What, me worry? RIP Mad

Oh, and chalk me up as a big fan of Dave Berg's Lighter Side. I was always tickled to death that there could be a person out there named Roger Kaputnik.

 

The gang of idiots at MAD are among the most creative headline writers on this planet. Their use of labels accompanying their story titles had me in tears laughing.

One example: In its parody of "Sully," MAD titled it "Silly." The label read, "PLANE NONSENSE DEPT."

The double truck featured the plane about to hit the Hudson River, and the artist managed to include Apollo 13 and Wilson the volleyball from "Cast Away" in the water. Written on the jet was "U.S. Scareways." And in the top left corner, the MAD hot-air balloon.

The caricatures are the best I've ever seen. Mort Drucker, Jaffee, Aragones, Don Martin … just the best.

Something else I've noticed in recent years - more stobits honoring longtime MAD employees, and I mean longtime employees. Many were in their 70s and up, worked at the magazine since the beginning and were STILL working. These guys loved their jobs.

 

One of the only reasons I'm still on Facebook is for the group boards that discuss school and government issues in my town. There's a loathesome individual whose last name is Kapust (and I'm not convinced he's a real person rather than someone else hiding behind an alias). Whenever I refer to him as "Roger Kaputnik," nobody knows what the hell I'm talking about. Makes me sad.

In a perfect world I would have gone on to write for MAD.

 

I knew a woman who once worked for MAD. Not as a writer, but I guess in some kind of editing or pagination role. She was like a female version of Woody Allen, but far more neurotic and socially inept. No filters at all, either.

 

It's amazing how much Mad got stuck in my head. JR and I watched "The Wizard of Oz" on TCM last night and without thinking I started singing along with the Scarecrow using the words from the Mad parody:
"At a Howard Johnsons eating
You'll find me there repeating
Those jokes no one can bear.
At tall buildings I'm a-gaping
'Cause there just ain't no escaping
That I'm nothing but a square".

My encore was one of my all-time favourite Mad nursery rhyme rewrites:
"The other day upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I think he's from the CIA".

I read these in 1970's and they're still on my mental hard drive.

 

Dumbest magazine I've ever seen or attempted to read. Couldn't read an entire page without rolling my eyes and throwing it down. The only people that I knew that read it were potheads. They thought it was funny but I guess everything is funny when you're high. Glad it's gone. One less stupid publication.

 

Every Cover of MAD Magazine, from 1952 to the Present:
Behold 553 Covers from the Satirical Publication | Open Culture



The direct link: Doug Gilford's Mad Cover Site - Regular Issue Cover Index

 

Those covers are lame.

*smokes joint*

WOW! SO AWESOME AND FUNNY!

 

Everyone has a right to an opinion. For what it's worth, I'm glad that you and so many others got so much joy from this magazine. Your responses are kinda interesting to read when your view is from the other side of the fence.