Goodbye to Jack O'Brien, Cracked's Cool Dad . Cracked.com. June 5, 2017.
  24. Web site: 2017. Cracked Founder Exits to Create Comedy Division at HowStuffWorks . Variety.com. July 19, 2017.
  25. Web site: The Cracked Podcast . 2023-02-08 . Cracked.com . en.
  26. Web site: Alex Schmidt on Instagram: "Fun announcement: The @Cracked Podcast is going on its first-ever LIVE TOUR! Here is what that will look like to satellites and astronauts. See you soon in: CHICAGO, IL - Lincoln Hall - April 11th ST. PAUL, MN - Amsterdam Bar & Hall - April 12th (Tickets on sale later this week.)" . 2023-02-08 . Instagram . en.
  27. Web site: AlexSchmidt(y) . 2023-02-08 . www.alexschmidty.com.
  28. Web site: 2017. Cracked.com Layoffs: Job Cuts in Editorial & Video Staff Part of Cost-Cutting Measures . https://web.archive.org/web/20181205071638/https://americaclosed.com/cracked-com-layoffs-job-cuts-editorial-video-staff/. dead. December 5, 2018. America Closed. December 28, 2017.
  29. Web site: Cracked Lays off 25 as the Great Digital Media Purge Continues. 6 December 2017 .
  30. Web site: 2020. Cheezburger Acquired by Literally Media, Joining eBaum's World as the Destination for Reaching Millennial and Generation Z Audiences and the #5 Entertainment – Humor Destination According to comScore Data . https://web.archive.org/web/20170908002500/https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cheezburger-acquired-by-literally-media-joining-ebaums-world-as-the-destination-for-reaching-millennial-and-generation-z-audiences-and-the-5-entertainment---humor-destination-according-to-comscore-data-576567001.html. live. September 8, 2017. PR Newswire. May 26, 2020.
  31. Web site: Lerman . Rachel . cheezburgers new owner is israeli digital media company . Seattle Times . 21 April 2016 . 24 August 2022.
  32. Brockway . Robert . brockway_llc . 1226921433068011524 . February 10, 2020 . I've just lost my job at Cracked. Thread for the full story, but short version: I need your help. I've launched a Patreon here: https://t.co/THQ9DdtW1H And I have a new book up for pre-order RIGHT NOW: https://t.co/taqz8OBRcB It releases next week. No delayed gratification here. . en . March 20, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220708194916/https://twitter.com/brockway_llc/status/1226921433068011524 . July 8, 2022 . live.
  33. Web site: About . 2023-02-08 . 1900HOTDOG . en-US.
  34. Web site: Schmidt . Alex . 2020 . Hi, I'm Alex Schmidt! I was the 2nd and final host of 'The Cracked Podcast' and now I'm making my own indie podcast. . February 8, 2023 . Reddit.
  35. Schmidt . Alex . AlexSchmidty . 1270043474059026434 . June 8, 2020 . A company called Literally Media bought https://t.co/Zi3SoazJxq nine months ago. A few days ago, they fired me. As far as I know there won't be more Cracked Podcast episodes. That is less important than the news right now. But if you're curious, here's what I can share: [1/7] . en . March 20, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211003150844/https://twitter.com/AlexSchmidty/status/1270043474059026434 . October 3, 2021 . live.
  36. Web site: Secretly Incredibly Fascinating on Apple Podcasts . 2023-02-08 . Apple Podcasts . en-US.
  37. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-obrien Jack O'Brien
  38. Web site: Shields . Mike . Demand Media's Unlikely Success Story . Digiday . October 14, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120506040541/https://digiday.com/video/demand-medias-unlikely-success-story/ . May 6, 2012 . dead.
  39. http://mobilizedtv.com/cracked-com-on-ipad-a-deep-dive-with-oren-katzeff Cracked.com on iPad: A Deep Dive with Oren Katzeff
  40. Smith, Steve. About 70% is considered to be main articles, "quick fixes", and the topics tabs. Demand Media Looking to Become More Than It's 'Cracked' Up to Be. MediaPost. May 5, 2011.
  41. http://www.cracked.com/funny-videos.html Videos
  42. Web site: Cracked.com. Cracked.com. 2019-02-07.
  43. December 27, 2016 . Why The Persians Should Be The Good Guys In '300' - Hilarious Helmet History #1 . Cracked . . March 20, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220923185601/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naPUYTKEMc8 . September 23, 2022 . live.
  44. January 9, 2017 . So You Want To Be BATMAN . Cracked . . March 20, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221229082911/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyyUjsrqjDU . December 29, 2022 . live.
  45. Web site: Some More News. YouTube.
  46. Web site: Some More News . 2022-03-04 . iHeart . en.
  47. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Web site: Where Has Cracked Been And What Are We Doing Now? . YouTube.
  48. Web site: Quorators "Fired For Truth" . YouTube.
  49. Web site: Cracked Fiend – YouTube. YouTube.
  50. http://www.demandmedia.com/press-releases/2011/04/29/crackedcom-launches-cheat-sheets-a-bite-sized-guide-to-movies-and-more Cracked.com Launches 'Cheat Sheets,' a Bite-sized Guide to Movies and More
  51. http://cheatsheets.cracked.com/movies/ratatouille-41328/ Ratatouille (2007)
  52. Web site: Wong . David . Cracked Book – You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News . Cracked.com . 2012-04-26 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120429075021/http://www.cracked.com/you-might-be-a-zombie/ . 2012-04-29 .
  53. O'Brien, Jack. Cracked.com: 'You Might Be A Zombie,' And 7 Other Pieces Of Bad News (Photos). Huffington Post. February 10, 2011.
  54. Trivett, Ben. Cracked.com Editors Talk New 'You Might Be a Zombie' Book, Lame Reality TV Stars. PopEater. December 27, 2010.
  55. [Ryan Holiday|Holiday, Ryan]
  56. News: Hardcover. The New York Times . Jennifer . Schuessler .
  57. Web site: Cracked wants to educate you with the De-Textbook. Sam. Widman. Nerdophiles. 2013-10-29. 2016-04-16.
  58. http://cracked.tumblr.com/post/3786768732/cracked-live-at-sxsw Cracked Live at SXSW
  59. http://www.cracked.com/article_19107_cracked.com-live-at-south-by-south-west-streaming.html Cracked.com Live at South By South West (Streaming)
  60. LeMoyne, R.B. Comikaze Expo Presents Cracked.com's "After Hours" Live! ComicBooked.com.
  61. http://wiredinsider.tumblr.com/post/6587794166/how-cracked-cracked-the-comedy-code-a-how-to How Cracked Cracked the Comedy Code: A How To
  62. News: Cats, boobs, incisive commentary . Sheppard . Kate . . July–August 2013 . 60 . Foundation for National Progress . 0362-8841 . How a flailing adolescent magazine became one of the hottest humor sites on the web..
  63. Web site: Cracked.com Is Full of Lies. 22 February 2013. vice.com.
  64. Web site: Mangtani . Ashley . October 24, 2021 . The Downfall Of Cracked.com & The Cancellation Of The Once Famous Cracked Podcast . Medium.
  65. Web site: Cracked . YouTube.
  66. Web site: About Us. Cracked.com.