Cracked: RIP 1958 - 2007

If you think reviving Radar a third time is quixotic, then think about the recent and very short revival of humor magazine Cracked. The magazine hadn't published in a year and a half (probably for a very good reason), lawyer/entrepreneur Monty Sarhan buys it and publishes it.

Now after three issues, the last laugh is unfortunately on Monty.

Clearly aimed at the older than Mad crowd this time, so I'm guessing 18-34, the magazine had less of a chance of making it than David Pecker's remaining tenure at AMI.

Because that exact audience wants its humor online, so they can pass it on to their friends and have a good laugh around the office cubicle. Who would buy a comedy magazine from the newsstand at this point in time? They can go to collegehumor.com and get it all right there!

Monty, Monty -- you should have listened to your friends. Now you've got to "come on down" with the Reaper!

So the print edition folds -- a noble but misguided folly -- and all that's left is the web site cracked.com -- which is what Monty should have been investing in in the first place.

I've decided to hire Sylvester P. Smythe as "the official janitor of the River Styx" because some of these magazines like FHM and Shock have left a real mess at the bottom of my boat.

Comments

[Likes to laugh]

I'm 43 and I still buy Mad. I even by Mad Kids for my kids.

[Pturus]

Worked for them. I can tell you that the magazine died in part because they couldn't get their distribution down. The stores that actually did shelve them often tossed them in the kiddie section instead of next to Maxim, where it wanted to be.

That, and they leaned towards frat-boy funny and away from smart funny. I watched them dumb down some good pieces.