Mad
Editor	Harvey Kurtzman/Al Feldstein/John Ficarra and Nick Meglin
Categories	Satirical magazine
Frequency	Monthly
Circulation	200,000–2,100,000
First issue	October–November 1952
Company	DC Comics
Country	United States
Language	English
Website	dccomics.com/mad
ISSN	0024-9319

Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. It is the last surviving title from the notorious and critically acclaimed EC Comics line. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (694x999, 277 KB) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924 - February 21, 1993) was a U.S. cartoonist and magazine editor. ... Al Feldstein (born October 24, 1925) is an American painter of Western wildlife and an influential author-editor who wrote, drew and edited for EC Comics and MAD Magazine. ... John Ficarra has been on the editorial staff of MAD Magazine for almost 25 years. ... Nick Meglin was on the editorial staff of MAD Magazine for almost half a century. ... Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject (individuals, organizations, states) often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... Most circulated periodical magazines in the U.S. as of 2003. ... For other uses, see October (disambiguation). ... Look up November in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Year 1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... DC Comics is an American comic book and related media company. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... ISSN, or International Standard Serial Number, is the unique eight-digit number applied to a periodical publication including electronic serials. ... Look up Humour in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924 - February 21, 1993) was a U.S. cartoonist and magazine editor. ... William Maxwell Gaines (March 1, 1922 – June 3, 1992) (more frequently referred to as Bill Gaines), was the publisher and co-editor of EC Comics, and publisher of Mad for over 40 years. ... Entertaining Comics was headed by William Gaines but is better known by its publishing name of EC Comics. ...

Offering satire on all aspects of American life and pop culture, the monthly publication deflates stuffed shirts and pokes fun at common frailties. 1867 edition of the satirical magazine Punch, a British satirical magazine, ground-breaking on popular literature satire. ... Popular culture, or pop culture, is the vernacular (peoples) culture that prevails in a modern society. ...

History of Mad

With its first issue released in August 1952 (but cover-dated October-November), Mad was a comic book, and part of the line of EC Comics published from the Lower East Side in New York City. Mad's subtitle, "Tales Calculated To Drive You" above the title Mad, referenced radio's Suspense which each week used the opening, "Tales well calculated to keep you in... Suspense!" The vertical subtitle, "Humor in a Jugular Vein," indicated the possibility of a sinister edge to the satire (as well as being a play on words for "jocular"). A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Categories: Manhattan neighborhoods | Stub ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Suspense, one of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled radios outstanding theater of thrills. ...

Written almost entirely by Harvey Kurtzman, the first issue displayed the cartoon talents of Kurtzman, Wally Wood, Will Elder, Jack Davis and John Severin. Wood, Elder and Davis were the main three illustrators throughout the 23-issue run of the comic book; Severin, a mainstay of Kurtzman's EC war comics, was phased out of Mad by the tenth issue. Kurtzman included his own cartooning only sporadically, primarily on the covers. However, he was known as an exceedingly "hands-on" editor and a visual master, and thus many Mad articles were illustrated in strict accordance with Kurtzman's detailed layouts. A handful of other artists contributed to the original run, including Bernard Krigstein, Russ Heath, and most conspicuously among the non-regulars, Basil Wolverton. Wolverton's grotesque faces made a striking impression despite only appearing in two issues of the comic book. Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924 - February 21, 1993) was a U.S. cartoonist and magazine editor. ... Wallace Wally Wood (born June 17, 1927, Menahga, Minnesota, United States; died November 2, 1981), was an American writer-artist best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. ... Will Elder self-portrait William Elder (aka Bill Elder) (born September 22, 1921 in the Bronx, New York) is an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art yet is best known for a zany cartoon s tyle that helped launch Harvey Kurtzmans... A 1956 Jack Davis page for ECs Picto-Fiction Jack Davis (born December 2, 1924) is an American cartoonist and illustrator. ... John Powers Severin (born December 21, 1921, Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American comic book artist noted for his distinctive artwork with EC Comics, primarily on the war comics Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, and for Marvel Comics, primarily on its war and Western comics. ... Bernard Krigstein, or B. Krigstein, (1919–1990) was an American artist and illustrator best known for his groundbreaking work in comic books. ... Russ Heath is an artist who has worked in the comics industry. ... Mad #11 (May 1954). ...

The first two issues of Mad spoofed only comic book genres of romance, horror, sports and science fiction without overly specific references. However, with the third issue, Kurtzman turned to direct parodies, targeting the well-known radio programs ("Dragged Net!"), and the Lone Stranger!." This approach proved fruitful, and in short order Kurtzman was gleefully hammering away at such targets as newspaper comic strips ("Little Orphan Melvin!"), comic books ("Superduperman!"), movies ("Ping Pong!") and television ("Howdy Dooit!"). Dragnet opening frame from the 1967 version. ... The Lone Ranger was an early, long-running radio and television show based on characters created by George W. Trendle of Detroit, Michigan and developed by writer Fran Stryker of Buffalo, New York. ... Cover of Cupples & Leon strip collection (1933) Little Orphan Annie is a full page (later half page or tab) American comic strip, created by Harold Gray (1894-1968), that first appeared on August 5, 1924. ... Superman is a fictional character and comic book superhero , originally created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian artist Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics. ... King Kong in the 1933 film. ... Howdy Doody was a childrens television program (with a decidedly frontier/western theme, although other themes also colored the show) that aired on NBC from 1947 through 1960. ...

By the summer of 1953, the success of Mad was apparent, and Gaines made plans for expansion. After nine bi-monthly issues, Mad became a monthly with the April, 1954 issue. At that same time, EC Comics launched another satirical bi-monthly, Panic, edited by Al Feldstein. Since this new title also used Kurtzman's core trio of artists (Davis, Elder, Wood), the peeved editor felt that Panic sapped and diminished the creative energy necessary to meet Mad's production schedule. Al Feldstein (born October 24, 1925) is an American painter of Western wildlife and an influential author-editor who wrote, drew and edited for EC Comics and MAD Magazine. ...

With issue 24 (July, 1955), Mad switched to a magazine format. The "extremely important message" was "Please buy this magazine!"

In 1955, with issue 24, the comic book was converted into a magazine. The popular myth is that this was done to escape the strictures of the Comics Code Authority, which was imposed in 1955 following United States Senate hearings on juvenile delinquency. Actually, Kurtzman received a lucrative offer from the publisher of Pageant and only stayed when Gaines agreed to convert Mad to a similarly "slick" magazine. The immediate practical result was that Mad acquired a broader range in both subject matter and presentation. Magazines had wider distribution than comic books, and a more adult readership. Mad 24 This image is a book cover. ... Mad 24 This image is a book cover. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The seal of the Comics Code Authority, which appears on the covers of approved comic books. ... Type Upper House President of the Senate Richard B. Cheney, R since January 20, 2001 President pro tempore Robert C. Byrd, D since January 4, 2007 Members 100 Political groups Democratic Party Republican Party Last elections November 7, 2006 Meeting place Senate Chamber United States Capitol Washington, DC United States... Juvenile delinquency refers to criminal acts performed by juveniles. ... Donna Reed on the October 1946 issue Pageant was a 20th-century monthly magazine, first published in the United States by Hillman Periodicals in November 1944. ...

However, the Comics Code Authority had proven fatal to Gaines' EC Comics line. Publisher Gaines had suffered both financially and creatively from targeted industry censorship, and the enmity of his fellow publishers. EC's national distributor, Leader News, was the nation's weakest and did not have the clout to withstand an undeclared industry boycott of EC product; the company's comics were frequently returned still in their original, unopened bundles. These factors combined to drive all EC comics from the stands, except for Mad, which was too profitable to ignore. The company's financial status grew shakier in 1956 when Leader News declared bankruptcy, leaving EC over $100,000 in debt. Only the Gaines family's investment of capital and a fortuitous deal with the much stronger American News distributor kept Mad afloat. For other uses, see Censor. ... The American News is a Knight Ridder newspaper in Aberdeen, South Dakota. ...

After the bulk of EC's line was canceled in 1954-55, the company was completely reliant on the improving fortunes of Mad. In a creative showdown, Kurtzman insisted upon a 51 percent share in the company; when Gaines rejected the demand, EC was without its creative dynamo and Kurtzman was without the magazine that crystallized his talents. Al Feldstein returned to EC, and oversaw Mad during its greatest heights of circulation. Taking over with issue #29, Feldstein set to work assembling a phalanx of talented humor writers and cartoonists. Feldstein's first issue as editor coincided with the debut of Don Martin; crucial longterm contributors such as prolific writer Frank Jacobs and star caricaturist Mort Drucker quickly followed. Before the classic Mad staff was assembled, Feldstein also relied on celebrity guest contributions to attract attention and fill pages. Some of these pieces, attributed to Bob and Ray, were actually the work of their main writer Tom Koch, who would flourish in Mad for decades. By the early 1960s, with notables such as Antonio Prohias and Dave Berg well in hand, editor Feldstein had fully established the format that was a commercial success for decades. Don Martin (May 18, 1931 – January 6, 2000) was a popular American cartoon artist whose best-known work appeared in MAD magazine from 1956 to 1988. ... Frank Jacobs is MAD Magazines longest-tenured writer, having appeared in its pages for 50 years. ... Mort Drucker is a cartoonist and caricaturist from Brooklyn, New York. ... Bob and Ray Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding were an American comedy duo that began in radio in 1946 with a daily 15-minute show titled Matinee With Bob and Ray. ... Tom Koch was one of MAD Magazines mainstay writers from the 1950s through the 1980s. ... Antonio Prohías (January 17, 1921 - February 24, 1998), born in Cuba, was a cartoonist most famous for creating the comic strip Spy vs. ... Dave Berg (Brooklyn, June 12, 1920 – May 17, 2002) was a cartoonist, most noted for his work in MAD Magazine. ...

Al Feldstein joined Mad in the same year that Time described it as a "short-lived satirical pulp." By the time he left, 28 years later, the magazine was commonly cited as one of the three greatest publishing successes of the 1950s, along with Playboy and TV Guide. The magazine's circulation more than quadrupled during Feldstein's tenure, peaking at 2,132,655 in 1974, although it declined to a third of this figure by the end of his time as editor. Time (whose trademark is capitalized TIME) is a weekly American newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. ... For other uses, see Playboy (disambiguation). ... TV Guide is the name of two North American weekly magazines about television programming, one in the United States and one in Canada. ...

When Feldstein retired in 1984, he was replaced by the team of Nick Meglin and John Ficarra, who co-edited Mad for the next two decades. Meglin retired in 2004. Ficarra continues to edit the magazine today. Nick Meglin was on the editorial staff of MAD Magazine for almost half a century. ... John Ficarra has been on the editorial staff of MAD Magazine for almost 25 years. ...

The magazine's impact

Though there are antecedents to Mad’s style of humor in print, radio and film, the overall package was a unique one that stood out in a staid era. Throughout the 1950s, Mad featured groundbreaking parodies combining a sentimental fondness for the familiar staples of American culture—such as Archie and Superman—with a keen joy in exposing the fakery behind the image. The approach was described by the New York Times' Dave Kehr: Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher known for its many series featuring the fictional teenage Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Forsythe Jughead Jones characters created by Bob Montana. ... Superman is a fictional character and comic book superhero , originally created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian artist Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... Dave Kehr is an American film critic currently writing for The New York Times. ...

Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding on the radio, Ernie Kovacs on television, Stan Freberg on records, Harvey Kurtzman in the early issues of Mad: all of those pioneering humorists and many others realized that the real world mattered less to people than the sea of sounds and images that the ever more powerful mass media were pumping into American lives.

Appropriately, Bob and Ray, Kovacs and Freberg all became contributors to Mad. Robert Brackett Elliott (March 26, 1923— ) is an American comedian, formerly one-half of the comedy duo of Bob and Ray. ... Ray Goulding (March 20, 1922 - March 24, 1990) was half of the comedy duo of Bob & Ray with Bob Elliott. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Stanley Victor Freberg (born August 7, 1926 in Los Angeles) is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, puppeteer and advertising creative director. ... Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924 - February 21, 1993) was a U.S. cartoonist and magazine editor. ... Bob and Ray Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding were an American comedy duo that began in radio in 1946 with a daily 15-minute show titled Matinee With Bob and Ray. ...

In 1977, the New York Times' Tony Hiss and Jeff Lewis wrote about the then-25-year-old publication's initial impact:

The skeptical generation of kids it shaped in the 1950s is the same generation that in the 1960s opposed a war and didn't feel bad when the United States lost for the first time and in the 1970s helped turn out an Administration and didn't feel bad about that either... It was magical, objective proof to kids that they weren't alone, that in New York City on Lafayette Street, if nowhere else, there were people who knew that there was something wrong, phony and funny about a world of bomb shelters, brinkmanship and toothpaste smiles. Mad's consciousness of itself, as trash, as comic book, as enemy of parents and teachers, even as money-making enterprise, thrilled kids. In 1955, such consciousness was possibly nowhere else to be found. In a Mad parody, comic-strip characters knew they were stuck in a strip. Darnold Duck, for instance, begins wondering why he has only three fingers and has to wear white gloves all the time. He ends up wanting to murder every other Disney character. G.I. Schmoe tries to win the sexy Asiatic broad by telling her, "O.K., baby! You're all mine! I gave you a chance to hit me witta gun butt.... But naturally, you have immediately fallen in love with me, since I am a big hero of this story."^[1]

Mad is often credited with filling a vital gap in political satire in the 1950s to 1970s, when Cold War paranoia and a general culture of censorship prevailed in the United States, especially in literature for teens. The rise of such factors as cable television and the Internet have diminished the influence and impact of Mad, although it remains a widely distributed magazine. In a way, Mad's power has been undone by its own success; what was subversive in the 1950s and 1960s is now commonplace. However, its impact on three generations of humorists is incalculable, as can be seen in the frequent references to Mad on the animated series The Simpsons. Some factual claims in this article need to be verified. ... For other uses, see Censor. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Simpsons redirects here. ...

Mad 30 (December 1956), the first issue to prominently feature one of Norman Mingo's paintings of Alfred E. Neuman on the cover.

Mad was long noted for its absence of advertising, enabling it to skewer the excesses of a materialist culture without fear of advertiser reprisal. For decades, it was by far the most successful American magazine to publish ad-free, beginning with issue #33 (April 1957) and continuing through issue #402 (February 2001). Mad 30 This is a magazine cover. ... Mad 30 This is a magazine cover. ... Norman Mingo (1896-1980) was a commercial artist and illustrator. ... What, me worry? Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot of EC Publications Mad magazine. ... “Advert” redirects here. ...

As a comic book, Mad had run the same advertisements as the rest of EC's line, and the magazine later made a deal with Moxie soda that involved inserting the Moxie logo into various articles. Mad also ran a limited number of ads in its first two years as a magazine, helpfully labeled "real advertisement" to differentiate the real from the parodies. The last authentic ad published under the original Mad regime was for Famous Artist Schools; two issues later, the inside front cover of issue #34 featured a parody of the same ad. After this transitional period, the only promotions to appear in Mad for decades were house ads for Mad's own books and specials, subscriptions, or promotional items such as ceramic busts or a line of Mad jewelry. Mad often explicitly promised that it would never make its mailing list available to anyone to exploit. Moxie, a carbonated beverage, is considered to be the USAs first mass produced soft drink. ...

Mad's satiric net was cast wide. The magazine often featured parodies of ongoing American advertising campaigns, the nuclear family, the media, big business, education, publishing, and other concerns. In the 1960s and beyond, it satirized such burgeoning topics as the sexual revolution, hippies, psychoanalysis, gun control, pollution, the Vietnam War, and recreational drug use. The magazine gave equal time, generally negative, to counterculture drugs such as cannabis as well as taking a savage approach toward mainstream drugs such as tobacco and alcohol. Although one can detect a generally liberal tone, Mad always slammed Democrats as mercilessly as Republicans. The magazine also ran a good deal of less-topical material on such varied topics as fairy tales and nursery rhymes, greeting cards, sports, small talk, poetry, marriage, comic strips, awards shows, cars and many other areas of general interest. For the Macy Gray song, see Sexual Revolution (song). ... Hippies (singular hippie or sometimes hippy) were members of the 1960s counterculture movement who adopted a communal or nomadic lifestyle, renounced corporate nationalism and the Vietnam War, embraced aspects of Buddhism, Hinduism, and/or Native American religious culture, and were otherwise at odds with traditional middle class Western values. ... Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods based on the work of Sigmund Freud. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Gun politics. ... It has been suggested that Pollutant be merged into this article or section. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Cannabis (also known as marijuana[1] or ganja[2] in its herbal form and hashish in its resinous form[3]) is a psychoactive product of the plant Cannabis sativa L. subsp. ... Shredded tobacco leaf for pipe smoking Tobacco can also be pressed into plugs and sliced into flakes Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the fresh leaves of plants in genus Nicotiana. ... Alcoholic beverages. ... Political Liberalism is an update to John Rawls 1971 Theory of Justice in which Rawls attempts to show that his theory of justice is not a comprehensive conception of the good, but is instead compatible with a liberal conception of the role of justice: namely, that government should be neutral... The Democratic Party is one of two major political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. ... The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... A fairy tale is a story, either told to children or as if told to children, concerning the adventures of mythical characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and others. ... A nursery rhyme is a traditional song or poem taught to young children, originally in the nursery. ... A greeting card is a folded card featuring a message of greeting or other sentiment. ... Small talk may mean: The act of making conversation for the sake of conversation. ... This article is about the art form. ... Marriage is an interpersonal relationship with governmental, social, or religious recognition, usually intimate and sexual, and often created as a contract, or through civil process. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... This is a list of groups, organizations and festivals that recognize achievements in cinema, usually by awarding various prizes. ... “Car” and “Cars” redirect here. ...

In 2007, the Los Angeles Times' Robert Boyd wrote, "All I really need to know I learned from Mad magazine," going on to assert: This just IN !!!:paris hiltons new dog. ...

Plenty of it went right over my head, of course, but that's part of what made it attractive and valuable: Things that go over your head can make you raise your head a little higher.

The magazine instilled in me a habit of mind, a way of thinking about a world rife with false fronts, small print, deceptive ads, booby traps, treacherous language, double standards, half truths, subliminal pitches and product placements; it warned me that I was often merely the target of people who claimed to be my friend; it prompted me to mistrust authority, to read between the lines, to take nothing at face value, to see patterns in the often shoddy construction of movies and TV shows; and it got me to think critically in a way that few actual humans charged with my care ever bothered to. ^[2]

In 1994, The Humanist's Brian Siano discussed Mad's eye-opening qualities:

For the smarter kids of two generations, Mad was a revelation: it was the first to tell us that the toys we were being sold were garbage, our teachers were phonies, our leaders were fools, our religious counselors were hypocrites, and even our parents were lying to us about damn near everything. An entire generation had William Gaines for a godfather; this same generation later went on to give us the sexual revolution, the environmental movement, the peace movement, greater freedom in artistic expression, and a host of other goodies. Coincidence? You be the judge.^[3]

Rock singer Patti Smith said, "After MAD, drugs were nothing." Pulitzer Prize-winning art comics maven Art Spiegelman said, "The message MAD had in general is 'The media is lying to you, and we are part of the media.' It was basically... 'Think for yourselves, kids.'" William Gaines offered his own view; when asked to cite Mad's philosophy, his boisterous answer was, "We must never stop reminding the reader what little value they get for their money!" Patricia Lee (Patti) Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American musician, singer, and poet. ... The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition. ... Art Spiegelman (born February 15, 1948) is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic memoir, Maus. ...

Corporate history

For tax reasons, Gaines sold his company in the early 1960s to the Kinney Parking Company. Kinney was in the process of becoming a conglomerate, including acquiring National Periodicals (aka DC Comics) and Warner Bros. by the end of that decade. Though technically an employee for 30 years, the fiercely independent Gaines was largely permitted to run Mad without corporate interference. Kinney Parking Company was originally a New Jersey funeral home company which expanded into New York parking lots, office cleaning firms and construction companies. ... DC Comics is one of the largest American companies in comic book and related media publishing. ... DC Comics is an American comic book and related media company. ... “WB” redirects here. ...

Following Gaines' June 3, 1992 death, Mad became more ingrained within the Time Warner corporate structure, which did not share Gaines' idiosyncratic ideas about marketing Mad. Since Time Warner viewed Mad as not unlike a comic book, they turned the magazine over to DC Comics' publishers Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz. Kahn and Levitz, in turn, appointed DC Vice President Joe Orlando as the magazine's new associate publisher, since Orlando was closely involved with DC licensing. Further, Orlando had been a staff artist with EC Comics in the 1950s, a prolific contributor to Mad during the 1960s and a regular with the National Lampoon during the 1970s. Time Warner put a much stronger emphasis on Mad merchandising and licensing, including products for the chain of Warner Studio Stores. Orlando spearheaded that operation through his Special Projects department at DC Comics, and a key component was the creation of the Mad Style Guide (1994), edited by Bhob Stewart and featuring new artwork by Tom Bunk, Sergio Aragonés, Angelo Torres and George Woodbridge. is the 154th day of the year (155th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... Time Warner Inc. ... Time Warner Inc. ... DC Comics is an American comic book and related media company. ... Jenette Kahn is an American comic book editor and executive. ... Paul Levitz (born 21 October 1956) is an American comic book writer, editor and executive. ... Joe Orlando was an illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist who was born April 4, 1927, in Bari, Italy, and died December 23, 1998, in Manhattan. ... January 1973 cover of National Lampoon National Lampoon was an American humor magazine that began in 1970 as an offshoot of the Harvard Lampoon. ... The Warner Bros. ... Bhob Stewart is an American writer, editor and artist who has written for a variety of publications over a span of five decades. ... Tom Bunk is a cartoonist known for adding multiple extraneous details in his art. ... Sergio self-portrait from Groo the Wanderer comic Issue #84 Sergio Aragonés Domenech (born 1937) is a cartoonist and writer probably best-known for his contributions to Mad Magazine. ... Angelo Torres is a cartoonist and caricaturist who appeared in many comic books, as well as a long-running regular slot at MAD Magazine. ... George Woodbridges drawing of a Bacons Rebellion soldier in 1675 George Woodbridge (1930-January 19, 2004) was an American illustrator known for his exhaustive research and historical accuracy. ...

Eventually, the magazine was obliged to abandon its long-time home at 485 Madison Avenue (printed as "MADison" Avenue in the masthead), and in the mid-1990s it moved into DC Comics' offices at the same time DC relocated to 1700 Broadway. Although Orlando retired from DC Comics in 1996, he continued to maintain an office at Mad until his death in 1998. Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City which carries northbound one-way traffic. ... A view of Broadway in 1909 Broadway, as the name implies, is a wide avenue in New York City. ...

In 2001, the magazine broke its long-standing taboo and began running advertising. Today, the magazine is published by a branch of DC Comics and in recent years has used its advertising revenue to increase the use of color and improve the magazine's paper stock. Most features are now in color, but each issue still contains black-and-white material. DC Comics is an American comic book and related media company. ...

By early 1978, Mad was obliged to include a UPC symbol on its covers. The magazine responded by devoting the entire front cover of issue #198 to a giant UPC bar code, saying they hoped it would "jam every computer in the country" for "forcing us to deface our covers with this yecchy UPC symbol from now on." For more than two years, subsequent issues labeled the normal-sized symbol with a variety of humorous captions, such as "Closeup of the gap in Alfred E. Neuman's teeth" and "Exclusive! FBI releases Bionic Man's fingerprints!" The Universal Product Code (UPC) is one of a wide variety of bar code languages called symbologies. ...

The Mad logo has remained virtually unchanged since 1955, save for the decision to italicize the lettering beginning in 1997. The title is sometimes seen in all uppercase letters, but Maria Reidelbach, in her comprehensive, authorized study, Completely Mad: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine (Little, Brown, 1991), makes it clear that the title is correct in upper and lowercase. For many years, the mysterious letters "IND" appeared in small type within the logo, between the M and the A. Sometimes the Mad logo included cavorting centaurs within the lettering, one of whom would be pointing directly at the IND. Though some fans speculated about the secret meaning of the "M-IND" message, the truth was more prosaic: from 1957 on, the magazine was handled by Independent News Distribution. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Maria Reidelbach is a Manhattan-based installation artist and an authority on various aspects of popular culture and fine arts, evident in her art projects, books and exhibitions. ...

Recurring features

MAD fold-ins

In a parody of Playboy's "fold-out" centerfolds, each issue of Mad from 1964 onward featured a "fold-in" on its inside back cover, designed by artist Al Jaffee. A question would be asked, often of a topical nature, which apparently was illustrated by a picture taking up the bulk of the page. But when the page was folded inward, the inner and outer fourths of the picture combined to reveal a surprising answer in both picture and words. Until 1967, fold-ins were presented in black-and-white. The MAD fold-in is a feature found on the inside back cover of virtually every MAD Magazine since it was introduced in 1964. ... In contemporary usage, a parody (or lampoon) is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ... For other uses, see Playboy (disambiguation). ... Standard Lenna image famously used in many image processing experiments, taken from the (non-revealing) top third of a November 1972 Playboy centerfold. ... Also Nintendo emulator: 1964 (emulator). ... Al Jaffee (born March 13, 1921) is a cartoonist, best known for his work in MAD Magazine. ...

The feature has rarely been omitted: only single issues in 1968 and 1977 have lacked a fold-in. Another example was the 1980 Mad Disco special, which was printed with stiff cardboard covers, making a fold-in impractical. With nearly 400 fold-ins to date, Jaffee's work has appeared in more issues of Mad than any other artist.

The Lighter Side of...

From 1961- 2002, Dave Berg produced "The Lighter Side of..." which often satirized the suburban lifestyle, capitalism and the generation gap. Subjects commonly lampooned include medicine, office life, parties, marriage, psychiatry, shopping and other everyday activities. Dave Berg (Brooklyn, June 12, 1920 – May 17, 2002) was a cartoonist, most noted for his work in MAD Magazine. ... For other uses, see Capitalism (disambiguation). ... A generation gap is a popular term used to describe wide differences in cultural norms between members of a younger generation and their elders. ... Medicine is the science and art of maintaining andor restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of patients. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... A party is a social gathering intended primarily for celebration and recreation. ... Marriage is an interpersonal relationship with governmental, social, or religious recognition, usually intimate and sexual, and often created as a contract, or through civil process. ... Psychiatry is a branch of medicine dealing with the prevention, assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of the mind and mental illness. ... Shopping is the examining of goods or services from retailers with intent to purchase. ...

Although this feature eventually became notorious for its corny gags and garishly outdated fashion choices, the Mad editors, over decades, claimed it was the magazine's most popular feature. It was quite sharp in its early years, providing the sort of Americana-based humor that standups such as Shelley Berman and Alan King performed successfully onstage. "The Lighter Side of..." feature was retired with Berg's death. Shelley Berman (born 3 February 1926, in Chicago, Illinois) is a comedian, writer, teacher, and actor. ... Alan King (December 26, 1927 – May 9, 2004), born Irwin Alan Kniberg, was an American comedian known for his biting wit and often angry humorous rants. ...

Four months after the last Berg artwork was published, his final set of gags, which Berg had not penciled, appeared as a tribute. These last "Lighter Side" strips were divided among 18 of MAD's regular artists.

Spy vs. Spy

Main article: Spy vs. Spy

Antonio Prohías's wordless "Spy vs. Spy," the never-ending battle between the iconic Black Spy and White Spy, has outlasted the Cold War that inspired it. Except for the respective black/white color of their clothing, the two spies were identical in appearance and intent. The strip was a silent parable about the futility of mutually-assured destruction, with various elaborate deathtraps designed in Prohías' thick line. Almost always, the trap would boomerang back on the spy who had concocted it. In many cases, the backfiring result would have been anticipated by the first spy, who would then spring a counter-counteraction, thus defeating the opposing spy whom the trap was supposed to have targeted. The dead Spy would be restored to life in the successive strip. There was no pattern or order dictating which spy would be killed in a particular episode. A female "Gray Spy" occasionally appeared; unlike her two adversaries, she always prevailed. Spy vs. ... Antonio Prohías (January 17, 1921 - February 24, 1998), born in Cuba, was a cartoonist most famous for creating the comic strip Spy vs. ... Spy vs. ... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ...

Although Prohías eventually retired from doing the strip, "Spy vs. Spy" continued in newer hands. Various writers and artists worked on the strip in Prohias' absence; since 1997 it has been done by Peter Kuper. The Morse Coded "by Prohias" remains in each strip's title, however, paying tribute to the originator. Peter Kuper (b. ... 1922 Chart of the Morse Code Letters and Numerals Morse code is a method for transmitting telegraphic information, using standardized sequences of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a message. ...

Don Martin gags

Don Martin, billed as "Mad's Maddest Artist," drew gag cartoons, generally one page but sometimes longer, featuring lumpen characters with apparently hinged feet. Martin's absurd sight gags were frequently punctuated by an array of bizarre onomatopoeic sound effects such as GLORK, PATWANG-FWEEE, or GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA, coined by Martin himself (or ghost writer Don Edwing). Don Martin (May 18, 1931 – January 6, 2000) was a popular American cartoon artist whose best-known work appeared in MAD magazine from 1956 to 1988. ... For the supervillain, see Onomatopoeia (comics). ... Don Edwing is a gag cartoonist whose work has appeared for years in MAD Magazine. ...

When Martin first joined Mad, he employed a nervous, scratchy art style, but this developed into a rounder, more cartoony look. Martin's wild physical comedy would eventually make him the signature artist of the magazine. Many of his cartoons used similar titles (e.g. "One Exceedingly Fine Day at the Beach"), and as this became a trademark, the titles sometimes became increasingly elaborate (i.e. "One Night in the Acme Ritz Central Arms Waldorf Plaza Statler Hilton Grand Hotel," "One Hot Sunny Afternoon in the Middle of the Ocean," or "One Fine Day at the Corner of South Finster Boulevard and Fonebone Street"). Mad has occasionally used the conceit for other cartoonists' one-page gag titles.

However, Martin's 31-year association with Mad ended in some rancor over the ownership of his work. Not long after leaving Mad, Martin ended up working at Mad's competitor Cracked, which, unlike Mad, allowed creators to keep the copyright on their work. After a few years, Martin also left Cracked and published a handful of issues of his own eponymous magazine. Cracked Mazagine issue 31 - September 1963 Cracked was one of Americas oldest surviving national satire and humor magazines. ...

A Mad Look at...

Sergio Aragonés has written and drawn his "A Mad Look At..." feature for over 40 years. He is known for his remarkable speed and cartooning facility. Aragonés' Mad cartooning is notable for its silence. He uses virtually no words; speech balloons, when they occur at all, will merely feature a drawing of whatever is being discussed. Aragonés will periodically bend this rule for a store window sign, a stray "Gesundheit," or some other item necessary to the punchline. Sergio self-portrait from Groo the Wanderer comic Issue #84 Sergio Aragonés Domenech (born 1937) is a cartoonist and writer probably best-known for his contributions to Mad Magazine. ...

Drawn-Out Dramas (Marginal Thinking Dept.)

In addition to his regular slot, Aragonés also provides the "Mad Marginals": tiny gag images that appear throughout the magazine in the corners, margins or spaces between panels. Aragonés debuted the feature in Mad #76 (January 1963), and it has appeared in every issue of the magazine since, except one (Aragonés missed that issue after his mailed artwork was lost by the post office).

Beginning in Issue #30 (December 1956), Mad began printing jokes and random sayings in the margins of the magazine, based on a theme. In March 1958 (issue #38), this feature was given the overall title "Marginal Thinking Dept." Marginal Thinking continued to feature random topics (example: "Film Titles We'd Like to See") until January 1963 (#76) when it became the permanent home of Aragonés' "Drawn Out Dramas."

Monroe

"Monroe" is an ongoing storyline about a prototypical, angst-filled, teenaged loser. It depicts his travails in school, his dysfunctional home and his unending troubles elsewhere. It is written by Anthony Barbieri, and was illustrated by Bill Wray from 1997-2006. It passed its 100th episode in 2005. Monroe is a gawky, ugly high schooler with extreme cowlicks that resemble bug-like antennae. The series has perplexed a handful of fans; an occasional "explanation" has been offered that ' Monroe' is an open-ended parable of the 1905 Sino-Russian War, and if one reads it with that in mind, it all makes sense. Anthony J. (Tony) Barbieri (born August 26, 1963, Framingham, Massachusetts) is an American comedy writer and performer. ... Bill Wray is a cartoonist who has worked on animated TV series. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Combatants Russian Empire Montenegro[1] Empire of Japan Commanders Emperor Nicholas II Aleksey Kuropatkin Stepan Makarov â€  Emperor Meiji Oyama Iwao Heihachiro Togo The Russo–Japanese War (Japanese: Nichi-Ro Sensō, Russian: , Chinese: , February 10, 1904 – September 5, 1905) was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperialist ambitions of...

The previously black-and-white feature went on hiatus for much of 2006; when it returned, it was a color feature with artwork by Canadian artist Tom Fowler. Anthony Barbieri remains the writer. Thomas W.H. Fowler (Tom Fowler in credits) is a Canadian comic artist living in Ottawa, Canada. ...

Movie and TV show parodies

A typical issue will include at least one full parody of a popular movie or television show. The titles are changed to create a play on words; for instance, "The Addams Family" became "The Adnauseum Family." The character names are generally switched in the same fashion. For the TV series, see The Addams Family (TV series). ...

These articles typically run five pages or more and are presented as a sequential storyline with caricatures and word balloons. The opening page or two-page splash usually consists of the cast of the show introducing themselves directly to the reader; in some parodies, the writers sometimes attempt to circumvent this convention by presenting the characters without such direct exposition. Many parodies end with the abrupt deus ex machina appearance of outside characters or pop culture figures who are similar in nature to the movie or TV series being parodied, or who comment satirically on the theme. For example, Dr. Phil arrives to counsel the psychologically damaged "Desperate Housewives", or the former cast of "Sex and the City" are hired as the new hookers for another HBO series, "Deadwood". For other uses, see Deus ex machina (disambiguation). ... This article is about the person. ... Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series, created by Marc Cherry, who also serves as show runner, and produced by ABC Studios — The Walt Disney Companys main television studio — and Cherry Productions. ... Sex and the City is a popular American cable television program. ... For other uses, see HBO (disambiguation). ... Deadwood is an American television drama series that premiered in March 2004 on HBO. The series is a Western set in the 1870s in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. ...

The parodies frequently make comedic use of the fourth wall, breaking character, and meta-references. Within an ostensibly self-contained storyline, the characters may refer to the technical aspects of filmmaking, the publicity, hype, or box office surrounding their project, their own past roles, any clichés being used, and so on. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Breaking character, to break character, is a theatrical term used to describe when an actor, while actively performing in character, slips out of character and behaves as his or her actual self. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Several show business stars have been quoted to the effect that the moment when they knew they'd finally "made it" was when they saw themselves thus depicted in the pages of Mad. Over a hundred of them have posed for photographs which were printed in Mad's letters column, holding up the copy of the magazine they appeared in, and reacting in some comical way.

Others

Several Mad premises have been successful enough to warrant additional installments, though not with the regularity of the above. Other recurring features which have appeared in Mad include:

• Advertising parodies – too numerous to catalog, though many have been written by Dick DeBartolo; these have ranged from TV ad spoofs to national print campaigns to home marketing, and have long provided one of the most durable sources of Mads humor. A separate paperback of original material titled Madvertising was published.
• Alfred's Poor Almanac – written by Frank Jacobs, this text-heavy page featured quick one-liners, lame puns, faux anniversaries and other arcana, supposedly matched to each day of that month.
• Badly-Needed Warning Labels for Rock Albums – written by Desmond Devlin, this series of articles mocked both the ongoing Parental Advisory labelling controversy, as well as the musicians of the day, with specifically-written warning labels for particular recordings.
• Behind the Scenes at ____ – written and illustrated by various, these frequently take an "eye in the sky" approach. Various vignettes and conversations play out simultaneously, showing the reader how the participants "really" think and behave.
• Believe It Or Nuts! – written and illustrated by various (though most often drawn by Wally Wood or Bob Clarke), this parody of the print version of Ripley's Believe It Or Not depicted alleged marvels and mundanities of the world. In the late 1950s, Mad also published regular installments of "Kovac's Strangely Believe It!", another Ripley's parody written by Ernie Kovacs.
• Celebrity Cause-of-Death Betting Odds – written by Mike Snider, this long-running feature listed and "ranked" possible methods of future death for one well-known person at a time. It usually contained a tombstone with an "engraved" caricature of the celebrity. A shorter version later ran in the "Fundalini" section.
• Celebrity Wallets – usually written by Arnie Kogen, this was a series of peeks at the notes, photographs and other memorabilia being carried around in the pockets of the famous.
• Cents-less Coupons – written by Scott Maiko, these imitate the giveaway coupon packets found in Sunday newspapers but promote ludicrous products such as "Inbred Valley Imitation Squirrel Meat".
• Chilling Thoughts – written by Desmond Devlin and illustrated by Rick Tulka, these featured observations or predictions about both the culture and everyday life that had supposedly dire implications.
• A Day in the Life of... – written by Scott Maiko, these articles depict the purported hour-by-hour activities of a particular celebrity, such as George Lucas, Dick Cheney, Adam Sandler, or Dane Cook.
• Mad Deconstructs Talk Shows – written by Desmond Devlin, these take on one show at a time and purport to reveal the minute-by-minute format breakdown of America's not too spontaneous chat programs.
• Disposable Camera Photos That Didn't Make the Album – written by Butch D'Ambrosio and illustrated by Drew Friedman, these showed "candid" photographs from events like proms, bar mitzvahs or weddings, with descriptive commentary.
• Do-It-Yourself Newspaper Story – written by Frank Jacobs, these are short text news items containing a number of blank spaces. Each space has a corresponding list of numbered fill-in-the-blank options, which grow increasingly absurd. The premise is that with appropriate mixing and matching, the article can be read in a vast number of permutations. The same format has also been applied by Jacobs to other areas as poetry, press releases, or speechmaking.
• Duke Bissell's Tales of Undisputed Interest – written and illustrated by P.C. Vey, these absurdist one-page strips presented a series of non sequiturs and bizarre references in the guise of a linear storyline.
• Ecchbay Item of the Month – laid out to mimic a computer screen linked to eBay, these purport to sell weird and topical collectables.
• 15 Minutes of Fame – written by Frank Jacobs, it consists of short poems about lesser celebrities and news figures.
• The 50 Worst Things About ____ – written and illustrated by various, this is an annual article format which has thus far dealt with large catch-all topics such as "TV," "comedy," or "sports."
• The Mad Hate File – written and illustrated by Al Jaffee, these contained a series of observational one-liners about common irritations.
• Hawks & Doves – written and illustrated by Al Jaffee during the Vietnam War era, this was a shortlived series of cartoons in which the autocratic Major Hawks is exasperated by the rebellious Private Doves, who keeps finding unexpected ways to create the peace symbol on his military base.
• Horrifying Clichés – illustrated by Paul Coker Jr. and often written by Phil Hahn, these articles visually depicted florid turns of phraseology such as "tripping the light fantastic", "racking one's thoughts" or "laboring under a misconception"; the verbs are taken literally, and all the nouns are characterized as bizarre horned, scaled or otherwise unusual creatures; Mad also published a separate paperback of these.
• How Many Mistakes Can You Find In This Picture? – these articles showed a widespread area such as a rock concert or a fast food outlet, and then revealed 20 visual "mistakes," which would typically be people behaving in moral or competent ways.
• The Mad Library of Extremely Thin Books – written by Frank Jacobs, these two-page articles were laid out to look like a bookshelf in which only the spines of the books were visible. The various titles would suggest books that couldn't possibly contain much content, such as "Making It On Your Own" by Nancy Sinatra, "Wonderful Things That a Nickel Will Still Buy", or "Prominent Black Yachtsmen".
• The Mad Academy Awards for ____ – typically written by Stan Hart, these would mimic the Oscar telecast by showing nominated "performance clips" in non-film areas of life (such as parenting or small business ownership).
• Mad's ____ of the Year – written and illustrated by various, these 4-to-6-page articles would enact an interview with a fictional representative of a particular practice or element of society (i.e. "MAD's Summer Camp Owner of the Year"; "MAD's Movie Producer of the Year").
• The Mad Nasty File – typically written by Tom Koch and illustrated by Harry North or Gerry Gersten, these insult articles caricatured a variety of public figures and proceeded to abuse them verbally.
• Melvin and Jenkins' Guide to _____ – written by Desmond Devlin and illustrated by Kevin Pope, these "guides" present the behavioral or attitudinal "do's and don'ts" on a variety of topics, as demonstrated by the titular pair. This is meant to be a parody of Goofus & Gallant. An abbreviated version now runs in the "Fundalini" section.
• Movie Outtakes – these are screen captures of upcoming films (generally taken from the movie trailer), given new word balloons; MAD typically times these pieces to coincide with the movie's general release, either in advance of the full parody or in lieu of it.
• Obituaries for ____ Characters – generally written by Frank Jacobs, these alleged newspaper clippings detail the appropriate demises for fictional characters from a genre such as comic strips, advertising, or television.
• People Watcher's Guide to ____ – often written by Mike Snider and illustrated by Tom Bunk, these articles used a scenario such as "the mall" or "a cemetery" to mock specific observed behaviors.
• Planet Tad!!!!! – written by Tim Carvell and illustrated by Brian Durniak, this purports to be the LiveJournal-like webpage of a teenaged loser's blog, which inadvertently reveals his various personal traumas and general idiocy.
• Pop-Off Videos – written by Desmond Devlin and illustrated with actual music video screen captures, these one-page articles mimicked the VH1 series "Pop-Up Video," which enhanced music videos with small bits of information; MAD also published a separate standalone special issue of these.
• The Mad _____ Primer – written and illustrated by various, Mad Primers aped the singsong writing style of Dick and Jane and dealt with a wide variety of subjects from bigotry to hockey to religion; Mad also published a "Cradle to Grave Primer" as a separate paperback, showing the complete misery-filled life of one man.
• ____ Revisited – "conceived" by Max Brandel according to his credit, these photographic pieces would take a long-established piece of text, such as the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, or the Ten Commandments, and systematically illustrate the text with ironically-chosen photo images.
• Scenes We'd Like to See – written and illustrated by various, these were generally one-page vignettes which inverted the common conventions of moviemaking, advertising, or the culture at large, ending with a cliched character in a cliched setting, acting cowardly or saying something atypically honest.
• The Sights and Sounds of the U.S.A. – written by Frank Jacobs and illustrated by Paul Coker Jr., each installment of this series featured a two-page visual spread of a different city, such as Las Vegas or Washington D.C.
• Six Degrees of Separation Between Anyone and Anything – written by Mike Snider and illustrated by Rick Tulka, this feature exploited the Kevin Bacon-based game of links to humorously connect various items or people in thematic or painstakingly phrased ways rather than proximity.
• Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions – written and illustrated by Al Jaffee, this long-running series reproduces the inane, unnecessary questions we hear every day (i.e., "Hot enough for you?" "Did that hurt?") and supplies three obnoxious responses for each, along with a blank box for the reader to supply their own snappy answer; Mad has also published several separate, standalone paperbacks of these.
• Seven Periods Closer to Death – written and illustrated by Ted Rall, this one-page strip takes a satirical look at life in high school.
• What Is A ____? – written by Tom Koch, these text-heavy articles would describe the characteristics of a personality type, such as an introvert, a "big man on campus," or a party-pooper.
• What the Heck is the Difference?; a visual puzzle. Previous MAD covers appear in near-duplicate, with several differences inserted into the second version.
• When ____ Go Bad – written and illustrated by John Caldwell, each article depicts the outrageous behavior allegedly found within the worst element of a certain culture or profession (i.e. "When Nuns Go Bad"; "When Clowns Go Bad"; "When Veterinarians Go Bad").
• William Shakespeare, Commentator – written by Frank Jacobs, these articles take Shakespeare quotations out of context and apply them to such areas as movies or sports.
• The Year in Film – written by Desmond Devlin, these ironically juxtaposed movie titles of the past calendar year with photographs of topical news events or celebrities.
• You Know You're Really ___ When... – written and illustrated by various, these took a common condition ("You're Really Overweight When..." "You're Really a Parent When...") and presented several one-liners on the theme.

Besides the above, Mad has returned to certain themes and areas again and again, such as fullblown imaginary magazines, greeting cards, nursery rhymes, Christmas carols, song parodies and other poetry (updating "Casey at the Bat" being a perennial favorite), comic strip takeoffs, and others. Dick DeBartolo (morphing into Alfred E. Neuman) Dick DeBartolo is one of the most prolific writers of satire for Mad Magazine. ... Frank Jacobs is MAD Magazines longest-tenured writer, having appeared in its pages for 50 years. ... Desmond Devlin is a comedy writer who has worked for such publications as Mad Magazine. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Wallace Wally Wood (born June 17, 1927, Menahga, Minnesota, United States; died November 2, 1981), was an American writer-artist best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. ... Bob Clarke was an illustrator whose elegant line appeared in innumerable advertisements as well as MAD Magazine. ... Ripleys Believe It or Not! deals in the bizarre—events and items so strange and unusual that it is often hard to believe that they actually exist--but they do: believe it. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Tombstone most commonly means a headstone marking the grave of a deceased person. ... Arnie Kogen is a longtime writer for MAD Magazine and has also done extensive work for television series such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Newhart, and Empty Nest. ... A comedy writer, contributer to MAD MAGAZINE. Did a brilliant parody of THE ONION called THE BUNION. Has also contributed to ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY. ... Desmond Devlin is a comedy writer who has worked for such publications as Mad Magazine. ... Rick Tulka is an illustrator and caricaturist who has appeared in MAD Magazine since the mid-1980s. ... A comedy writer, contributer to MAD MAGAZINE. Did a brilliant parody of THE ONION called THE BUNION. Has also contributed to ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY. ... George Walton Lucas, Jr. ... Richard Bruce Dick Cheney (born January 30, 1941), is the 46th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President George W. Bush. ... Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9th, 1966) is an American comedian, actor, musician, screenwriter, and film producer. ... Dane Jeffrey Cook (born March 18, 1972) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and musician. ... Desmond Devlin is a comedy writer who has worked for such publications as Mad Magazine. ... Drew Friedman is a cartoonist known for his stippling-like style of caricature. ... Frank Jacobs is MAD Magazines longest-tenured writer, having appeared in its pages for 50 years. ... Peter C. Vey is a cartoonist whose work has appeared in such venues as The New Yorker, National Lampoon, and MAD Magazine. ... eBay headquarters in San Jose eBay North First Street satellite office campus (home to PayPal) eBay Inc. ... Frank Jacobs is MAD Magazines longest-tenured writer, having appeared in its pages for 50 years. ... Al Jaffee (born March 13, 1921) is a cartoonist, best known for his work in MAD Magazine. ... Al Jaffee (born March 13, 1921) is a cartoonist, best known for his work in MAD Magazine. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... Peace sign redirects here. ... Paul Coker Jr. ... Frank Jacobs is MAD Magazines longest-tenured writer, having appeared in its pages for 50 years. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Stan Hart is an Emmy-winning comedy writer with many television credits. ... Tom Koch was one of MAD Magazines mainstay writers from the 1950s through the 1980s. ... Desmond Devlin is a comedy writer who has worked for such publications as Mad Magazine. ... Kevin Pope is a cartoonist whose work has appeared in MAD Magazine. ... Goofus & Gallant is a cartoon in the childrens magazine Highlights for Kids depicting good and bad behavior. ... Theatrical trailers are 2-3 minute advertisements for movies that play in cinemas before another movie. ... Frank Jacobs is MAD Magazines longest-tenured writer, having appeared in its pages for 50 years. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Tom Bunk is a cartoonist known for adding multiple extraneous details in his art. ... Tim Carvell is a writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where he won an Emmy in 2004 and again in 2005. ... Desmond Devlin is a comedy writer who has worked for such publications as Mad Magazine. ... VH1 (VH-1: Video Hits One until 1994) is an American cable television channel that was created in January 1985 by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Communications and owners of MTV. VH1 and sister channel MTV are currently part of the MTV Networks division... Pop-Up Video was a popular VH1 show that popped up bubbles ( ) — officially called info nuggets — containing trivia and spry witticisms throughout music videos. ... Dick and Jane were the main characters in popular basal readers written by Zerna Sharp that were used to teach children to read during the 1930s through the 1960s. ... Page I of the Constitution of the United States of America Page II of the United States Constitution Page III of the United States Constitution Page IV of the United States Constitution The Syng inkstand, with which the Constitution was signed The Constitution of the United States is the supreme... This article is about a list of ten religious commandments. ... Frank Jacobs is MAD Magazines longest-tenured writer, having appeared in its pages for 50 years. ... Paul Coker Jr. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Rick Tulka is an illustrator and caricaturist who has appeared in MAD Magazine since the mid-1980s. ... Kevin Norwood Bacon[1] (born July 8, 1958) is an American film and theater actor who has starred in Footloose, Animal House, Stir of Echoes, Wild Things, JFK, and Apollo 13, among many others. ... Al Jaffee (born March 13, 1921) is a cartoonist, best known for his work in MAD Magazine. ... This page includes English translations of several Latin phrases and abbreviations such as . ... A Ted Rall cartoon depicting John Kerry and George W. Bush. ... Tom Koch was one of MAD Magazines mainstay writers from the 1950s through the 1980s. ... John Caldwell is a cartoonist whose work has appeared in many places including the National Lampoon and MAD Magazine. ... Frank Jacobs is MAD Magazines longest-tenured writer, having appeared in its pages for 50 years. ... Desmond Devlin is a comedy writer who has worked for such publications as Mad Magazine. ...

Alfred E. Neuman

Main article: Alfred E. Neuman

The image most closely associated with the magazine is that of Alfred E. Neuman, the boy with misaligned eyes, a gap-toothed smile and the perennial question "What, me worry?" Mad first used the boy's face in November, 1954, on the cover of the comic book's first reprint collection, the Ballantine paperback titled The Mad Reader. He appeared for the first time, unnoticed, on a Mad cover with issue #21 (January, 1955). From #24 through #30, Neuman was a part of the ornate border design on each cover. However, his first iconic appearance -- full-sized, identified, and sporting his "What, me worry?" motto -- was as a supposed write-in candidate for the 1956 presidential election on the cover of issue #30. What, me worry? Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot of EC Publications Mad magazine. ... What, me worry? Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot of EC Publications Mad magazine. ...

The original image of an unnamed boy with a goofy gap-toothed grin was a popular humorous graphic for many decades before Mad adopted it. It had been used for all manner of purposes, from U.S. political campaigns to Nazi racial propaganda to advertisements for painless dentistry. Decades ago, the magazine was sued over the copyright to the image, but prevailed by producing similar ones predating the claimant's, dating back to the late 19th century. National Socialism redirects here. ...

Harvey Kurtzman first spotted the image on a postcard pinned to the bulletin board of Ballantine Books' editor. "It was a face that didn't have a care in the world, except mischief," recalled Kurtzman. The name "Alfred E. Neuman" was derived from the 1940s radio show of comedian Henry Morgan, which included a running gag trumpeting the imminent arrival of Hollywood composer Alfred Newman, which was supposed to create intense excitement, after which Newman would appear for mere seconds, then vanish. According to Kurtzman, Morgan used "the name Alfred Newman for an innocuous character that you'd forget in five minutes." Later, Morgan was a contributor to Mad. Henry Morgan (March 31, 1915 - May 19, 1994), born in New York City, was a comedian best remembered for having been a regular panelist on the CBS game show Ive Got a Secret. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... Alfred Newman (March 17, 1900 – February 17, 1970) was a major American composer of music for films. ...

The boy's face is now permanently associated with Mad. With the "What, me worry?" motto, Neuman has often appeared in political cartoons as a shorthand for unquestioning stupidity.

In recent years, Alfred E. Neuman's features have frequently been merged with those of George W. Bush by editorial cartoonists, including Mike Luckovich and Tom Tomorrow. The image has also appeared on magazine covers (notably The Nation) and in numerous Photoshop images and GIF files in which Neuman's face morphs into Bush's. A large Bush/Neuman poster was part of the Washington protests that accompanied Bush's 2001 inauguration. The alleged resemblance between the two has been noted more than once by Hillary Clinton. On July 10, 2005, speaking at the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival, she said, "I sometimes feel that Alfred E. Neuman is in charge in Washington," referring to Bush's purported "What, me worry?" attitude. George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... Mike Luckovich (born 1960) is an editorial cartoonist who has worked for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1989. ... Dan Perkins (born 1961 in Wichita, Kansas), better known by the pen name Tom Tomorrow, is an editorial cartoonist. ... The Nation (ISSN 0027-8378) is a weekly [1] U.S. periodical devoted to politics and culture, self-described as the flagship of the left. [2] Founded on July 6, 1865 as an Abolitionist publication, it is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. ... Adobe Photoshop is a bitmap graphics editor (with some text and vector graphics capabilities) published by Adobe Systems. ... Morph could relate to the following : Morph, an animated plasticine character often featured in Tony Harts television programmes. ... Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947), was First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001, as the wife of President Bill Clinton. ... is the 191st day of the year (192nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1958, Mad published letters from several readers noting the resemblance between Neuman and England's Prince Charles, then nine years old.^[4] Shortly thereafter, an angry letter under a Buckingham Palace letterhead arrived at the Mad offices: "Dear Sirs No it isn't a bit – not the least little bit like me. So jolly well stow it! See! Charles. P." The letter was authenticated as having been written on triple-cream laid royal stationery bearing an official copper-engraved crest. The postmark indicated it had been mailed from a post office within a short walking distance of Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, the original disappeared years ago while on loan to another magazine and has never been recovered. ^[5] Prince Charles may refer to: Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, current heir-apparent to the British throne Any of the previous British royals named Charles, Prince of Wales The former Belgian regent, Prince Charles of Belgium This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that... Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Memorial. ...

For many years, Mad sold prints of the "official portrait" of Alfred E. Neuman through a small house ad on the letters page of the magazine (claiming that these prints were also useful for wrapping fish). A female version of Alfred, named Moxie, appeared for a very brief time in the late 1950s.

Recurring images and references

Regular Mad readers have been treated to a large number of recurring in-jokes, including Neuman's catch phrase "What, me worry?" as well as such words as potrzebie, furshlugginer, veeblefetzer and axolotl, and humorous names such as Melvin, Bitsko, Kaputnik, Cowznofski, and Fonebone. Mad used the word "ecch" or its cousin "blecch" so often that even "The Simpsons" has made reference to it, showing Mad covers with the unseen parodies "Beauty and the Blecch" and "NYPD Blecch". In the 1950s, the magazine received a fee to promote the soft drink Moxie, and that product's logo would occasionally appear in illustrations. This experiment was an attempt by Feldstein to convince Gaines that the magazine could profit by carrying legitimate advertising. An in joke is a joke whose humour is clear only to those people who are in a group that has some prior knowledge (not known by the whole population) that makes the joke humorous. ... A catch phrase is a phrase or expression that is popularized, usually through repeated use, by a real person or fictional character. ... Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot of EC Publications Mad magazine. ... The belief that certain words are inherently funny, for reasons ranging from onomatopoeia to phonosemantics to sexual innuendo, is widespread among people who work in humor. ... Potrzebie is a seemingly nonsensical word (actually Polish), popularized by its use as a running gag in the early issues of Mad not long after the comic book began in 1952. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Melvin may refer to one of the following: Name: Melvin as a given name and place name, comes, possibly, from the Old English name Maethelwine which meant counsel friend. As a surname it is a modernized version of the Scottish clan name Melville. ... Cowznofski is a running gag in-joke heavily used in the early years of MAD Magazine, usually as a characters last name, often with the first name Melvin. Its Eastern European feel was a perfect fit for the New York Jewish style of the magazine. ... Mad (or MAD) is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... Moxie, a carbonated beverage, is considered to be the USAs first mass produced soft drink. ...

The word "hoohah" was a running gag in the early years of Mad, often exclaimed by characters in the comic book issues written and edited by Harvey Kurtzman. Its somewhat Eastern European feel was a perfect fit for the New York Jewish style of the magazine. Kurtzman liked using Yiddish expressions and nonsense words to humorous effect, and the very first story in the first issue of Mad was even titled "Hoohah!" The word's precise origin is unknown, although it may have sprung from the Hungarian word for "wow," which is hűha [1]). "It's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide" was a non sequitur-ish phrase that found its way into Mad on several occasions in the 1950s; it has been suggested that this is slang meaning "it is foolhardy to bribe a policeman with counterfeit money." While associated with Mad, the quote originated in Margery Allingham's novel, The Fashion in Shrouds. The running gag is a popular hallmark of comic and serious forms of entertainment. ... Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924 - February 21, 1993) was a U.S. cartoonist and magazine editor. ... “NY” redirects here. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Margery Louise Allingham (1904-1966) was born in London and attended The Perse High School for Girls in Cambridge, before returning to London and the Polytechnic for Speech-Training. ... The Fashion in Shrouds is a crime novel by Margery Allingham. ...

Pages from the Mad Style Guide (1994) show George Woodbridge's definitive drawings of the Mad Zeppelin.

The Mad Poiuyt, Harvey Kurtzman's hand with six fingers and additional angles on the Zeppelin

Many of the magazine's visual elements are sheer whimsy, and frequently appear in the artwork without context or explanation. Among these are a potted avocado plant named Arthur (rumored to be based on art director John Putnam's marijuana plant); a domed trashcan wearing an overcoat, the Mad Zeppelin (which more closely resembles an elongated hot air balloon); and an emaciated long-beaked creature who went unidentified for decades before being dubbed "Flip the Bird." In late 1964, Mad was tricked into purchasing the "rights" to an optical illusion in the public domain, featuring a sort of three-pronged tuning fork whose appearance defies physics. The magazine dubbed it the Mad poiuyt after the six rightmost letter keys on a QWERTY keyboard in reverse order, not realizing that the existing image was already known to engineers and usually called a blivet. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (697x903, 168 KB) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (697x903, 168 KB) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (697x904, 155 KB)Template:Fairusein/Mad Magazine File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (697x904, 155 KB)Template:Fairusein/Mad Magazine File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Arthur was a running gag in-joke in MAD magazine; a potted plant approximately a yard (one meter) tall, with only two leaves, right at the tip, who showed up in various scenes. ... This is an article about Zeppelin airships. ... This blivet is reminiscent of an M.C. Escher print—it portrays two impossible perspectives at once, creating a lost layer between the top two rods, and an impossible extra, vanishing rod in between the bottom two. ... For the song by Linkin Park, see QWERTY (song). ... This blivet is reminiscent of an M.C. Escher print—it portrays two impossible perspectives at once, creating a lost layer between the top two rods, and an impossible extra, vanishing rod in between the bottom two. ...

Mad cartoonists have regularly drawn caricatures of themselves, other contributors and the editors into the articles, most famously the character Roger Kaputnik in "The Lighter Side Of...", who was drawn to resemble Dave Berg. Al Jaffee sometimes incorporated a self-caricature into his signature. The magazine's photo spreads have typically featured the same Mad staffers. Originally, the magazine tried hiring models for its photo shoots, but found that many were unwilling to make the ridiculous faces the magazine wanted. When the staff tried to prompt the reluctant outsiders, they soon found that they were better suited for shameless posing (and more cost-effective) than the professionals were.

More recently, the magazine has made periodic references to "the monkey juice," generally in the context of overimbibing with same. The editors continue to punctuate letter column responses with the breezy interjection "Fa fa fa!" There have also been a number of recurring semi-characters within the editorial pages, such as Hans Brickface, who values items sent in by readers, and Godfrey, who was supposedly the magazine's head intern.

The mysterious name "Max Korn" has popped up for years; reader requests to clarify Korn's true identity have been greeted with increasingly outlandish explanations.

Contributors and controversy

Mad has provided an ongoing showcase for many of the best satirical writers and artists and has fostered an unusual group loyalty. Although several of the contributors earn far more than their Mad pay in fields such as television and advertising, they have steadily continued to provide material for the publication. Among the notable artists were the aforementioned Davis, Elder and Wood, as well as Mort Drucker, George Woodbridge and Paul Coker. Writers such as Dick DeBartolo, Stan Hart, Frank Jacobs, Tom Koch, and Arnie Kogen appeared regularly in the magazine's pages. In several cases, only infirmity or death has ended a contributor's run at Mad. Mort Drucker is a cartoonist and caricaturist from Brooklyn, New York. ... George Woodbridges drawing of a Bacons Rebellion soldier in 1675 George Woodbridge (1930-January 19, 2004) was an American illustrator known for his exhaustive research and historical accuracy. ... Paul Coker, Jr. ... Dick DeBartolo (morphing into Alfred E. Neuman) Dick DeBartolo is one of the most prolific writers of satire for Mad Magazine. ... Stan Hart is an Emmy-winning comedy writer with many television credits. ... Frank Jacobs is MAD Magazines longest-tenured writer, having appeared in its pages for 50 years. ... Tom Koch was one of MAD Magazines mainstay writers from the 1950s through the 1980s. ... Arnie Kogen is a longtime writer for MAD Magazine and has also done extensive work for television series such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Newhart, and Empty Nest. ...

Within the industry, Mad was known for the uncommonly prompt manner in which its contributors were paid. Publisher Gaines would typically write a personal check and give it to the artist upon receipt of the finished product. Wally Wood said, "I got spoiled... Other publishers don't do that. I started to get upset if I had to wait a whole week for my check."

Another lure for contributors was the annual "Mad Trip," an all-expenses-paid tradition that began in 1960. The editorial staff was automatically invited, along with freelancers who had qualified for an invitation by selling a set amount of articles or pages during the previous year. (Gaines was strict about enforcing this quota, and one year, longtime writer and frequent traveller Arnie Kogen was bumped off the list. Later that year, Gaines' mother died, and Kogen was asked if he would be attending the funeral. "I can't," said Kogen, "I don't have enough pages.") Over the years, the Mad crew traveled to such locales as Paris, Kenya, Leningrad, Hong Kong, Monte Carlo, Athens, London, Amsterdam, Tahiti, Morocco, Venice, Greece, Germany, and more.

Although Mad was an exclusively freelance publication, it achieved a remarkable stability, with numerous contributors remaining prominent for decades. Critics of the magazine felt that this lack of turnover eventually led to a formulaic sameness, although there is little agreement on when the magazine peaked or plunged. It appears to be largely a function of when the reader first encountered Mad. Like Saturday Night Live or The Simpsons, proclaiming the precise moment that kicked off the irreversible decline has long been sport. This article is about the American television series. ... Simpsons redirects here. ...

Mad poked fun at this dynamic in its "Untold History of Mad Magazine," a self-referential faux history in the 400th issue. According to the Untold History:

The second issue of Mad goes on sale on December 9, 1952. On December 11, the first-ever letter complaining that Mad "just isn't as funny and original like it used to be" arrives.

Among the most frequently-cited "downward turning points" are: creator/editor Harvey Kurtzman's departure in 1957; the magazine's mainstream success; adoption of recurring features starting in the early 1960s; the magazine's absorption into a more corporate structure in 1968 (or the mid-1990s); founder Gaines' death in 1992; the magazine's publicized "revamp" in 1997; or the arrival of paid advertising in 2001. Mad has been criticized for its overreliance on a core group of aging regulars throughout the 1970s and 1980s and then criticized again for an alleged downturn as those same creators began to leave, die, retire or contribute less frequently.

It has been proposed that Mad is more susceptible to this criticism than many media because a sizable percentage of its readership turns over regularly. Also, Mad focuses greatly on current events and a changing popular culture. A reader born in 1980, who takes to Mad in 1995, might look back ten years from 2005 and, comparing an issue from each year, decide that the magazine isn't as good as it once was. However, that same reader might fail to appreciate the humor or references in a 1985 or 1975 issue, although the magazine would logically have been superior at that point to its later "slump."

Mad's sales peak was in the 1970s, but its critical heyday is in the eyes of its beholders. The magazine's art director, Sam Viviano, has suggested that historically, Mad was at its best "whenever you first started reading it." Cover to MAD #223 (June 1980), Viviano’s first cover work. ...

The loudest among those who insist the magazine is no longer funny are typically supporters of Harvey Kurtzman, who had the good critical fortune to leave Mad after just 28 issues, before his own formulaic tendencies became oppressive. This also meant Kurtzman suffered the bad financial timing of departing before the magazine became a runaway success. However, just how much of that success was due to the original Kurtzman template he left for his successor, and how much can be credited to the Al Feldstein system and the depth of the post-Kurtzman talent pool, can be argued without resolution. Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924 - February 21, 1993) was a U.S. cartoonist and magazine editor. ... Al Feldstein (born October 24, 1925) is an American painter of Western wildlife and an influential author-editor who wrote, drew and edited for EC Comics and MAD Magazine. ...

Judging from Kurtzman's final two-plus years at EC, during which Mad appeared erratically (ten issues appeared in 1954, followed by eight issues in 1955 and four issues in 1956), it seems clear that he was ill-suited to the job of producing the magazine on a regular schedule. It seems equally clear that Feldstein's abilities were more workmanlike and reliable than the inimitable genius of Kurtzman. Kurtzman and Will Elder returned to Mad for a short time in the mid-1980s as an illustrating team. Will Elder self-portrait William Elder (aka Bill Elder) (born September 22, 1921 in the Bronx, New York) is an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art yet is best known for a zany cartoon s tyle that helped launch Harvey Kurtzmans...

Many of the magazine's mainstays began slowing, retiring or dying in the 1980s; although the magazine had always been open to new talent in theory, the influx increased from this stage onward. Newer contributors include Anthony Barbieri, Scott Bricher, Tom Bunk, John Caldwell, Desmond Devlin, Drew Friedman, Jeff Kruse, Barry Liebmann, Kevin Pope, Scott Maiko, Hermann Mejia, Tom Richmond, Andrew J. Schwartzberg, Mike Snider, Greg Theakston, Rick Tulka, and Bill Wray. Anthony J. (Tony) Barbieri (born August 26, 1963, Framingham, Massachusetts) is an American comedy writer and performer. ... Tom Bunk is a cartoonist known for adding multiple extraneous details in his art. ... John Caldwell is a cartoonist whose work has appeared in many places including the National Lampoon and MAD Magazine. ... Desmond Devlin is a comedy writer who has worked for such publications as Mad Magazine. ... Drew Friedman is a cartoonist known for his stippling-like style of caricature. ... Barry Liebmann is a comedy writer whose work has frequently appeared in the pages of MAD Magazine. ... Kevin Pope is a cartoonist whose work has appeared in MAD Magazine. ... A comedy writer, contributer to MAD MAGAZINE. Did a brilliant parody of THE ONION called THE BUNION. Has also contributed to ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY. ... Hermann Mejia is a Venezuelan illustrator, living in New York City, whose caricature-driven work frequently appears in MAD Magazine. ... Tom Richmond (born 1966) is a freelance humorous illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist whos work has appeared in many national and international publications since 1990. ... Andrew J. Schwartzberg is one of MAD Magazines writers and was a member of the magazines editorial staff from 1990 to 1995. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Rick Tulka is an illustrator and caricaturist who has appeared in MAD Magazine since the mid-1980s. ... Bill Wray is a cartoonist who has worked on animated TV series. ...

On April 1, 1997, the magazine publicized an alleged makeover, ostensibly designed to reach an older, more sophisticated readership. However, Salon 's David Futrelle pointed out that such content was very much a part of Mad's past: is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... Salon. ...

The October 1971 issue, for example, with its war crimes fold-in and back cover "mini-poster" of "The Four Horsemen of the Metropolis" (Drugs, Graft, Pollution and Slums). With its Mad Pollution Primer. With its "Reality Street" TV satire, taking a poke at the idealized images of interracial harmony on Sesame Street. ("It's a street of depression,/ Corruption, oppression!/ It's a sadist's dream come true!/ And masochists, too!") With its "This is America" photo feature, contrasting images of heroic astronauts with graphic photos of dead soldiers and junkies shooting up. I remember this issue pretty well; it was one of the ones I picked up at a garage sale and read to death. I seem to remember asking my parents what "graft" was. One of the joys of Mad for me at the time was that it was always slightly over my head. From "Mad's Up-Dated Modern Day Mother Goose" I learned about Andy Warhol, Spiro Agnew and Timothy Leary ("Wee Timmy Leary/ Soars through the sky/ Upward and Upward/ Till he's, oh, so, high/ Since this rhyme's for kiddies/ How do we explain/ That Wee Timmy Leary/ Isn't in a plane?"). From "Greeting Cards for the Sexual Revolution" I learned about "Gay Liberationists" and leather-clad "Sex Fetishists." I read the Mad versions of a whole host of films I never in a million years would have been allowed to see: "Easy Rider" ("Sleazy Riders"), "Midnight Cowboy" ("Midnight Wowboy"), "Five Easy Pieces" ("Five Easy Pages.") I learned about the John Birch Society and Madison Avenue. ^[6]

In recent years, Mad has continued to receive complaints from fans and foes alike, sometimes over its perceived failings or because of controversial content, but generally over its decision to accept advertising. These accusers sometimes invoke the late publisher Bill Gaines, asserting that the late publisher would "turn over in his grave" if he knew of the magazine's sellout. The editors have a ready answer, pointing out that such protests are completely invalid because Gaines was cremated. Sesame Street is an American educational childrens television series for preschoolers and is a pioneer of the contemporary educational television standard, combining both education and entertainment. ... A page from a late 17th century handwritten and illustrated version of Charles Perraults Contes de ma mère lOye (Mother Goose Tales) depicting Puss in Boots. ... Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 — February 22, 1987), better known as Andy Warhol, was an American artist who became a central figure in the movement known as Pop art. ... Spiro Theodore Agnew (November 9, 1918 – September 17, 1996) was the thirty-ninth Vice President of the United States serving under President Richard M. Nixon, and the fifty-fifth Governor of Maryland. ... Timothy Francis Leary, (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American writer, psychologist, modern pioneer and advocate of psychedelic drug research and use, and one of the first people whose remains have been sent into space. ... Wyatt, Mary (Toni Basil), Billy and Karen (Karen Black) wandering the streets of a parade filled New Orleans. ... This article is about the 1969 film. ... Five Easy Pieces is a 1970 film written by Carole Eastman (as Adrien Joyce) and Bob Rafelson, and directed by Rafelson. ... The John Birch Society is a conservative American exceptionalist organization founded in 1958 to fight what it saw as growing threats to the Constitution of the United States, especially a suspected communist infiltration of the United States government, and to support free enterprise. ... Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City which carries northbound one-way traffic. ... William Maxwell Gaines (March 1, 1922–June 3, 1992), or Bill Gaines as he was called, was the founder of MAD Magazine but he was also noted for his efforts to create comic books of sufficient artistic quality and interest to appeal to adults. ...

Merchandising

Over the years, Mad has branched out from print into other media. During the Gaines years, the publisher had an aversion to milking his fanbase and expressed the fear that substandard Mad products would offend them. He was known to personally issue refunds to anyone who wrote to the magazine with a complaint. Among the few outside Mad items available in its first 40 years were cufflinks, a T-shirt designed like a straitjacket (complete with lock), a small ceramic Alfred E. Neuman bust, and a picture of Neuman, suitable for framing, that was for decades regularly advertised on the letters page with misleading slogans such as "Only 1 left." (The joke being that the picture was so undesirable that only one had left their office since the last ad.) After Gaines' death came an overt absorption into the Time-Warner publishing umbrella, with the result that Mad merchandise began to appear more frequently. Items were displayed in the Warner Bros. Studio Stores, and in 1994 The Mad Style Guide was created for licensing use.

Recordings

Mad has sponsored or inspired a number of recordings. In 1959, Bernie Green "with the Stereo Mad-Men" recorded the album Musically Mad for RCA Victor, featuring music inspired by Mad and an image of Alfred E. Neuman on the cover[2]; it has been reissued on CD. That same year, The Worst from Mad #2 included an original recording, "Meet the Staff of Mad," on a cardboard 33rpm record. Two additional albums of novelty songs were released in 1962-63: "Mad 'Twists' Rock 'N' Roll" and "Fink Along with Mad." The latter album featured a song titled "It's a Gas," which punctuated an instrumental track with belches (along with a saxophone break by an uncredited King Curtis). Dr. Demento featured this gaseous performance on his radio show in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. Mad included some of these tracks as plastic-laminated cardboard inserts and (later) flexi-discs with their reprinted "Mad Specials." A number of original recordings also were released in this way in the 1970s and early 1980s, such as "Gall in the Family" (a parody of All in the Family), a single entitled "Makin' Out," the octuple-grooved track "It's a Super Spectacular Day," which had eight possible endings, the spoken word Meet the Staff insert, and a six-track, 30-minute Mad Disco EP (from the 1980 Special of the same title) that included a disco version of "It's a Gas." The last turntable-playable recording Mad packaged with its magazines was "A Mad Look at Graduation," in a 1983 Special. A CD-ROM containing several audio tracks was included with issue #350 (October 1996). Also in 1996, Rhino Records compiled a number of Mad-recorded tracks as Mad Grooves.[3] Sony BMG Music Entertainment is the result of a 50/50 joint venture between Sony Music Entertainment (part of Sony) and BMG Entertainment (part of Bertelsmann AG) completed in August 2004. ... Curtis Ousley (February 7, 1934– August 13, 1971), who performed under the name King Curtis, was an American tenor, alto, and soprano saxophonist who played rhythm and blues, soul, rock, and soul jazz. ... Dr. Demento (born April 2, 1941 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is the stage name of Barret Eugene Hansen [1], who has made a successful career as a radio disc jockey specializing in novelty songs and pop music parodies. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... For other uses, see All in the Family (disambiguation). ... This article is about the music genre. ... Rhino Entertainment is a specialty record label originally known for releasing retrospectives of famous comedy performers, including Stan Freberg, Tom Lehrer, and Spike Jones. ...

Stage show

A successful off-Broadway production, "The Mad Show," was staged in 1966, featuring sketches written by Mad personnel (as well as an uncredited assist by Stephen Sondheim). A cast album was released, and is now available on CD. Off-Broadway plays or musicals are performed in New York City in smaller theatres than Broadway, but larger than Off-Off-Broadway, productions. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Gaming

In 1979, a very successful board game was released. The Mad Magazine Game was an absurdist version of Monopoly in which the first player to lose all his money and go bankrupt was the winner. Profusely illustrated with artwork by the magazine's contributors, the game included a $1,329,063-bill that could not be won unless one's name was "Alfred E. Neuman." It also featured a deck of cards (called "Card cards") with bizarre instructions, such as "If you can jump up and stay airborne for 37 seconds, you can lose $5,000. If not, jump up and lose $500." In 1980 a second game was released: the Mad Magazine Card Game by Parker Brothers. In it, the player who first loses all their cards is declared the winner. The game is fairly similar to UNO by Mattel. A board game is a game played with counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a board (a premarked surface, usually specific to that game). ... The Mad Magazine Game was a boardgame produced by Parker Brothers in 1979. ... Monopoly is the best-selling commercial board game in the world. ... The MAD Magazine Card Game was published by Parker Brothers in 1980 as a blend of UNO and crazy eights. ... The Parker Brothers logo. ... A deck of English Uno cards from 1995. ... Mattel Inc. ...

Film and television

Also in 1980, following the success of the National Lampoon-backed Animal House, Mad lent its name to a similar risque comedy film, Up the Academy. It was such a commercial debacle and critical failure that Mad successfully arranged for all references to the magazine (including a cameo by Alfred E. Neuman) to be removed from future TV and video releases of the film. Mad also devoted two pages to an attack on the movie, titled Throw Up the Academy; the spoof's ending collapsed into a series of interoffice memos between the writer, artist, editor and publisher, all bewailing the fact that they'd been forced to satirize such a terrible film. January 1973 cover of National Lampoon National Lampoon was an American humor magazine that began in 1970 as an offshoot of the Harvard Lampoon. ... The Deltas in front of their house Movie poster of Animal House National Lampoons Animal House (also called Animal House) is a 1978 comedy film in which a misfit group of Delta fraternity boys takes on the system at their college. ... MAD Magazine Presents Up the Academy is an American teen comedy film released in 1980, about the outrageous antics of a group of misfits at a military school. ...

An early 1970s Mad television pilot was not picked up. But, a sketch TV show was introduced in 1995 using the magazine's logo and characters: MADtv, which aired comedy segments in a fashion similar to Saturday Night Live and SCTV. However, there is no editorial connection between the sketch comedy series and the magazine, which are unrelated in style. Don Martin's cartoon characters were animated as bumpers. The characters from "Spy vs. Spy" were also animated on MADtv and, more recently, in TV ads for Mountain Dew soda. MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series based on the humor magazine, Mad. ... This article is about the American television series. ... Second City Television, or SCTV, was a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from the Toronto troupe of The Second City. ...

Image File history File links Totallymad. ...

Computer software

In the 1980s, three Spy vs. Spy computer games, in which players could set traps for each other, were made for various computer systems such as the Commodore 64. While the original game took place in a nondescript building, the sequels transposed the action to a polar setting and a desert island.

In 1996, with issue #350, Mad included a CD-ROM featuring Mad-related software as well as three audio files (as noted above). Although the audio files could be played on any computer, the remainder of the disc was compatible only with Microsoft Windows, resulting in some criticism.[4] Windows redirects here. ...

In 1999, Broderbund Software/The Learning Company released Totally Mad, a Microsoft Windows 95/98 compatible CD-ROM set collecting the magazine's content from #1 through #376 (December, 1998), plus over 100 special issues as well as audio files of most of the recorded inserts from various special issues, thus becoming one of only a few mass magazines (such as National Geographic and The New Yorker) to have attempted this type of comprehensive archival release in digital form. The seven discs of Totally Mad were divided chronologically, from "The Earliest Years: 1952-1960" and "The Early Years, but Not the Earliest: 1961-1968" through "The RELATIVELY Late, but not as Late as, the Latest Years: 1988-1994" and "The Latest Years: 1995-1998." The product's "Totally" claim was misleading, since it omitted a handful of articles due to problems clearing the rights on some book excerpts and text taken from recordings, such as Andy Griffith's "What It Was, Was Football." Some of this deleted material can be viewed at "Articles Mysteriously Missing from the Totally Mad CD ROM". The set is now out of print and is no longer supported by either Broderbund or The Learning Company. Brøderbund (Danish for band of brothers) is a maker of computer games and educational software that was founded by Doug and Gary Carlston in 1980. ... The Learning Company (TLC) is an American educational software company, founded in 1980. ... Windows redirects here. ... The National Geographic Society was founded in the USA on January 27, 1888, by 33 men interested in organizing a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge. ... The New Yorker is an American magazine that publishes reportage, criticism, essays, cartoons, poetry and fiction. ... Not to be confused with Andy Griffiths. ...

In 2006, the DVD-ROM Absolutely Mad was released by digital publisher Graphic Imaging Technology, effectively updating the original Totally Mad content through 2005. A single seven-gigabyte disc, it comprises more than 600 issues including the magazine's specials; the newer collection is, however, also missing the disputed material deleted from Totally Mad. It differs from the earlier release in that it is both Microsoft Windows and Macintosh compatible, with all the printed content is in PDF format which can be read on any platform for which a PDF viewer is available, whereas Totally Mad had used a special viewer program that was compatible only with Microsoft Windows. Absolutely Mad also includes numerous video clips including interviews with the editorial staff, several Spy vs. Spy segments from MADtv and the Spy vs. Spy Mountain Dew commercials. Missing from this version of the release are the audio music files that were included with Totally Mad. In addition, although the packaging for the box indicates that the cover art from the many Mad paperback releases would the included, this content is not present on the DVD. Windows redirects here. ... For other uses, see Macintosh (disambiguation) and Mac. ... PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ... Windows redirects here. ...

Reprints and foreign editions

Beginning in 1955, William M. Gaines began presenting reprints of material for Mad in black-and-white paperbacks, the first being The Mad Reader. This practice continued into the 2000s, with more than 100 Mad paperbacks published. Gaines made a special effort to keep the entire line of paperbacks in print at all times, and the books were frequently reprinted in new editions with different covers.

Mad also frequently repackaged its material in a long series of "Super Special" format magazines, beginning in 1958 with two concurrent annual series entitled The Worst from Mad and More Trash from Mad, which later became the Super-Specials. These reprint issues were sometimes augmented by exclusive features such as posters, stickers and, on a few occasions, recordings on flexi-disc and comic-book formatted inserts reprinting material from the comic book era of the magazine.

One steady form of revenue has come from foreign editions of the magazine. Mad has been published in local versions in many countries, beginning with the United Kingdom in 1959, and Sweden in 1960. Each new market receives access to the publication's back catalog of articles and is also encouraged to produce its own localized material in the Mad vein. However, the sensibility of the American Mad has not always translated to other cultures, and many of the foreign editions have had short lives or interrupted publications. The Swedish, Danish, Italian and Mexican Mads were each published on three separate occasions; Norway has had four runs cancelled. United Kingdom (35 years), Brazil (33 years and counting), and the Netherlands (32 years) have produced the longest uninterrupted Mad variants. Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Current foreign editions

• Germany, 1968-1993, 1998-present;
• Brazil, 1974-present;
• Australia, 1980-present;
• South Africa, 1985-present;
• Hungary, 1997-present;
• Mexico, 2005-present;
• Spain, 2006-present;

Year 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... This article is about the year. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Foreign editions of the past

Taiwanese edition of Mad magazine.

• United Kingdom, 1959-1994; UK edition cover images; (read about MAD UK)
• Sweden, 1960-1992, 1996-2002;
• Germany, 1967-1995, 1998-
• Denmark, 1962-1971, 1979-1997, 1998-2002;
• Netherlands, 1964-1996;
• France, 1965, 1992;
• Canada (Québec), 1991-1992 [5] (Past material recently released in a "collection album" with Croc, another Quebec humor magazine);
• Argentina, 1977-1982;
• Finland, 1970-1972, 1982-2005 + three specials in 2006
• Norway, 1971-1972, 1981-1993, 1995, 2002-2003;
• Italy, 1971, 1984, 1992;
• Mexico, 1977-1983, 1984-1986, 1993-1998;
• Caribbean, 1977-1983;
• Greece, 1978-1985, 1995-1999;
• Iceland, 1985;
• Taiwan, 1990;
• Israel, 1994-1995;
• Turkey, 2000-2003.

Some of the foreign editions have spoofed material that is completely unfamiliar to American audiences, or is not in keeping with Mad's general avoidance of obscenity (for an example of both, see the Swedish Mad parody of Fucking Åmål [6]). Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1039x1325, 187 KB) This image is of a magazine cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the magazine or the individual contributors who worked on the cover depicted. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1039x1325, 187 KB) This image is of a magazine cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the magazine or the individual contributors who worked on the cover depicted. ... This article is considered orphaned, since there are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Fucking Ã…mÃ¥l is a Swedish film that was distributed in most English speaking countries as Show Me Love (and in other countries under similarly toned-down titles such as Raus Aus Ã…mÃ¥l, Descubriendo el Amor, Amigas de Colégio etc. ...

Imitators and variants

Mad has had many imitators through the years. The three most durable of these were Cracked, Sick, and Crazy. Most others were short-lived exercises, such as Zany (4 issues), Frantic (2 issues), Ratfink (1 issue), Frenzy (6 issues), two separate publications titled Nuts! (5 and 2 issues, respectively), Get Lost (3 issues), Whack (3 issues), Wild (5 issues), Madhouse (8 issues), Riot (6 issues), Flip (2 issues), Eh! (7 issues), and Thimk (6 issues). Many of these titles appeared in the mid-to-late 1950s, when Mad's success was in its first flower, but as the decades went by, more knockoffs surfaced and vanished, with titles such as Wild, Blast, Grin, and Gag!. Most of these productions aped the format of Mad right down to choosing a synonym for the word Mad as their title. Many featured a cover mascot along the lines of Alfred E. Neuman. Even EC Comics joined the parade with a sister humor magazine, Panic, produced by future Mad editor Al Feldstein. One magazine from the 1970s, Parody, focused on TV and movie spoofs. Cracked Mazagine issue 31 - September 1963 Cracked was one of Americas oldest surviving national satire and humor magazines. ... Sick was a humor magazine, an imitator of the popular MAD Magazine. ... Crazy is a humor magazine, an imitator of the popular MAD Magazine. ... What, me worry? Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot of EC Publications Mad magazine. ... Entertaining Comics was headed by William Gaines but is better known by its publishing name of EC Comics. ... Panic was part of the EC Comics line during the early 1950s. ...

In 1967, Marvel Comics produced the first of 13 issues of Not Brand Echh, which parodied their own superhero titles, and owed its inspiration and format to the original "Mad" comic books of a decade earlier. From 1973–1976, DC Comics published Plop! which featured Mad stalwart Sergio Aragones and frequent cover art by Basil Wolverton, but was less slavish in its Mad mimickry, relying more on one-page gags and horror-based comedy. There was even a Christian imitation of Mad – Glad, a born again version that followed the same format, except that the TV, film and social parodies were vehicles toward conveying Bible-based messages. This article is about the comic book company. ... Not Brand Echh was a Marvel Comics comic book published in the 1960s. ... DC Comics is an American comic book and related media company. ... Plop! #1 with cover art by Basil Wolverton. ... Sergio Aragonés (born 1937) is a cartoonist and writer. ... Mad #11 (May 1954). ... For other uses, see Christian (disambiguation). ... Born again is a term used originally and mainly in Christianity, where it is associated with salvation, conversion and spiritual rebirth. ...

But, as it carries on past its 50th year, Mad has outlasted them all.

Other U.S. humor magazines of note include former Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman's Humbug, Trump and Help!, as well as the National Lampoon and Spy Magazine. However, each of these had its own distinct editorial approach and thus cannot be considered direct ripoffs of Mad in the same way as the others mentioned here. Of all the competition, only the National Lampoon ever threatened its hegemony as America's top humor magazine, in the early-to-mid-1970s. However, this was also the period of Mad's greatest sales figures. Both magazines peaked in sales at the same time. The Lampoon topped one million sales once, for a single issue in 1974. Mad crossed the two-million mark with an average 1973 circulation of 2,059,236, then improved to 2,132,655 in 1974. Humbug was a humor magazine edited by Harvey Kurtzman. ... Trump was a glossy magazine of satire and erotic humor, mostly in the forms of comic-strip features and short stories. ... Help! Harvey Kurtzmans longest-running magazine project after leaving Mad Magazine and EC Publications, Help! (1960-1965) was a chronically underfunded but innovative magazine published by James Warren, who was also publishing successful monster-movie and horror comics magazines simultaneously. ... January 1973 cover of National Lampoon National Lampoon was an American humor magazine that began in 1970 as an offshoot of the Harvard Lampoon. ... Spy magazine was founded in 1986 by Kurt Andersen and E. Graydon Carter. ...

Gaines reportedly kept a voodoo doll in his business office, into which he would stick pins labeled with each imitation of his magazine. He would remove a pin only when the copycat had ceased publishing. At the time of Gaines' death in 1992, only the pin for Cracked remained. Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ...

Mad Kids

In 2005, the magazine published the first issue of Mad Kids, a spinoff publication aimed at a younger demographic. Reminiscent of Nickelodeon's newsstand titles, it emphasizes current kids' entertainment (i.e. Yu-Gi-Oh, Naruto, High School Musical), albeit with an impudent voice. Mad Kids contains much reprinted Mad material that is in keeping with a grade schooler's mentality and interests. The quarterly magazine also includes newly-commissioned articles and cartoons, as well as puzzles, bonus inserts, a calendar, and the other activity-related content that is common to kids' magazines.^[7] This article is about the TV channel. ... Yu-Gi-Oh! manga volume 1 (English version) Yu-Gi-Oh! (遊☆戯☆王 yūgiō, Japanese for King of Games) is a popular Japanese anime and manga franchise from Kazuki Takahashi that mainly involves characters who play a card game called Duel Monsters (originally called... Serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump Shonen Jump BANZAI! Shonen Jump Weekly Comic Original run November 1999 – Ongoing No. ... For other uses, see High School Musical (disambiguation). ...

Some of the Usual Gang of Idiots

Each of the following has created over 150 articles for the magazine:

Photographer: Bob Clarke was an illustrator whose elegant line appeared in innumerable advertisements as well as MAD Magazine. ... Paul Coker, Jr. ... A 1956 Jack Davis page for ECs Picto-Fiction Jack Davis (born December 2, 1924) is an American cartoonist and illustrator. ... Mort Drucker is a cartoonist and caricaturist from Brooklyn, New York. ... Jack Rickard was an illustrator who worked in many media, including a lengthy stint at MAD Magazine. ... Angelo Torres is a cartoonist and caricaturist who appeared in many comic books, as well as a long-running regular slot at MAD Magazine. ... Wallace Wally Wood (born June 17, 1927, Menahga, Minnesota, United States; died November 2, 1981), was an American writer-artist best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. ... George Woodbridges drawing of a Bacons Rebellion soldier in 1675 George Woodbridge (1930-January 19, 2004) was an American illustrator known for his exhaustive research and historical accuracy. ...

• Irving Schild

The editorial staff, notably Charlie Kadau, John Ficarra, and Joe Raiola, also have dozens of articles under their own bylines, as well as substantial creative input into many, many others. Irving Schild is a commercial photographer who has worked extensively for agencies and clients. ... Charlie Kadau is a comedy writer, and longtime associate editor for MAD Magazine. ... John Ficarra has been on the editorial staff of MAD Magazine for almost 25 years. ... Joe Raiola is a comedy writer, and longtime associate editor for MAD Magazine. ...

Some of the Unusual Gang of Idiots

Mad is known for the stability and longevity of its talent roster, with several creators enjoying 30-, 40-, and even 50-year careers in the magazine's pages. However, about 600 people have received bylines in at least one issue. Among the contributors to be credited but a single time are Charles M. Schulz, Chevy Chase, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Andy Griffith, Will Eisner, Kevin Smith, J. Fred Muggs, Boris Vallejo, Sir John Tenniel, Jean Shepherd, Winona Ryder, Thomas Nast, Jimmy Kimmel, Jason Alexander, Walt Kelly, Barney Frank, Tom Wolfe, Steve Allen, Jim Lee, Donald Knuth, Jules Feiffer, and Richard Nixon, who remains the only President credited with writing a Mad article. Charles Monroe Schulz (November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was a 20th-century American cartoonist best known worldwide for his Peanuts comic strip. ... Chevy Chase (born October 8, 1943) is an Emmy Award-winning American comedian, writer, and television and film actor. ... This article is about the musician himself. ... Not to be confused with Andy Griffiths. ... William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an acclaimed American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. ... For other persons named Kevin Smith, see Kevin Smith (disambiguation). ... J. Fred Muggs (b. ... Boris Vallejo, April 2005 Boris Vallejo (born January 8, 1941 in Lima, Peru) is an American painter. ... 1889 Self-portrait Sir John Tenniel (February 28, 1820 – February 25, 1914) was an English illustrator. ... Jean Shepherd posed as Frederick R. Ewing on the back cover of Ballantines I, Libertine (1956). ... Winona Ryder (born October 29, 1971) is a two-time Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning American actress. ... Thomas Nast (September 27, 1840 – December 7, 1902) was a famous German-American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist in the 19th century and is considered to be the father of American political cartooning. ... James Christian Jimmy Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American comedian, writer, talk show host, game show host, and producer. ... Jason Alexander (born Jason Scott Greenspan on September 23, 1959) is a Jewish American television, cinema and musical theatre actor, best known for his role as George Costanza on the hit television series Seinfeld. ... Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr (August 25, 1913 - October 18, 1973), known simply as Walt Kelly, was a cartoonist notable for his comic strip Pogo featuring characters that inhabited a portion of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. ... Barnett Barney Frank (born March 31, 1940) is an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives. ... For the early 20th century American novelist, see Thomas Wolfe. ... Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American musician, comedian and writer instrumental in innovating the concept of the television talk show. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Donald Ervin Knuth ( or Ka-NOOTH[1], Chinese: [2]) (b. ... Jules Feiffer (1958) Jules Feiffer (born January 26, 1929) is an American syndicated comic-strip cartoonist and author. ... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ...

Contributing just twice are such luminaries as Tom Lehrer, Gustave Doré, Danny Kaye, Stan Freberg, Mort Walker and Leonardo da Vinci. Mr. da Vinci's check is still waiting in the Mad offices for him to pick it up. Thomas Andrew (Tom) Lehrer (born April 9, 1928) is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician. ... Doré photographed by Felix Nadar. ... Kaye entertaining U.S. troops at Sasebo, Japan, 25 Oct 1945 David Daniel Kaminsky, known as Danny Kaye (January 18, 1913 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, singer and comedian. ... Stanley Victor Freberg (born August 7, 1926 in Los Angeles) is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, puppeteer and advertising creative director. ... Addison Morton Walker (born September 3, 1923), more popularly known as Mort Walker, is an American comic artist, best known for creating the newspaper comic strips Beetle Bailey in 1950 and Hi and Lois in 1954. ... “Da Vinci” redirects here. ...

Frank Frazetta (3 bylines), Ernie Kovacs (11), Bob and Ray (12), and Sid Caesar (4) are among those to have appeared slightly more frequently. The magazine more commonly used outside "name" talent in its earliest years, often by illustrating their preexisting material, before amassing its own staff of regulars. More recently, Mad has run occasional guest articles in which celebrities from show business or comic books have participated. Introductions to the paperback reprints have been written by such notables as Trey Parker, Adam West, Siskel and Ebert and, again, "Weird Al" Yankovic. Frank Frazetta (born February 9, 1928) is one of the worlds most influential fantasy and science fiction artists. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Bob and Ray Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding were an American comedy duo that began in radio in 1946 with a daily 15-minute show titled Matinee With Bob and Ray. ... Sid Caesar (born September 8, 1922) is an Emmy-winning American comic actor and writer, best known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Adam West (born William West Anderson on September 19, 1928) is an American actor who is best known for playing the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne on the TV series Batman (which also had a film adaptation). ... Ebert & Roeper at the Movies (more commonly known as Ebert & Roeper) is a movie review television program featuring film critic Roger Ebert and columnist Richard Roeper, both of the Chicago Sun-Times. ...

Recurring subsections

Most magazines include ongoing, internal segments or domains, and Mad is no exception. An issue of Mad includes these "cluster" departments.

Table of Contents

The first page of each issue lists all the articles to follow, including their "Department" headings, which are plays on words. For example, a parody of a pizza chain's menu appeared under "The Passion of the Crust Department," while an article entitled "William Shakespeare, Sports Commentator" was part of the "The Play-By-Play's the Thing Department." Long-running features had equally long-running headers: Spy vs. Spy is filed under the "Joke and Dagger Department," Dave Berg's "Lighter Side of..." always ran within the "Berg's Eye View Department," and many of Frank Jacobs' articles come under the "Frank on a Roll Department." Most of the magazine's other recurring features have had their own continuing "Department." Literary technique; puns: word play Rock and Roll Band (1980s) : Play on Words (rock band) This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... Dave Berg may refer to different people: Dave Berg, a baseball player Dave Berg, a DJ Dave Berg, a cartoonist This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... Frank Jacobs is MAD Magazines longest-tenured writer, having appeared in its pages for 50 years. ...

For several years, the Table of Contents has listed one article that does not actually exist, sometimes poking fun at some of the more formulaic articles the magazine has published. Some of these imaginary listings have included "Santa Claus, Porn Star"; "When Goats Go Bad"; "What if Cap'n Crunch Was Brought Before a Military Tribunal?"; "If the Amish Used Zombies to Do Their Chores"; "The MAD Urinary Tract Infection Primer"; "Dick Cheney Electrocardiograms We'd Like to See"; "If Bobby Knight Coached the Special Olympics"; "Only the Assistant Undersecretary of Transportation Would Possibly Believe..."; and "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions During the Bombing of Belgrade." In one instance, the fake title listed, "If Chickens Could Time Travel," showed up as a genuine article in the next issue.

Each Table of Contents also includes a pithy quote or aphorism attributed to Alfred E. Neuman. With a handful of exceptions, this is the only time the character ever "speaks." What, me worry? Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot of EC Publications Mad magazine. ...

Letters and Tomatoes Dept.

An esoteric version of the standard "Letters to the Editors," this commonly runs three pages and includes correspondence from readers, reader drawings or craft projects, celebrity photos, references to Mad in other media, and so forth. All letters are typically answered in a snide and insulting manner. There are also a few (very small) sub-departments that sometimes live within its pages:

• "Antiques Freakshow with Hans Brickface" - in which readers send in photographs of their bizarre household items to have their values appraised by the slightly psychotic Hans.
• "MAD Mumblings" - absurd one-sentence observations, typically non sequiturs, posted online by the readers.
• "The Make a Dumb Wish Foundation" - in which the magazine promises to make readers' stupid requests come true, but usually doesn't (a parody of the Make a Wish Foundation).
• "The Nifty Fifty" & "Mad Celebrity Snaps" - a reader who sends in a photo of a famous person posing with a copy of Mad gets a free three-year subscription (if the celebrity is touching the issue). Once a year, Mad puts out a kind of hit list called The Nifty Fifty: fifty famous people they'd like to see in Celebrity Snaps. The magazine was delighted to publish a photo of Dan Quayle unwittingly holding the "PROOFREADER WANTED" cover of Mad #355, on which the magazine's logo appeared as "MAAD." During a photo op in 1992, Quayle incorrectly "corrected" an elementary school student about how to spell the word "potato."
• "The Two-Question Interview" - celebrity interviews which are essentially over before they begin, accomplishing nothing.

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a non-profit organisation that grants wishes to children with life threatening illnesses. ... James Danforth Dan Quayle (born February 4, 1947) was the forty-fourth Vice President of the United States under George H. W. Bush (1989–1993). ...

The Fundalini Pages

Beginning with its February 2004 edition, Mad has led off its issues with this catch-all section of various bits, which are far shorter or smaller than normal Mad articles. They often appear as many as three to six per page. Some of these pieces are produced in-house; others are the work of freelancers. All contributors for each month are credited en masse, as "Friends of Fundalini." For this reason, it is not always apparent which contributor is responsible for which item, particularly the writers. Most Fundalini features are one shot gags that never appear again, some have appeared multiple times, and a few have been regular features. Among the recurring elements in the Fundalini section are: 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → // February 29, 2004 Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as president of Haiti and flees the country for the Central African Republic. ...

Created for Fundalini

• Bitterman, a short comic strip by Garth Gerhart about a hateful slacker;
• Classified ads; these frequently deal in absurdity and non sequiturs;
• The Cover We DIDN'T Use, purporting to be the "second choice" for that issue's front cover;
• The Fast 5, which is essentially half of a Letterman "Top 10 List";
• Foto News, in which topical photographs are given word balloons (similar to fumetti, though without that genre's narrative storyline aspect);
• The Godfrey Report, a small 3x 3 grid showing three classes of objects and their current cultural status, which is arbitrarily rated as "In," "Five Minutes Ago," or "Out." (e.g. Stoolies: In, Squealers: Five Minutes Ago, Turncoats: Out);
• Graphic Novel Review, written by Desmond Devlin, which analyzes fictional comic collections and graphic novels such as "The Anally Complete Peanuts" or "Tintin in Fallujah";
• The Kitchen Sink, a lengthy barrage of spoof titles for topics such as "Reality Shows Currently Under Development" or "Proposed Star Wars Sequel Titles";
• Magazine Corrections You May Have Missed, providing editorial commentary on other publications;
• Meet the '08 Presidential Candidates, a series of spurious political profiles;
• Monkeys Are Always Funny, by Evan Dorkin, showing famous news photographs with the image of a monkey Photoshopped in (e.g. the raid on Elian Gonzalez's closet, or the Hindenburg explosion);
• The NFL's Ref Report, written by Kiernan P. Schmitt, which illustrates a topic by using generic drawings of a referee's hand signals;
• Pull My Cheney!, a one-panel gag by cartoonist Tom Cheney;
• The President's Dog, a short comic strip by Peter Kuper, in which George W. Bush converses with Barney the Terrier;
• The Puzzle Nook, a multiple choice fill-in-the-blank phrase;
• Saddam Sez, which reused the same photograph of Saddam Hussein speaking at his 2006 trial. A word balloon was added, making a random reference having nothing to do with Hussein or Iraq. The March 2007 issue of Mad contained a statement that "Due to circumstances beyond our control" the Saddam Sez feature would be put on "indefinite hiatus." Fidel Castro later replaced Saddam with "Castro Comments";
• Vey to Go!, a one-panel gag by cartoonist P.C. Vey;
• A Wikipedia parody, first called "Wonkypedia," then "Wakipedia." Each entry features a convoluted assortment of unrelated facts, in the style of a vandalized Wikipedia page (e.g. the "article" on Pearl Harbor discusses Mao-Tse Tung's surprise attack and how it led to the bombing of Chernobyl). Wonkypedia is now an actual website.

Bitterman is a comic strip appearing in MAD Magazine. ... Garth Gerhart is a cartoonist who may be best known for his Bitterman strip, which appears in MAD Magazine. ... This article is about the logical fallacy. ... A top 10 list is a generic term used to indicate a list of items, usually ten in number, which are considered to be best, worst, or notable in some other way, typically a record chart. ... Fumetti (or photo novels) are a genre of American comics illustrated with photographs rather than drawings. ... Desmond Devlin is a comedy writer who has worked for such publications as Mad Magazine. ... For other uses, see Peanut (disambiguation). ... The main characters and others from The Castafiore Emerald, one of the later books The Adventures of Tintin (French: ) is a series of Belgian comic books created by Belgian artist Hergé, the pen name of Georges Remi (1907–1983). ... Star Wars is an epic space opera saga and a fictional universe initially developed by George Lucas during the 1970s and expanded since that time. ... Evan Dorkin is an American comics artist. ... Elián González (born December 6, 1993) was a young boy when his mother escaped from Cuba (which has strict laws forbidding emigration) and floated to freedom in Florida. ... Hindenburg may refer to: Persons: Paul von Hindenburg (1847 – 1934), German general in World War I and president of Germany (1925 – 1934) Oskar von Hindenburg (1883 – 1960), son of the former Carl Hindenburg (1741–1808), mathematician Hindenburg, Japanese comic writer Places (all named after Paul von Hindenburg): Hindenburg (Altmark) in... This article is about the cartoonist. ... Peter Kuper (b. ... Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was the fifth President of Iraq and Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council from 1979 until his overthrow by US forces in 2003. ... Peter C. Vey is a cartoonist whose work has appeared in such venues as The New Yorker, National Lampoon, and MAD Magazine. ... This article is about the harbor in Hawaii. ... Mao Zedong (December 26, 1893—September 9, 1976) was the chairman of the Communist Party of China from 1935 until his death. ... This article is about the city of Chernobyl. ...

Preexisting; moved into Fundalini

• Celebrity Cause of Death Betting Odds, written by Mike Snider, which ranks the hypothetical future demises of the famous by decreasing likelihood;
• Melvin and Jenkins' Guide to..., drawn by Kevin Pope and written by Desmond Devlin, in which the upstanding Jenkins and the derelict Melvin illustrate good and improper behavior in various situations. However, it now consists of only a single two-panel gag, instead of the two- or three-page article it was before.
• Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions, written and drawn by Al Jaffee. The feature now consists of just one stupid question, with three dismissive replies. (The original articles used several stupid question scenarios over a multi-page spread.)

This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Kevin Pope is a cartoonist whose work has appeared in MAD Magazine. ... Desmond Devlin is a comedy writer who has worked for such publications as Mad Magazine. ... Al Jaffee (born March 13, 1921) is a cartoonist, best known for his work in MAD Magazine. ...

Newer additions

• The Strip Club

An assortment of short gag comic strips drawn by various artists, it has appeared roughly every other month since its debut in the July 2005 issue. It typically runs three pages, and is a combination of one-shot gags and recurring features. Among the repeated strip characters are an omnipotent superhero called Fantabulaman; a hero robot named Santon; Rob, the Evil Backstabbing Robot; and Father O'Flannity, a priest who conducts his business in a hot tub.

• Go Fetch!

Further blurring the line between advertising and content was Go Fetch!, a list of newly-released media products such as videogames, DVD releases, music albums and books. Each product listing had The Hype and The Snipe, in which its good and bad qualities were expounded. Each Go Fetch! also promoted "the Must Have", an idiosyncratic (but real) product which no Mad reader should be without, such as cold galvanizing spray, or a pneumatic jackhammer.

Go Fetch! was an odd cross between the wise-ass Mad mentality and the sort of product ratings generally associated with Rolling Stone. It was an overtly commercial feature, with some one-liners thrown in with the apparent hope of making it more palatable. As such, Go Fetch! was heavily criticized by many of the magazine's loyal readers as a betrayal of the magazine's original satiric mission. This article is about the magazine. ...

In its year of existence, Go Fetch! appeared in eight of 12 issues, but the feature has not appeared since the June 2006 issue and appears to be retired.

"The Mad 20"

Since 1998, in every January issue, Mad has commemorated the "20 Dumbest People, Events and Things" of the year. These emphasize the visual motif above all else, parodying such things as movie posters, famous paintings, or fake magazine covers, though one or two text-heavier takeoffs are usually sprinkled into each year's assortment. The feature is reminiscent of the defunct Spy Magazine's "Spy 100" list, which purported to catalogue "Our Annual Census of the 100 Most Annoying, Alarming, and Appalling People, Places and Things." Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... Spy magazine was founded in 1986 by Kurt Andersen and E. Graydon Carter. ...

Though the "20 Dumbest People, Events and Things" are numbered 1-20, the "rankings" appear to be essentially random. The "20th dumbest" slot of 2001 was awarded to Mad itself for its "slide down the slippery slope of greedy commercialism" in finally permitting advertising in its pages.

Keeping in mind the indiscriminate positioning, these were the "#1" selections for the various years:

• 1998: "Starr Wars," a movie poster parody of the partisan Kenneth Starr investigation, depicting Starr as Darth Vader, and Bill Clinton holding a cigar instead of a light saber;
• 1999: "Y2K Panic," a chaotic cartoon showing a crashing airplane displacing the Times Square New Year's Ball, sending it careening into a terror-stricken crowd;
• 2000: A rewritten Presidential oath of office. The issue went to press one week after the disputed 2000 election; the editors had thought they could plug in the winner, but were obliged to publish two versions of the image, one with Al Gore being sworn in, the other depicting George W. Bush.
• 2001: "A.I. Asinine Ideology," a movie poster parody of the Steven Spielberg film "A.I." highlighting Jerry Falwell's placing blame on the 9/11 attacks on gays, feminists, abortionists and the ACLU;
• 2002: "Martha Stewart Lying," a magazine spoof of Martha Stewart's insider trading scandal;
• 2003: "Term Eliminator," a movie poster parody of the third "Terminator" film mocking Arnold Schwarzenegger's victory in the California recall election;
• 2004: "Donny Rumsfeld and the Prisoners of Abu Ghraib," a book cover in the style of the third Harry Potter jacket, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
• 2005: "Where's W?", a book parody in the style of the "Where's Waldo?" series. The cover shows a tableau of the crowded, flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with George W. Bush completely impossible to find.
• 2006: "The Iraqi Quagmire Chess Set," in the style of a Franklin Mint collectable. Literal chess pieces were sculpted and photographed, depicting such figures as Dick Cheney, Joseph Lieberman, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi and Muqtada al-Sadr.

Kenneth Winston Starr Kenneth Winston Starr (born July 21, 1946) is an American lawyer and former judge who was appointed to the Office of the Independent Counsel to investigate the death of the deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and the Whitewater land transactions by President Bill Clinton. ... Darth Vader is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... For other uses, see Times Square (disambiguation). ... (Redirected from 2000 election) List of elections that happened in 2000: Canadian federal election, 2000 - Jean Chrétiens Liberals win third consecutive majority government Greek legislative election, 2000 Taiwan presidential election, 2000 U.S. presidential election, 2000 - George W. Bush becomes president in disputed vote 2000 Toronto election - Mel... This article is about the former Vice President of the United States. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946)[1] is an American film director and producer. ... This article is about Jerry Falwell, Sr. ... The World Trade Center on fire The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. ... The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, is a non_governmental organization devoted to defending civil rights and civil liberties in the United States. ... Martha Stewart (born Martha Helen Kostyra on August 3, 1941) is an American business magnate, author, editor and homemaking advocate. ... Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (commonly abbreviated T3) is a 2003 movie directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken. ... Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (German pronunciation (IPA): ) (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian-American bodybuilder, actor, and politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of the U.S. state of California. ... This article is about the Harry Potter series of novels. ... “HP3” redirects here. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Wheres Wally?. (Discuss) Waldo, as depicted in the Wheres Waldo? book and media franchise Wheres Waldo? is the North American book and media franchise first adapted for United States audiences from the Wheres Wally... New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ... This article is about the Atlantic hurricane of 2005. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... The Franklin Mint is a private corporation based in Media, Pennsylvania, USA which markets collectables of their own designs. ... Richard Bruce Dick Cheney (born January 30, 1941), is the 46th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President George W. Bush. ... Joseph Isadore Lieberman (born February 24, 1942) is a Jewish-American Democratic politician and a current U.S. senator from Connecticut. ... Abu Musab al_Zarqawi in one of eight photos from Rewards for Justice, all undated. ... Muqtada al-Sadr ( Muqtadā aá¹£-á¹¢adr) is the fourth son of a famous Iraqi Shi‘a cleric, the late Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr. ...

Mad and the Supreme Court

The magazine has been involved in various legal actions over the decades, but none was bigger than Irving Berlin et al. v. E.C. Publications, Inc., a case that was eventually brought before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1961, a group of music publishers representing songwriters such as Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers and Cole Porter filed a $25 million lawsuit against Mad for copyright infringement following "Sing Along With Mad," a collection of parody lyrics "sung to the tune of" many popular songs. The publishing group hoped to establish a legal precedent that only a song's composers retained the right to parody that song. The U.S. District Court ruled largely in favor of Mad in 1963, affirming its right to print 23 of the 25 song parodies under dispute. An exception was found in the cases of two parodies, "Always" (sung to the tune of "Always") and "There's No Business Like No Business" (sung to the tune of "There's No Business Like Show Business"). Relying on the same verbal hooks ("always" and "business"), these were found to be overly similar to the originals. The music publishers appealed the ruling, but the U.S. Court of Appeals not only upheld the pro-Mad decision in regard to the 23 songs, it stripped the publishers of their limited victory regarding the remaining two songs. The publishers again appealed, but the Supreme Court refused to hear it, thus allowing the decision to stand. Irving Berlin et al. ... The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States... Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was an American composer and lyricist, one of the most prodigious and famous American songwriters in history. ... This article is about the American composer. ... Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter from Peru, Indiana. ...

Within a few years of its court victory, Mad would return to "There's No Business Like Show Business" with a song parody titled "There're No Stories Like Poe Stories." It included the bridge, "If you like a tale that is appalling / One that will make you murmur, shriek and cry / One that has strange voices calling / And bodies falling / Then Poe's your guy..."

This precedent-setting case established the rights of parodists and satirists to mimic the meter of popular songs. However, the "Sing Along With Mad" songbook was not the magazine's first venture into musical parody. In 1960, Mad had published "My Fair Ad-Man," a full advertising-based spoof of the hit Broadway musical "My Fair Lady." In 1959, "If Famous Authors Wrote the Comics" had speculated on such pairings as "If Paddy Chayefsky wrote Donald Duck" and "If Mickey Spillane wrote Nancy"[7]. The segment "If Gilbert & Sullivan wrote Dick Tracy" used the "When I Was a Lad" song from H.M.S. Pinafore as its iambic inspiration, as shown here: My Fair Lady is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, based on George Bernard Shaws Pygmalion. ... Sidney Aaron Chayefsky (January 29, 1923 – August 1, 1981) known as Paddy Chayefsky was an acclaimed dramatist who transitioned from the golden age of American live television in the 1950s to have a successful career as a playwright and screenwriter for Hollywood. ... Donald Duck is an animated cartoon and comic-book character from Walt Disney Productions. ... Frank Morrison Spillane (March 9, 1918 – July 17, 2006), better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American author of crime novels, many featuring his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. ... Nancy is an American daily comic strip written and drawn by Ernie Bushmiller. ... Playwright/lyricist William S. Gilbert (1836-1911) and composer Arthur S. Sullivan (1842-1900) defined operetta in Victorian England with a series of their internationally successful and timeless works. ... Dick Tracy is a long-running comic strip featuring a popular and familiar character in American pop culture. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: H.M.S. Pinafore H.M.S. Pinafore, or The Lass that Loved a Sailor, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. ...

Dick Tracy: Though I am trapped and I have no gun
you still can't kill me 'cos it can't be done.
The whole darn force is waiting down below
I summoned all the boys on my wrist radio!

Crooks: He summoned all them cops on his wrist radio!

Dick Tracy: So even if I'm helpless in your evil grip
you cannot kill a flatfoot in a comic strip!

Notes

References

• Evanier, Mark, Mad Art, Watson Guptil Publications, 2002, ISBN 0-8230-3080-6
• Reidelbach, Maria, Completely Mad, Little Brown, 1991, ISBN 0-316-73890-5

Maria Reidelbach is a Manhattan-based installation artist and an authority on various aspects of popular culture and fine arts, evident in her art projects, books and exhibitions. ...

See also

• List of Mad Magazine Issues
• List of Mad's movie spoofs
• Madkids
• MADtv
• It's A Super-Spectacular Day - a novelty record released with the Summer 1980 issue

The following is a list of all the issues of Mad Magazine, ordered as the issues were produced. ... A typical issue of Mad magazine will include at least one full parody of a popular movie or television show. ... MAD Kids is a spin-off of the popular humor magazine MAD, first published in November of 2005. ... MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series based on the humor magazine, Mad. ... Its A Super-Spectacular Day was a novelty record issued by MAD magazine in summer 1980. ...

External links

• Official Mad website at dccomics.com, with:
  • The magazine's own semi-spurious "Untold History of Mad Magazine"
  • 50th anniversary poster featuring over 100 "Usual Gang of Idiots" caricatures
• The Mad Cover Site at collectmad.com
• Mad Magazine lists, including cover artists, most appearances per contributor, and yearly circulation figures
• Interview with 50-year Mad veteran Frank Jacobs, from the Mad Mumblings discussion website
• MAD magazine Database
• MADkids website
• Animated version of a Don Martin gag strip
• Origins of Alfred E. Neuman
• Mad at the FBI
• Official German Mad Magazine Website
• Revista Mad - Unofficial Brazilian Mad Home Page
• Excerpts from the Christian-themed "Glad Magazine" imitation
• "Quest for Alfred E. Neuman", Carl Djerassi on encountering Alfred E. Neuman as Nazi racial propaganda
• Mad Magazine Explorer, an experimental image-browsing interface of Mad covers
• If Mickey Spillane wrote "Nancy"
• NCS Awards
• Daniel Pinkwater: "On First Looking into Kurtzman's Mad