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

  • +3

A young boy's emotional growth becomes irreparably damaged when his older brother/mentor/illegal drug enthusiast crashes through a glass door while high, killing himself in the middle of a dinner party. He subsequently experiences some of the worst disasters to ever befall a human while participating in an ever more awkward love triangle with an HIV positive childhood friend/gay man and a woman who becomes an important character for some reason and then gets pregnant. It's all very cathartic.

PaxThomas
Add Your Gist

A Home at the End of the World (2004)

Source: TMBDb.org

Information Not Available

Consensus: No consensus yet.

Overview
  • Rating:
    R (USA)
  • Theatrical Release:
    July 23, 2004
  • Budget:
    $65,000,000
  • Box Office:
    $1,548,955
  • Runtime:
    1 hrs 37 min
  • Produced by:
    Christine Vachon John Wells Jeffrey Sharp John Hart
  • Screenplay by:
    Michael Cunningham
Director
Cast
Dallas Roberts
Colin Farrell Bobby Morrow
Sissy Spacek Alice Glover
Robin Wright Clare
Harris Allan
Wendy Crewson
Freebase CC-BY
Source: A Home at the End of the World on Freebase, licensed under CC-BY
Cracked Gists
500 characters left
  1. A young boy's emotional growth becomes irreparably damaged when his older brother/mentor/illegal drug enthusiast crashes through a glass door while high, killing himself in the middle of a dinner party. He subsequently experiences some of the worst disasters to ever befall a human while participating in an ever more awkward love triangle with an HIV positive childhood friend/gay man and a woman who becomes an important character for some reason and then gets pregnant. It's all very cathartic.

    PaxThomas
    • +3
  2. Bobby is neither? What?

    helpme25
    • 0

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