There is one unifying principle that Jim Cramer can seem among all of the earnings reported this year, especially with retail and restaurants — people want value.
"Eight years out of the worst downturn since the Great Depression, you would think people want to spend more money again. Splurge even," the "Mad Money" host said.
Instead, just like the Great Depression, the Great Recession has left scars on investors, and it is defining what stocks work right now in the market.
Cramer saw the same scars in the way his father spent money growing up. They were only allowed to go out to dinner twice a year, and when they did they had to order water to drink.
Investors are in a similar position right now, and it is impacting stocks.
There is evidence of spenders coveting value in furnishings. Restoration Hardware's stock was down 27 percent on Thursday after the company confirmed that the quarter was much weaker than expected.
"There is a new generation of Cramers out there, and they aren't spending as often as they used to. And when they do, they eschew frills, they want value or they aren't buying at all," Cramer said.
The market rallied on Thursday, and Cramer said the reason was seller's remorse. The same stocks that were clobbered when they reported earnings are now roaring higher because investors have either forgotten the bad news, overlooked it, or decided it wasn't as bad as they thought.
"I often marvel at how short term people's thinking can be when it comes to earnings, and how they should think so much longer-term if they story is really unchanged or actually better," the "Mad Money" host said.
An example was Allergan, when it reported what Cramer considered to be the best quarter of any pharmaceutical company in 2016. The company's FDA approval rates were strong, and its merger with Pfizer was on track to close the second half of the year.
When Cramer asked Allergan CEO Brent Saunders why the stock was hit so hard lately, he said he was "baffled" and had no explanation for the weakness.
"I threw up my hands and stopped trying to shoehorn why people sell and proclaimed my own bafflement, too," Cramer said.
Turns out, Cramer and Saunders had a right to be baffled, because the stock is up more than 6 percent in the past five days. Cramer thinks there are many more cases out there, just like Kimberly-Clark and Allergan.
"All of these are examples of fear and panic trumping rationality. But, fortunately, the panic is now receding," Cramer said.
But just because the market likes value, doesn't mean all value stocks are worth owning. Supervalu is the supermarket chain with 3,425 locations and a stock that has been on a total roller coaster. The stock hit $50 before the Great Recession, and fell down to $1 in the fall of 2012. At that point, many investors were worried about the company's viability.
Over the next few years, Supervalu became one of the hottest turnaround stories in the market and peaked in April of 2015 at $12. The stock hit a wall in the second half of the year, and finished down 30 percent for 2015. Since then, it has dropped another 30 percent since the beginning of the year.
"However, there is absolutely no confidence that the company can grow going forward, and it seems to be challenged versus other players in the supermarket space," Cramer said.
Ultimately, Cramer thinks the key to a turnaround is that a company must get better if it wants the stock to go higher. That kind of improvement is very difficult, and the turnaround from the dead seems to be over for it. He found no reason to own the stock besides the fact that it is cheap, and that is just not enough.
Read More Cramer: This punching-bag stock worth owning?
Cramer was stunned when Domino's Pizza revealed it had more than just pizza cooking in its earnings on Thursday.
Domino's has some 11,700 locations and has gained attention for its online technology that allows customers to order a pizza with an Apple Watch or even with emojis.
The company reported a real blowout quarter, posting a 5-cent earnings beat from a $1.10 basis, and higher than expected revenue up 15.3 percent year over year. Additionally, the company's domestic same-store sales grew 10.7 percent. The stock roared almost 13 percent on the news.
To find out the secret to its earnings sauce, Cramer spoke with Domino's CEO Patrick Doyle.
"First, it is just the culmination of a lot of things that we have been working on. We got the food right, we got the service right, the technology is driving things, our advertising is terrific. The team is just doing a great job, but most importantly with all of this volume coming in our store managers — our franchisees — are handling it very well," Doyle said.
In the Lightning Round, Cramer gave his take on a few caller-favorite stocks:
Cedar Fair: "I think Cedar Fair is fabulous. I like the yield; they're giving you a 5.7 percent yield. You know we like 6 percent, and i don't mean this as any diminution of how much I like 6, but Cedar Fair may even be cheaper here."
Weyerhaeuser: "At 5 percent yield, if both Lowe's and Home Depot said that lumber is strong, there is no way I'm going to turn my back on WY."
Read MoreLightning Round: I can't turn my back on this yield