Recommended: Cracked.com Lists

Cracked is a humour magazine in the style of MAD magazine and the Cracked.com blog is a surprising treasure-trove. Yes, much of the user-submitted stuff is a tad juvenile, trollish and linkbaity (think “X reasons why Y sucks”). But about 10% of those lists are of actual interest and since there are a few posts per day it translates to a good stream. There’s trivia, current events you might not be aware of. And (strangely enough for that type of sight, you might think) there’s some critical thinking and good old takedowns of BS, such as this look at 5 cryptozoological pseudostories.

And of course they mock the ridiculous, such as these:

Cracked finds the 4 most homophobic comics ever created:

Cracked on free speech kerfuffles:

#6.
Going to Jail For Bad Restaurant Reviews
Just the other week, a Taiwanese blogger was sentenced to 30 days detention, two years probation and about $7,000 USD in fines for ripping into a shitty restaurant on her blog.
Now, a couple of caveats — she probably will get out of the jail time, and the verdict wasn’t mainly about her review of the food so much as the fact she exaggerated how unsanitary the conditions were. However, the judge actually took into consideration in his ruling the fact that it was unfair for her to claim the restaurant’s food was too salty since she only tried one dish, which sounds like something a mom should be saying, not a judge.
A lot of people have been blogging about this and lumping it in with other cases where people have been sued for bad restaurant reviews, which is really unfair to Taiwan, because in all those other cases it was a civil suit filed by the restaurant owner (and almost never won by the restaurant), whereas this was a criminal case with the cops and the jail and everything. Taiwan’s actual government has actually arrested and convicted someone for saying a restaurant was a filthy shithole with oversalted dishes, and I think that’s something few other governments can brag about.

#4. You Can’t Say “Le Marketing” in French Marketing
The French Word Police isn’t going to break down people’s doors and stop them from saying “cool” or “le week-end” (that’s real French slang, by the way), but they forbid foreign words from being used in official documents, science papers, advertising, radio and television, and fine companies from $150 to $1,000 for making such a faux pas.
In 2008, they showed they were “with it” and banning things that mattered to the French youth of today by letting everyone know it was not OK to say email, blog or podcast, so that hip French podcasters would have to ask people to download their “diffusion pour baladeur,” and sound like a dork. And instead of using “corner,” sportscasters were expected to use the pithy phrase “coup de pied de coin,” by which time the goal would already be scored and everyone would be on the other side of the field.

Cracked on 10 unbelievable true stories about Donald Trump:

#5 Suing Deutsche Bank (For Mentioning How He Ripped Them Off)
Trump burrowed $640 million from Deutsche Bank to finance the Chicago Trump Tower and hotel[...]When they asked him to pay it back he instead sued them for three billion dollars. That’s not a typo, though the bankers probably thought so when the lawsuit arrived. Instead of making a token good faith payment towards over three hundred million owed at the time, he took them to court[...]
Trump claims that the “force majeure” clause in the loan contract — the one that protects borrowers from forces beyond anyone’s control like lightning strikes and earthquakes — should apply to the real estate market. He was claiming that the housing market crash was a literal Act of God. His argument was essentially that he should only have to pay back his loan if he made money.
When Deutsche Bank noted in court that “Trump is no stranger to overdue debt,” he sued them for damaging his reputation[...]Both sides eventually dropped their cases, which pretty much sums up his business plan: successfully make things so stupid the people who are actually trying to make money would rather lose forty million dollars than continue to be involved with you.

#2 Fencing A Married Couple Into Their Own Home (And Sending Them The Bill)
Trump engaged Disney-movie levels of villainy by applying for planning permission on land he didn’t own, and trying to bully a married couple out of their home of 20 years once he realized he didn’t own it.
He sent workers to fencing off of the whole house from the outside then sent Mr & Mrs Milne a four thousand dollar bill for the work. Trump has apparently realized that it’s everyone else’s fault for letting him act like this, so he’s decided they should pay for it too. It’s such an over-the-top dick move we’re expecting him to be foiled by a talking computer-animated animal.