"That's a Blumpkin, yo."

When I was a kid MAD Magazine wasn't the only game in town when it came to satire and humor magazines. There were others: Cracked was a kinder, gentler, less edgy sort of magazine. Crazy, from Marvel Comics, was noted for its poor production values. Sick I never picked up, but I had the impression that it was definitely not for kids. And National Lampoon was touted as collegiate humor, even though it seemed to be aimed at adolescents looking for some pictures of boobies.

MAD is still around, in print and as a website, and as far as I can tell is the only humor and satire magazine left on the stands. According to Wikipedia, Sick folded in 1980 and Crazy in 1983. National Lampoon went through a lot of changes of leadership in the early 90's and eventually folded in 1998, though it lives on in NationalLampoon.com.

Cracked also has ceased publication, but it too lives on through its website. I discovered cracked.com through a link on United Hollywood, the unofficial blog of the Writers Guild strike. And, damn, is it funny.

The humor on cracked.com is edgier (NSFW, in some cases) than the magazine of my youth, and definitely R-rated. But I'm cool with that. The site features a lot of video content, too. My introduction was The Internet Party: What Happens When Google's Parents Leave Town for the Weekend? from the troupe Those Aren't Muskets! What happens when personifications of some of the most popular websites on the Internet go to a party hosted by Google? Unsurprisingly, Snopes is totally hot. The video features some rough language, so kiddies, don't go there. (Or if you do, turn the damned sound down so your parents can't hear.)

If you have some time to kill or are just looking for a good laugh, stop on over at cracked.com and see what they have to offer.

Title reference: The final words in The Internet Party, spoken by UrbanDictionary.com.