Tuesday, August 8, 2006

CRACKED COWBELL: As a preteen juvenile delinquent, I was once detained by the manager of a Walgreens for slipping a copy of third-rate Mad Magazine rip-off Crazy under my down jacket. I got off easy with just a call to my mother and a canceled sleepover. (Oddly, I was actually arrested in college for another periodical theft. I slipped the New York Times Magazine in a copy of the Sunday Chicago Tribune, which was a few dollars cheaper than the Times, and was actually caught and booked by Ann Arbor's finest. I got fingerprinted, had to go and tell the judge what I did--he laughed--and serve community service for this crime, which has since been expunged from my record.)

All this is to say I had no idea second-rate Mad Magazine ripoff Cracked was still around. Apparently it is relaunching in a week or so as a National Lampoon meets EW meets The Onion. Normally I would think it would suck (Michael Ian Black is a contributor, need I say more?), but this list at the magazine's Web site of Will Ferrell's 10 Greatest SNL Skits makes me think the new Cracked might not be half-bad.

Rather than choosing the slam-dunk pick "More Cowbell," the magazine picks an obscure and hilarious skit about the boss from hell, Mr. Tarkanian. Many of Ferrell's go-to characters are missing from the list in favor of some actual gems from his years at SNL. And there are You Tube links, to boot. Cowbell does make the list, but is at No. 6, due to the fact that it's Christopher Walken and not Ferrell who is doing the heavy lifting.

Link via Pop Candy.

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