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Chris Higgins
McSweeney’s Lists
by Chris Higgins - March 20, 2008 - 4:42 PM

McSweeney's ListsAccording to my calculations, at least 80% of the web is now given over to lists of things. With such a huge volume of list-based edutainment out there, it can be hard to find the great lists amongst the dreck. My favorite lists site (okay, aside from ours) is the immense McSweeney’s Lists. It’s great stuff, often literary, sometimes nerdy, and always witty. Here’s a recent example:

Other Things
There Will Be,
in Addition
to Blood.

BY MEREDITH RODKEY AND SCOTT RODKEY

- – - -

Refreshments

A representative on hand to answer your questions

No horseplay

Minor delays

After-holiday sales

An end to this

(Read the rest…)

Some more classics: Alternate Titles for It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; Lowbrow TV Programming for Linguists; and (ahem) Board Games Inspired By the Bush Administration. With lists going back to 1999, it’s a goldmine.

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Comments (8)

  1. I love McSweeney’s Lists! They are so funny. I think that one of my top three favorite lists has to be “Thirty Illnesses, Sorted According to Whether or Not You Can Eat the Victims.” However, my list of favorites is subject to revision at any time since McSweeney’s keeps coming up with so many great new ones.

    posted by Manda on 3-20-2008 at 7:36 pm

  2. I love McSweeney’s, too. The letters to songwriters are awesome as well.

    But I wanted to point out another list blog called 5ives. Hilarious lists of five random things, like:

    “Five terrible fake astronomical pickup lines:

    1.Ever wonder what’s happening under Orion’s belt?
    2.Hop in my van, and I’ll show you something else that’s constantly expanding.
    3.Was Democritus the first one to postulate your mysterious Milky Way?
    4.I’d like to Sagittarius your Pisces, and that’s no Taurus.
    5.How about we go outside and discover Uranus? ”

    Click my name to explore that meticulously cross-referenced, yet rarely updated source of chuckles.

    posted by Johnny Cat on 3-20-2008 at 9:53 pm

  3. hint: click on each title to reveal the Theoretical Related 5ives.

    posted by Johnny Cat on 3-20-2008 at 9:57 pm

  4. @Johnny Cat, 5ives is awesome! I was actually going to mention it in this post, but worried that some of the content might bug some readers (it gets a little raunchy in parts). But anyway, Merlin’s stuff is great, and 5ives is one of those things I keep running into at parties. :)

    (Yes, I go to nerd parties.)

    posted by Higgins on 3-21-2008 at 12:24 am

  5. Nerd Parties are the best!

    posted by Johnny Cat on 3-21-2008 at 1:15 am

  6. Good. More e-crack. That’s definitely what I need at work. Thanks Higgins. :)

    posted by kate on 3-21-2008 at 9:51 am

  7. I LOVE McSweeney’s Lists! My favorite has to be “5 Things Rick Astley is Never Gonna Do.” Their other stuff is really hilarious as well.

    posted by Cat on 3-21-2008 at 10:39 am

  8. Jokes by Robots, for Robots

    “Waiter waiter, what’s this robot doing in my soup?”
    “Looks like he’s performing human tasks twice as well, because he knows no fear or pain.”

    PS. Am I supposed to type the words I see in the box above the “submit comment” button? Because nothing tells me I’m supposed to, and it looks like an ad anyway.

    posted by Katie D. on 3-27-2008 at 1:05 pm

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