History Magazine / Cracked

* BellyDancer: In issue #126, the "[[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jJXIac6VVYQ/UMUf4bGvPTI/AAAAAAAANk4/CoY30yc92OY/s1600/Cracked+Magazine+126+034.jpg Products]] [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CQ6e5b5P6ck/UMUhLxYihPI/AAAAAAAANlE/Sc5dJlOXhbI/s1600/Cracked+Magazine+126+035.jpg and]] [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a5LKUkNv_IQ/UMUijpWsYZI/AAAAAAAANlQ/R-Ox74D1yZg/s1600/Cracked+Magazine+126+036.jpg Ads]] [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TCB8QzRSazU/UMUjy1bO9yI/AAAAAAAANlc/miVBcMXulSY/s1600/Cracked+Magazine+126+037.jpg Designed]] for the Arab Market" comic feature gadgets and tools for Arab sheiks in mind, with many a dancer and harem girl showing off their usefulness.

** Issue 326's "A TV Commercial We'd Pay to See" is a faithful recreation of Creator/JerrySeinfeld's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8fj_Zo5x24 American Express commercial]] where he travels through England and experiences its culture to increase his reference pool... except his stand-up routine still bombs the second time around.

* TakeThat: Countless attacks at ''MAD'' over time, such as a cover gag where Alfred E. Neuman steals the "A" from the ''Cracked'' logo, or a column pointing out that both magazines did similar cover art spoofing the front cover of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' only a couple months apart. ''MAD'', being the high-class mag that it is, [[UnknownRival never once counterattacked]].

[[caption-width-right:350:A typical cover from 1975, featuring mascot Sylvester P. Smythe and drawn by ''Cracked'' mainstay John Severin. ([[FunnyAneurysmMoment Ignore the plane crashing into the tower.]])]]

** Rurik Tyler's first few articles were credited to Bo Badman, since he was also working for ''MAD'' at the time.
** Greg Grabianski occasionally wrote as "Judd Stomp", most notably on the parody of ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHeadDoAmerica'' since he was also a writer on the show.
** Greg Theakston drew a few articles under the name "Earl P. Whooton", also likely due to him having contributed to ''MAD'' as well.

** Early on, Sylvester P. Smythe was a lot uglier. John Severin refined his character design into a more UglyCute appearance, as seen on the page image.

* MsFanservice: Nanny Dickering

** John Severin was fond of switching out his signature for something silly, such as "[[Franchise/JamesBond O. O. Severin]]", "[[SignificantAnagram Seneriv]]", "[[SdrawkcabAlias Nireves]]", "Le Poer" (the Irish form of his middle name, Powers), "Sigbjorn" (the Swedish form of his last name), etc.

Before it became a humor website, ''Cracked'' was a magazine. Specifically, it was a [[FollowTheLeader knockoff]] of ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' (in their own words, their fanbase was "primarily comprised of people who got to the store after MAD sold out"), using a similar formula of movie and television parodies with deconstructive humor and otherwise (ostensibly) humorous articles, as well as its own UglyCute "mascot," Sylvester P. Smythe. It was by far the longest-surviving ''MAD'' knockoff, lasting in print form from 1958 until 2004, when a great deal of ExecutiveMeddling reduced the mag to an erratic printing schedule and many of the original contributors left. For its last few issues, it was published by Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. Finally, it was {{Retool}}ed as a "lad mag." This format didn't last long, and the magazine went under in 2007, only to re-establish itself as a website.

* HistoricalInJoke: Issue #325, the 40th anniversary issue, includes a fictitious guide to collecting ''Cracked''. Included in the guide to said issues are entries reading "Ghost of editor's dead wife hired as art director", "Ghost of editor's dead wife promoted to editor", and "1st appearance of editor's son as cover artist". All of these actually did happen during Paul Laikin's short-lived tenure as editor in TheEighties.

** Mike Ricigliano initially drew the "Shut-Ups" in a very lumpy style that seemed to emulate predecessor Charles Rodrigues before finding his own more sketchy style in TheEighties.
** Walter James Brogan's art shifted greatly over the years. His early drawings had a more jagged and pointy appearance.

* CaptionHumor: The premise of "The ''Cracked'' Lens", which applied captions to stock photos or scenes from public-domain movies.

** Nanny Dickering's appearance also varied greatly from artist to artist,

* LastOfHisKind / LongRunners: By far the longest-lived of all the ''MAD'' knockoffs. For the last two decades of ''Cracked'''s print run, only it and ''MAD'' itself were still in print.
* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: The Dick Kulpa era featured attempts at a much "hipper" writing style, with far more edgy humor than the predecessors and frequent use of street slang. The "lad mag" retool was an even further example.

** Paul Laikin often padded out the writing credits with pseudonyms (most prominently "Pula Kinlai"). Initially, this was done to hide the fact that he wrote several issues by himself. But upon his short-lived return in the 1980s, it was done to cover up that he was recycling material from other magazines he had worked on and/or was giving kickbacks to friends and family who did not actually contribute).

** Rurik Tyler's first few articles were credited to Bo Badman, since he was also writing for ''MAD'' at the time.

** When Barry Dutter served as co-editor alongside Kulpa, he often credited his work to pseudonyms. Going the other way, he also submitted two articles to ''MAD'' as "Larry Sutter".

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: The Dick Kulpa era featured attempts at a much "hipper" writing style, with far more edgy humor than the predecessors. The "lad mag" retool was an even further example.

** Barry Dutter often used a myriad of pen names, most of which varied from issue to issue.

Before it became a humor website, ''Cracked'' was a magazine. Specifically, it was a [[FollowTheLeader knockoff]] of ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' (in their own words, their fanbase was "primarily comprised of people who got to the store after MAD sold out"), using a similar formula of movie and television parodies with deconstructive humor and otherwise (ostensibly) humorous articles, as well as its own UglyCute "mascot," Sylvester P. Smythe. It was by far the longest-surviving ''MAD'' knockoff, lasting in print form from 1958 until 2004, when a great deal of ExecutiveMeddling reduced the mag to an erratic printing schedule and many of the original contributors left. For its last few issues, it was published by Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. Finally, it was {{ReTool}}ed as a "lad mag." This format didn't last long, and the magazine went under in 2007, only to re-establish itself as a website.