Mr. Cranky
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Mr. Cranky is a satirical film critic persona, created in 1995 by Jason Katzman and Hans Bjordahl. Cranky's reviews consist entirely of relentless pans of current releases. The idea is that Mr. Cranky hates all movies except for a very select few.
The movies are rated on a six-step scale. When Cranky actually has to admit that he liked a movie, it gets one bomb. The number of bombs go up (up to four bombs) as Cranky's tolerance of the movie goes down. Movies that are especially unlovable get the Dynamite or "Boomstick" rating. Movies that are an utter waste of everyone's time get the dreaded Animated Explosion or "Kaboom!" rating.
In the Autumn of 2001, a "guest reviewer" named Mr. Smiley appeared. Mr. Smiley is the opposite of Mr. Cranky in that all his reviews are hyperbolically positive. He is a stereotypical smiley face smelling a pink Freesia flower, he appears every year around Halloween, and he has a rising five-step scale going from one smiley face to the "Prozacerrific!" Happy Pill. He is generally agreed to be Mr. Cranky's evil twin by fans.
[edit] Origins
Mr. Cranky, who takes the form of a self-gagging purple frowny-face, appears on the website Shadowculture's Mr. Cranky Rates the Movies. The character was created for a Colorado-based website named XOR. Katzman, the primary writer, and Bjordahl, his editor, purchased the rights to the feature in 1998 and established Cranky's website, which includes an archive of reviews, editorials, and message boards. The website launched on October third, a date that Crankylanders (see below) sometimes refer to as "Cranktoberfest".
The Mr. Cranky reviews also appear on the Chicago Tribune website. They can be found in print in both the Tribune's free publication Redeye and in the self-published trade paperback book Shadowculture's Mr. Cranky Presents: The 100 Crankiest Movie Reviews Ever (Author House, 2004; ISBN 1418448125)
Jason Katzman is employed at the University of Colorado and also contributes articles to MSNBC. Hans Bjordahl worked on Where the Buffalo Roam, the first internet comic strip, and is currently employed by Microsoft.
[edit] Crankyland
Interestingly, very few of Mr. Cranky's fans actually visit the website for the reviews. Instead, they are far more concerned with posting in the message boards. A small community soon developed out of these boards. The boards are informally called Crankyland; the posters call themselves Crankizens or Crankylanders.
Crankyland, like many internet forums, has developed into its own community with a history, cliches, conventions and so forth. Arguably the most common question out of the mouths of Noobs tends to be, "How come you guys never talk about the movies?"
Crankyland Memes and Cliches
The humor in the Cranky boards generally fits in with the tone of the reviews, as can be evidenced with the Crankylanders' most prominent memes. It is bizarre, absurdist at times, and very R-rated. Most of it is just bizarre.
For example, fish are inherantly funny. So are Skittles candies. Several celebrities, most notably Hillary Duff, Brittany Spears, Melanie Griffith, Courtney Love, Keanu Reeves, and Bea Arthur are the brunt of Crankyland humor. Mind you, this isn't anything we could possibly explain at this point.
