The Cracked Podcast

We all know consciously to take advertising with a grain of salt. Those McDonald's burgers can't look as manicured in person the way they do in the ads. Examples like that are easy to catch. It's harder to spot false advertising when companies are bending the truth so much, your bullshit detectors don't know which way is up. Take Listerine mouthwash. It was originally sold as a surgical antiseptic until some ad men in the 1920s were like, "if we told everyone to wash their mouths out with this industrial cleaner every day, then we'd make so much money we could light our cigars with the cash, but how...". The answer was in a book of medical terminology. They looked up the fanciest word for bad breath -- halitosis -- and made an ad campaign telling everyone it was a chronic disease with only one cure."Hey, sonny boy! Does your dame ever tell ya you have bad breath?""Why, yes mister!""That's simply because you're dying son. Say here, drink this poison, BUT SPIT IT OUT FIRST. And do it every day for the rest of your life."And 90 years later we still use Listerine and still think halitosis is is a disease and not just latin for brush your damn teeth.Modern movies do this too. Sometimes if studios have a real clunker on their hands, they'll cut a trailer that's so unrepresentative of the movie, you would want to sue to get your money back. A lot of times this happens to children's movies with disastrous results for the parents that think they're about to spend 2 hours with a rapping kangaroo.So on this week's podcast, Jack O'Brien is joined by Cracked writers Carmen Angelica and JM McNab and producer Brett Rader for a discussion of horribly misleading movie trailers, straight-up advertising lies and the contemporary commercials that are messing with your perception of reality.Footnotes:Article: Cracked: Movies That Were Waaaaay Darker & Crazier Than Advertised:  https://goo.gl/w918NK Article: Cracked: The 6 Most Hilariously Misleading Movie Trailers:  https://goo.gl/9BLjqf Article: Cracked: 5 Things Movie Trailers Need to Stop Doing:  https://goo.gl/C8nfA5 Article: Cracked: 6 Dumbass Publicity Stunts That Fooled Everyone:  https://goo.gl/ypXnqc Article: Cracked: 6 Iconic Things You Won't Believe Began as Publicity Stunts:  https://goo.gl/0Rq4G Video: Helpful Honda Ad:  https://goo.gl/WfKsEn Video: Chevrolet "Real People" Ad:  https://goo.gl/PfPrvN Article: The News Wheel: Are Chevrolet's "Real People, Not Actors" Car Commercials Fake?:  https://goo.gl/aX2sua Video: If "Real People" Commercials Were Real Life:  https://goo.gl/n7agpC Video: Aaron Paul on The Price is Right:  https://goo.gl/LoUkIW Video: Josh Androsky on The Price is Right:  https://goo.gl/3abpcs Follow Jack O'Brien on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/jack_obrien Follow Carmen Angelica on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/c armesancheesesFollow JM Mcnab on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/jmmcnabagain Follow Brett Rader on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/brettrader

Ahhhh, mid-March. Time to pack the bros, the beers and the board shorts into the station wagon and drive down to the beach because it's SPRING BREAK WOOO. But instead of going to Florida or Cancún , the Cracked Podcast is taking a detour to 8 fictional locales.Jack O'Brien is joined by special guest-host Daniel Van Kirk for trips to Amity Island, Zootopia, and GTA's Vice City in our attempt to figure out best place to take a fictional vacation. They're joined by comics Blake Wexler, Jamie Loftus, Alison Stevenson, Josh Androsky and Eric Lampaert for a journey that will take us through the lives of Fraiser, the Gilmore Girls and Satan.Footnotes:Blake Wexler on Twitter:  https://goo.gl/WJtxjQ Jamie  Loftus on Twitter:  https://goo.gl/RokQpk Alison Stevenson on  Twitter :  https://goo.gl/eYyaOU Josh  Androsky on Twitter :  https://goo.gl/O5aQSO Eric  Lampaert on Twitter :  https://goo.gl/b70FTt

Ahhhh, mid-March. Time to pack the bros, the beers and the board shorts into the station wagon and drive down to the beach because it's SPRING BREAK WOOO. But instead of going to Florida or Cancún , the Cracked Podcast is taking a detour to 8 fictional locales.Jack O'Brien is joined by special guest-host Daniel Van Kirk for trips to Amity Island, Zootopia, and GTA's Vice City in our attempt to figure out best place to take a fictional vacation. They're joined by comics Blake Wexler, Jamie Loftus, Alison Stevenson, Josh Androsky and Eric Lampaert for a journey that will take us through the lives of Fraiser, the Gilmore Girls and Satan.Footnotes:Blake Wexler on Twitter:  https://goo.gl/WJtxjQ Jamie  Loftus on Twitter:  https://goo.gl/RokQpk Alison Stevenson on  Twitter :  https://goo.gl/eYyaOU Josh  Androsky on Twitter :  https://goo.gl/O5aQSO Eric  Lampaert on Twitter :  https://goo.gl/b70FTt

A brief glance at the cartoon version of America makes you think the South is pretty racist. Look at them, with their Confederate flags and voter ID laws! But while you were sleeping, the blue states were up to some pretty racist shit too. It's just that they've got better PR. For example, one of the biggest and most violent anti-segregation fights in US history didn't take place in 1950s Mississippi or Alabama, but 1970s Boston. The 70s! In Massachusetts! The land of Kennedys, Afflecks and liberal arts colleges was faced with the desegregation of schools and was like, "yo George Wallace, hold my beer!"To discuss some of the secretly f#&*ed up modern history of the United States, Jack O'Brien and Michael Swaim are joined by the guys from 'The Dollop': Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds. They discuss the Boston busing riots of the 70s, the comically-liberal blue state with secret ties to the KKK and why we're about to live through the Enron crisis all over again.Footnotes:The Dollop: https://goo.gl/8O7wNl The Dollop's List of Sources: https://goo.gl/gxXHza Podcast: The Dollop: Boston Busing 1974: https://goo.gl/BUPukJ Podcast: The Dollop: Oregon and the Ku Klux Klan: https://goo.gl/x4rrUf Podcast: The Dollop: Enron: https://goo.gl/3bWy1J Image: 11 Nations of America Map: https://goo.gl/vYXCPQ Article: US News & World Report: A Flag, A Busing Fight and a Famous Photograph: https://goo.gl/bxvKSZ Documentary: BBC: HyperNormalisation: https://goo.gl/77XQpb Article: Buzzfeed News: How Teens in the Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters With Fake News: https://goo.gl/kyOEKO Video: Oregon Whale Explosion: https://goo.gl/gd5iPo The Cracked Podcast: Why Class in America Isn't Just About Income: https://goo.gl/2tliZx Article: Siderea: Class (American): https://goo.gl/tlmX4S This episode is brought to you by Squarespace (www.squarespace.com code: CRACKED), and Coca Cola & Powerade (www.coke.com/alwaysready.)

A brief glance at the cartoon version of America makes you think the South is pretty racist. Look at them, with their Confederate flags and voter ID laws! But while you were sleeping, the blue states were up to some pretty racist shit too. It's just that they've got better PR. For example, one of the biggest and most violent anti-segregation fights in US history didn't take place in 1950s Mississippi or Alabama, but 1970s Boston. The 70s! In Massachusetts! The land of Kennedys, Afflecks and liberal arts colleges was faced with the desegregation of schools and was like, "yo George Wallace, hold my beer!"To discuss some of the secretly f#&*ed up modern history of the United States, Jack O'Brien and Michael Swaim are joined by the guys from 'The Dollop': Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds. They discuss the Boston busing riots of the 70s, the comically-liberal blue state with secret ties to the KKK and why we're about to live through the Enron crisis all over again.Footnotes:The Dollop: https://goo.gl/8O7wNl The Dollop's List of Sources: https://goo.gl/gxXHza Podcast: The Dollop: Boston Busing 1974: https://goo.gl/BUPukJ Podcast: The Dollop: Oregon and the Ku Klux Klan: https://goo.gl/x4rrUf Podcast: The Dollop: Enron: https://goo.gl/3bWy1J Image: 11 Nations of America Map: https://goo.gl/vYXCPQ Article: US News & World Report: A Flag, A Busing Fight and a Famous Photograph: https://goo.gl/bxvKSZ Documentary: BBC: HyperNormalisation: https://goo.gl/77XQpb Article: Buzzfeed News: How Teens in the Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters With Fake News: https://goo.gl/kyOEKO Video: Oregon Whale Explosion: https://goo.gl/gd5iPo The Cracked Podcast: Why Class in America Isn't Just About Income: https://goo.gl/2tliZx Article: Siderea: Class (American): https://goo.gl/tlmX4S This episode is brought to you by Squarespace (www.squarespace.com code: CRACKED), and Coca Cola & Powerade (www.coke.com/alwaysready.)

It's become your daily morning ritual. Wake up. Open Twitter. And here come's your fix. It's something like, "Trump Surrogate Says Jews in the Holocaust Didn't Have it So Bad!" and you're off to the races. How could he!? Do they know how insensitive that is!? And so on, and so forth until tomorrow, when it's something else. It's the rage machine and it exists on both sides. For every "Trump Eats Steak Well Done With Ketchup," you see on on the left, folks on the right will see something like "Communist Sympathizer Lena Dunham Thinks Pedophiles Should Teach Kindergarten." And the big secret is: both sides are getting played. The nonstop outrage engine is a contrivance, a counterfeit system made by people trying to profit off notoriety, and fueled by humanity's physiological addiction to anger. We hate it. And we love it. And we can't fucking stop.On this week's podcast, Jack O'Brien is joined by Cracked editors Jason Pargin (aka David Wong), Katie Golden and Alex Schmidt to break-down how the non-stop rage machine works, who's profiting from it, and why this snake eating its tail is so addictive to the human psyche.Footnotes:Article: Cracked: 5 Ways to Stay Sane in an Era of Non-Stop Outrage: https://goo.gl/yQ5qan Article: Cracked: 7 Creepy Ways Corporations Are Turning You Into an Addict: https://goo.gl/nbQJhb Cracked Podcast: Why the Food Industry is Evil: https://goo.gl/QsCyyC Article: The New Yorker: The Hell You Say: https://goo.gl/1qOLI0 Article: Rand Corporation: The Russian Firehose of Falsehood Propaganda Model: https://goo.gl/CmrBJe Check out  our new series   ' After the Trump '  on Cracked: https://goo.gl/dDcGWZ

It's become your daily morning ritual. Wake up. Open Twitter. And here come's your fix. It's something like, "Trump Surrogate Says Jews in the Holocaust Didn't Have it So Bad!" and you're off to the races. How could he!? Do they know how insensitive that is!? And so on, and so forth until tomorrow, when it's something else. It's the rage machine and it exists on both sides. For every "Trump Eats Steak Well Done With Ketchup," you see on on the left, folks on the right will see something like "Communist Sympathizer Lena Dunham Thinks Pedophiles Should Teach Kindergarten." And the big secret is: both sides are getting played. The nonstop outrage engine is a contrivance, a counterfeit system made by people trying to profit off notoriety, and fueled by humanity's physiological addiction to anger. We hate it. And we love it. And we can't fucking stop.On this week's podcast, Jack O'Brien is joined by Cracked editors Jason Pargin (aka David Wong), Katie Golden and Alex Schmidt to break-down how the non-stop rage machine works, who's profiting from it, and why this snake eating its tail is so addictive to the human psyche.Footnotes:Article: Cracked: 5 Ways to Stay Sane in an Era of Non-Stop Outrage: https://goo.gl/yQ5qan Article: Cracked: 7 Creepy Ways Corporations Are Turning You Into an Addict: https://goo.gl/nbQJhb Cracked Podcast: Why the Food Industry is Evil: https://goo.gl/QsCyyC Article: The New Yorker: The Hell You Say: https://goo.gl/1qOLI0 Article: Rand Corporation: The Russian Firehose of Falsehood Propaganda Model: https://goo.gl/CmrBJe Check out  our new series   ' After the Trump '  on Cracked: https://goo.gl/dDcGWZ

It's not something that you consciously notice, but movies speak to us in a secret language. They use a special shorthand to convey ideas or explain plot in the most efficient way possible. There's one problem though: they do it in the same couple dozen ways and recycle them over and over. And they need to stop. Or at least invent some new ones.Is someone's life crumbling away after a break-up? Just give them a beard and litter their apartment with Chinese food cartons. Want to show someone has a house or apartment, but no possessions? How about some well-placed Chinese food cartons? Is someone pulling an all-nighter with their work? More Chinese food cartons!If you're a person who even casually watches movies, you'll know so many of these the instant we bring them up and you'll never unsee them in any film going forward. To break down 25 of the biggest offenders, Jack O'Brien is joined by Cracked's Carmen Angelica, Soren Bowie and Daniel O'Brien. They talk about how people brush their teeth in movies, how men try to steal kisses and why you can never trust a fictional male nurse.Remember to buy tickets to our next live taping of The Cracked Podcast on this Saturday, March 11th at 7pm at the UCB Sunset Theatre in Los Angeles. Jack and the gang are going to talk about Amity Island, Jurassic World and movies where vacations go awry in an attempt to figure out the best spring break you should take while vacationing in a fictional universe.Tickets are $7 and available here:  https://goo.gl/Li0ocH Footnotes:Podcast: Cracked: Dumb Movie Tropes That Need to Die Already: https://goo.gl/oMk0jv Video: Cracked: 6 Bizarrely Specific Scenes  Hollywood Won't Quit Using: https://goo.gl/i1Bll2 Video: Cracked: 4 Movie Straw Men Characters That Keep Showing Up: https://goo.gl/17JVkG Video: Cracked: 7 Bizarrely Specific Ways Movies Get Normal Jobs Wrong: https://goo.gl/lvqPpo Article: Cracked: 4 Bizarrely Specific Rules That Exist in Movie Universes: https://goo.gl/Hs9iGT Article: Cracked: 3 Bizarrely Specific Job Trends in Movies: https://goo.gl/a4NL9 Article: Cracked 4 Products That Only Exist in Movies: https://goo.gl/q4RAF Cracked Photoplasties About Movie Tropes: https://goo.gl/2BsDGG , https://goo.gl/x4QfQ , https://goo.gl/qnQZQr , https://goo.gl/gYZfr Article: The New Yorker: What Did Jesus Do? (Actual Logic vs. Narrative Logic): https://goo.gl/4c126Q Article: The Hathor Legacy: Why Film Schools Teach Screenwriters Not To Pass The Bechdel Test: https://goo.gl/MMdcbt This episode is brought to you by Casper Mattresses (www.casper.com/cracked) and Squarespace (www.squarespace.com code: CRACKED).

It's not something that you consciously notice, but movies speak to us in a secret language. They use a special shorthand to convey ideas or explain plot in the most efficient way possible. There's one problem though: they do it in the same couple dozen ways and recycle them over and over. And they need to stop. Or at least invent some new ones.Is someone's life crumbling away after a break-up? Just give them a beard and litter their apartment with Chinese food cartons. Want to show someone has a house or apartment, but no possessions? How about some well-placed Chinese food cartons? Is someone pulling an all-nighter with their work? More Chinese food cartons!If you're a person who even casually watches movies, you'll know so many of these the instant we bring them up and you'll never unsee them in any film going forward. To break down 25 of the biggest offenders, Jack O'Brien is joined by Cracked's Carmen Angelica, Soren Bowie and Daniel O'Brien. They talk about how people brush their teeth in movies, how men try to steal kisses and why you can never trust a fictional male nurse.Remember to buy tickets to our next live taping of The Cracked Podcast on this Saturday, March 11th at 7pm at the UCB Sunset Theatre in Los Angeles. Jack and the gang are going to talk about Amity Island, Jurassic World and movies where vacations go awry in an attempt to figure out the best spring break you should take while vacationing in a fictional universe.Tickets are $7 and available here:  https://goo.gl/Li0ocH Footnotes:Podcast: Cracked: Dumb Movie Tropes That Need to Die Already: https://goo.gl/oMk0jv Video: Cracked: 6 Bizarrely Specific Scenes  Hollywood Won't Quit Using: https://goo.gl/i1Bll2 Video: Cracked: 4 Movie Straw Men Characters That Keep Showing Up: https://goo.gl/17JVkG Video: Cracked: 7 Bizarrely Specific Ways Movies Get Normal Jobs Wrong: https://goo.gl/lvqPpo Article: Cracked: 4 Bizarrely Specific Rules That Exist in Movie Universes: https://goo.gl/Hs9iGT Article: Cracked: 3 Bizarrely Specific Job Trends in Movies: https://goo.gl/a4NL9 Article: Cracked 4 Products That Only Exist in Movies: https://goo.gl/q4RAF Cracked Photoplasties About Movie Tropes: https://goo.gl/2BsDGG , https://goo.gl/x4QfQ , https://goo.gl/qnQZQr , https://goo.gl/gYZfr Article: The New Yorker: What Did Jesus Do? (Actual Logic vs. Narrative Logic): https://goo.gl/4c126Q Article: The Hathor Legacy: Why Film Schools Teach Screenwriters Not To Pass The Bechdel Test: https://goo.gl/MMdcbt This episode is brought to you by Casper Mattresses (www.casper.com/cracked) and Squarespace (www.squarespace.com code: CRACKED).

What separates the baby religions from the big ones? Is there anything specific that makes Catholicism or Islam more important than the shrine to The Noid that I have in my closet? Some religions make you go to mass or travel to Mecca, mine makes me eat pizza in the nude at least twice a week. The point we're trying to make is that what seems fringe or crazy now may have a billion devoted followers a thousand years from now. Mormonism was about as fringe as you could get a hundred years ago, less than a million followers, but now the there are around 16 million members and counting. Is there any religion that's out there now that's in the same place Mormonism was 100 years ago?To get a better understanding of some of these lesser-known religions and if they'll stand the test of time, Jack O'Brien's guest this week is Reza Aslan, who has a PhD in the study of religion and whose new show 'Believer' on CNN throws him head-first into the beliefs and practices of obscure religions. Among Scientology and Santa Muerte, they talk about the implausible origins of biblical literalism, the rare disorder that has tourists in Jerusalem thinking they're the messiah and a few big things that'll change your notions of Christianity and Islam.Remember to buy tickets to our next live taping of The Cracked Podcast on Saturday, March 11th at 7pm at the UCB Sunset Theatre in Los Angeles. Jack and the gang are going to talk about Amity Island, Jurassic World and movies where vacations go awry in an attempt to figure out the best spring break you should take while vacationing in a fictional universe.Tickets are $7 and available here: https://goo.gl/Li0ocH Footnotes:TV Show: Believer with Reza Aslan: https://goo.gl/xvhvno Book: Reza Aslan: Zealot: https://goo.gl/qIXXdu Video: Reza Aslan Viral Interview on Fox News: https://goo.gl/SBTBT5 Article: Cracked: 5 Ridiculous Things You Probably Believe Islam: https://goo.gl/aDLjO Article: Cracked: 5 Myths You Probably Believe About Major Religions: https://goo.gl/qHreXh Article: The Telegraph: Jerusalem Syndrome: The Madness That Grips Foreigners on the Streets of the Holy City: https://goo.gl/IW1YUI This episode is brought to you by Blue Apron and ZipRecruiter.