Cracked on growing up in, and escaping from, North Korea

When I was a kid, I considered Cracked to be the Phantom Menace of humor magazines, a lame knockoff of Mad that could never be as good as the original. In the online age, Cracked matured into something funny and intelligent, and often seems to be better researched than many news sites.

The other day, commenter “kcr” pointed me to this piece about North Korea in Cracked, co-authored by Michael Malice, and I was favorably impressed. In my recent interview on the CBC, I talked about the sloppy, superficial, and trivial portrayal of North Korea on in our public conversations about it, and I conceded that I’ve also struggled with the boundaries of taste when parodying a regime that’s also perpetrating a horrific humanitarian tragedy. Cracked manages to find that line stay within it, writing a piece that’s funny, sympathetic, and informative.

Thanks to commenter “kcr” for pointing it out.