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Welcome to the Cracked newsletter!

This issue is about the disastrous marketing of ‘Wicked,’ the 50th season of ‘SNL,’ trivia tidbits, cults behind famous companies, funny tweets, sick burns, and much more.

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‘Saturday Night Live’ Is Fumbling Away Its 50th Anniversary Season

We’re seven episodes in, and Saturday Night Live has a 50th anniversary problem. The season thus far has ranged from “Okay, pretty good” (John Mulaney, Ariana Grande, Nate Bargatze) to “hit and miss” (Bill Burr and Michael Keaton) to “yeesh” (Jean Smart and last night’s episode with in-over-her-head Charli XCX.) That’s par for the course for the past decade of SNL, but months of drumroll leading into the anniversary year promised more. 

Last night’s show was emblematic of the season’s mediocrity. Overall, SNL continues to suffer from the same self-inflicted wounds. These are the show’s three biggest missteps so far this season…

The Marketing of ‘Wicked’ Has Been an Unmitigated Disaster

A movie like Wicked doesn’t exactly need a huge marketing push. It’s based on the second-highest-grossing show in Broadway history (damn you, Lion King!), and if that wasn’t enough to convince Universal that it would be a surefire hit, they wouldn’t have spent $145 million on it and planned a part two before it even opened. Still, it’s practically the law that a high-budget movie needs a few stunts in the weeks leading up to its premiere, and holy hell, has Universal botched this one.

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