The #1 Cracked Gist

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What is the Cracked Gist?

The focus of each Cheat Sheet is called The Gist. Think of the concise humor of the Craptions section crossed with our Pop Culture articles. Your goal here is to summarize everything anyone needs to know about the subject of your cheat sheet in one hilarious paragraph (500 character limit).

A few things to keep in mind:

  1. Don’t feel the need to rip every movie that you write a gist for. It’s perfectly fine to have a positive, passionate opinion about a film. OR: You don't have to love the movie, but you don't have to hate it either. Being negative does not mean you are being funny. We are never dismissive in our pop-culture articles.
  2. Focus on contributing to movies you have seen, and thought about.
  3. Avoid using the first joke that pops into your head. We're not looking for you to summarize the jokes other people would make. We're looking for you to make interesting and unique observations about the subject you're summarizing.
  4. Try to keep swearing to a minimum. Sometimes, well-placed profanity can help a joke land. Most of the time, a swear word makes your joke feel forced.
  5. There's no one correct way to write a Gist. If you can summarize everything we need to know about the movie in 10 words, that can be funny. It can also come off as glib. If you're having a tough time figuring out how to strike that balance, go to the movie section of Cracked, and study up.

Here are some samples that should give you a good idea of the wide variety of Gists that can work:
The Dark Knight
Independence Day

  • +2

John Waters is a perverted old man, and he will not rest until we're all made blatantly aware of this.

Billy_Bitterman
Add Your Gist

A Dirty Shame (2004)

Source: TMBDb.org

Information Not Available
Information Not Available
Overview
  • Rating:
    NC-17 (USA)
  • Theatrical Release:
    September 12, 2004
  • Budget:
    $15,000,000
  • Box Office:
    $1,914,166
  • Runtime:
    1 hrs 29 min
  • Produced by:
    Christine Vachon Ted Hope Mark Ordesky
  • Screenplay by:
    John Waters
Director
John Waters
Cast
Tracey Ullman Sylvia
Johnny Knoxville Ray Ray
Selma Blair Caprice
Chris Isaak Vaughn
Mink Stole Marge The Neuter
Freebase CC-BY
Source: A Dirty Shame on Freebase, licensed under CC-BY
Cracked Gists
500 characters left
  1. John Waters is a perverted old man, and he will not rest until we're all made blatantly aware of this.

    Billy_Bitterman
    • +2
  2. Proving not only the makers of 'Not Another Date Movie' and 'Scary Movie' can make a shitty parody movi...oh, it's not a parody? Oh. It's still pretty shitty though.

    helpme25
    • +1

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