The Based, The Mid and the Cringe

A fun, dumb list to satisfy you new content junkies.

“marquis de sade with sunglasses, digital art” dall-e

Hello my Cross Current Culture Commentary Crackheads! Here’s a fun dumb list to slake your thirst. Yes it’s not a think piece. I need quiet for that and right now my parents are watching loud cat videos.

I do feel guilty just doing a listicle so let me do one more most-likely unnecessary paragraph explaining the criteria for this list. “Based” means fascinating, crazy, subversive, radical genius. Needless to say, I wouldn’t have coffee with half the people on this list, let alone agree with their views. But genius is not about easy-to-digest opinions. I would even say previous cultural pariahs like Kanye West and Sam Hyde have a subcultural kind of cool right now because the echo chamber is losing its appeal. “Mid” is someone who is mediocre. Talented to be sure, but way too cozy not offending anyone to move the needle past tolerable. “Cringe” is anyone who is annoying both artistically and as a personality.

Based

Marquis De Sade

Friedrich Nietzsche

Patrice O’Neal

Dave Chapelle

Kanye West

Frank Zappa

Captain Beefheart

Salvador Dali

Sarah Silverman version 1

Mishima

Paul Schrader

Quentin Tarantino

Paul Thomas Anderson (after sticking to his guns on Licorice Pizza)

Marlon Brando

James Dean

Nathan Fielder

Danny McBride

The Boys

Dan Harmon

Lana Del Rey

Mid

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

Mindy Kaling

John Hamm

Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lawrence

Kaley Cuoco

Big Mouth

Steven Spielberg

Tom Cruise

LL Cool J

Taylor Swift

Rihanna

Cringe

Beyonce

Lizzo

Stephen Colbert

Trevor Noah

Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy Fallon

James Corden

Adam Levine

Hasan Minahj

Seth Myers

Joe Biden

Malcolm Gladwell

Amanda Gorman

Rupi Kaur

Shonda Rhimes

Abbot Elementary

Nicole Kidman

The Sarah Silverman of today