Welcome to the Cracked newsletter!

This issue is about pop music trivia, Kanye interrupting Taylor, a lie told by ‘Airplane!’ directors, times math was interesting, and much more.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

The Directors of ‘Airplane!’ Had to Lie to an Actor in Order to Get Him to Say the Movie’s Filthiest Joke

Even 44 years after its release, Airplane! is still considered one of the funniest movies ever made, having entertained generations of fans, and forever ruined any earnest use of the word “surely” in a sentence.

A big reason why Airplane! works so well is its casting. While Paramount wanted to cast the biggest comedy stars of the day, floating names like Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, directors Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker instead opted to hire more dramatic actors in the lead roles, such as Lloyd Bridges and Leslie Nielsen. Keep in mind, this was back when Leslie Nielsen was still considered a dramatic actor.

‘SNL’ Writers Thought Kanye Was ‘Ripping Off’ Their Sketch When He Interrupted Taylor Swift

This week’s episode of The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast found the former Saturday Night Live performers discussing the digital short “Iran So Far,” which involved Andy Samberg crooning about then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — with some help from Maroon 5’s Adam Levine and an Aphex Twin sample that the show reportedly didn’t secure the rights to before air time. “It cost NBC, I think, $160,000,” Jorma Taccone confessed during the podcast.

Much of their discussion was devoted to the episode’s guests: host LeBron James and musical guest Ye (“Kanye West” back then). While Meyers called LeBron a “full delight” and a “genuine, fantastic human being to spend time with,” everyone’s feelings around Kanye were a tad more complicated.

TWEET OF THE DAY

ARTICLES | PICTOFACTS | VIDEOS