The End Of MAD

In pop culture news, it was reported that MAD magazine was coming to an end. Well, they would continue publishing reprint material, which essentially means the same thing. It is the end of an era, albeit one that came much later than could be expected.

MAD started as a comic book in 1952 and changed over to magazine format in 1955 (to get around the comics authority) and hit its peak in 1974, when it had a circulation of two million. That was the prime reading period for me, as I think I started reading it in 1971 or so and for a while was consumed by it. I don't remember precisely when I stopped, but it might have been late high school when I discovered National Lampoon.

MAD was very emblematic of its time, an irreverent satire of American culture that had little regard for authority. Almost anything was fair game, but it focused most of its ire on the mores of American politicians and media.

Each issue was fairly similar, with the masthead, with the name of William C. Gaines as publisher (he had been famous for publishing gruesome comic books that got him in trouble with Congress) and the contributors as "the usual gang of idiots." The issues were anchored by parodies, usually with a film at the beginning and TV at the end. In between would be a Don Martin cartoon, "Spy vs. Spy," "The Lighter Side," by Dave Berg, featuring the befuddled square guy, Roger Kaputnik, and would end on cover three with Al Jaffee's "Fold-in." Jaffee also contributed "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions," one of my favorite features. I can still remember some of them--he would present a stupid question and give multiple choice responses. One of them had a woman asking another woman with two children that were obviously twins asking, "Are they twins?" Two of the snappy answers were, "No, they are five years apart. Smoking stunted the older one's growth," or "He's an only child. Who's your eye doctor?"

The parodies are probably what made the magazines most popular. I wrote about them here, but as the magazine faded from popularity, so did the parodies. I still remember some of the gags, such as when they did "Rosemary's Boo-Boo," and there was a crowd gathered around the crib at the end of the movie, and in the crowd was Lucy Van Pelt. Just the randomness of that still makes me laugh.

The magazine continued to publish for years after, but the last time I picked it up, which was about twenty-five years ago in an airport during a delay, it had lost its luster. Was it less funny, or had I matured? Certainly the MAD of its hay-day was sharper, ably spoofing with a political bite--it was pretty radical. The greatest cover they ever did is at left, which contained a parody of The Sting and coupled it with the national crisis of Watergate. Sure, the humor was at about a seventh-grade level, finding humor in funny words like furshlugginer and potrzebie. But I think something was lost after Gaines retired and the magazine was swallowed up by corporate interests.

Perhaps reprints is the best idea, especially if they are from the '60s and '70s. But MAD was very topical in those days, and I don't know if readers today would get the jokes. Humor magazines used to be a big thing, as there was also Cracked and Sick. But the printed magazine is just not important anymore, and before long many other magazines will probably bite the dust (I think the writing is on the wall for Playboy and Sports Illustrated).

Farewell, MAD! You were a big part of my youth, and though I haven't kept up something inside of me has died.