Assignment 3-1

The internet has revolutionized the way that we as a society function. Many businesses can no longer operate without having a web component and the vast majority of people in the United States and abroad communicate via email far more frequently than postal letters. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are connecting people in an entirely new way. Perhaps the one aspect of the internet that gets the least amount of media attention, however, are comedic blogs. Websites such as cracked.com and peopleofwalmart.com are two such examples.

Cracked.com is advertised as “America’s only humor and video site since 1958” and features daily blog posts about various topics, usually formatted in a top-ten style list. Many Cracked articles use facts and studies not commonly known to disprove misconceptions about history or science. Some of their most popular posts include “7 Real World Heists That Put 'Ocean's 11' to Shame”, “The 5 Most Widely Believed WWII Facts (That Are Bullshit), and “Superpowers We All Had as Babies (According to Science)”. The writers do an excellent job of making the articles funny but informative at the same time, appealing to those who want to read humor articles based off of fun, researched facts. Every day there is a new interesting article up on the blog, usually with information that few people have heard of before. Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of Cracked is that anybody can write for the site – although Cracked has regular contributors, anybody can sign up for their workshop and submit an article for the website.

People of Walmart takes a different approach to the comedy website, relying almost exclusively on amateur photos submitted to the site. These photos are of people or events happening at Walmart stores across the country. The site hosts candid photos of customers who are dressed strangely, have interesting tattoos, or are conducting themselves in a strange fashion at Wal-Mart. Notable pictures have included an adult woman being pushed around in a shopping cart, a child in a shopping cart with groceries on top of them, and a child hanging on to the end of a motorized shopping cart. The site offers up a societal critique through the use of photographs, poking fun at those whose behavior is outside of the norm.

Overall, the internet has many practical uses for both business and personal life. However, the Internet has also given the public access to entertainment previously only found sparingly in magazines and newspapers. Websites such as cracked.com and peopleofwalmart.com give people on the internet a forum to relax, make fun of the society they live in – and laugh.