One of the more successful Mad magazine imitators (in terms of longevity), Cracked, is back in publication after a two-year hiatus. The magazine, now 48 years old, was originally aimed at adolescent males and is now targeting the 18-34 demographic, the new adolescent males.

The magazine is available on newstands now, and sample articles are available on the magazine’s website. 

According to the press release from the new publisher: Michael Ian Black, a character actor who appeared regularly in the cancelled NBC TV series Ed, will serve as Editor at Large, which usually means a person who writes for the magazine but does no editing. Entrepreneur Monty Sarhan purchased the magazine and will serve as its CEO and Editor in Chief, which ought to provide a good deal of humor in itself.

Sarhan says the magazine’s mission will continue to be "parodying politics, pop culture and society," but that its new approach will be "smart, relevant, sarcastic, clever and biting. Our goal is ‘intelligent irreverence,’ and we have evolved CRACKED into a best-of-breed humor magazine." Among the magazine’s authors will be writers from popular TV shows such as Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, and Chappelle’s Show.

It certainly sounds as if they’re going for intelligence.

Judging by the articles on the Cracked website, however, the magazine appears to be only mildly amusing in fits and starts, and is not the slightest bit intelligent. The Onion is a lot better than this.

The prolonging of American adolescence continues apace.