Just last week we were literally amazeballs blown away by Downworthy, a browser plugin which changes clickbait headlines to less hyperbolic ones. We’ve also parodied this Upworthy headline style with science fiction and Simpsons clickbait headlines. If you’re still not familiar with this headline style, just hit refresh at Upworthy Generator until you literally weep for humanity.
Janet Potter and Nick Moran at The Millions posed the question, “What if books were whorishly titled, optimizing our search engines rather than our imaginations?” College Humor asked a similar question last year. What both sites came up with were Upworthy headline versions of classic novels like Lolita, The Hobbit, and The Great Gatsby (hence the GIF above, which we use at every opportunity).
Our ten favorite clickbait-friendly classic novels are collected below. Check out the rest at The Millions and College Humor. Thanks to Neatorama for the assist.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Hobbit; or, There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Moby Dick: or, The Whale by Herman Melville
The Bible
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Check out the rest at The Millions and College Humor.