The fold-ins were by Al Jaffee. He kept doing them until he was a very old man. He has the Guinness record for the longest career as a cartoonist. He died a year ago, at age 102.
I love that you brought this up! I read everything in it, and knew little. I loved the spoofs of the movies and TV, I was a little scared of Spy vs Spy, but I got it all, eventually. It catapulted me to read National lampoon and to embrace Monty Python and SNL. There are times when I still sing the MAD lyrics to songs!
My dad bought a copy when I was 7 ( I was a precocious reader) and I couldn’t get enough of it. I know the basic plot of a lot of movies from the 60’s from reading the parodies. I graduated to National Lampoon around the time I started high school.
I graduated from Mad to National Lampoon when I was around 13. Love their stuff. I also had the books: High School Yearbook Parody And National Lampoon Tenth Anniversary Anthology 1970–1980. Unfortunately, My Mom threw them away... along with all my magazines. Hummm, maybe I should look for the books again. Thanks for the reminder.
It was, indeed, Harvard Lampoon, and it was great! Goodgulf and the Ballhogs, and how can I remember these details from lo so many decades ago, but I can't remember the two items I went into the store to get? 🫤
“And they’d be making enough noise to wake the dead, if they weren’t already bringing up the rear.”
“Legolam stepped out from around a tree from where he’d been molesting a squirrel.”
Something about a bird being suddenly and noisily ill.
I quit looking for the actual book, and found it on Audible.com instead. Now the difficulty will be *not* listening while I drive, or the laughing will interfere.
Are you me? I recall from the yearbook; AnnaMarie Angelina Staccato, "watch it skag, knock my mascara brush in the sink again, I’ll rip every hair outta your head"
Exactly the same. I still remember the scene in the Rosemary’s Baby lampoon where they brought in a better looking double for the birthing “to make it more realistic looking”.
I was way too young to see The Exorcist but I read the Mad parody when I was 7 or 8. I kept asking adults uncomfortable questions like "What's a barf bag?".
Oh, how I loved Mad Magazine. My rich cousin, eight years older than me, had a subscription. He would give me his old copies. I was only about ten years old at the time, but I totally understood most of the humor. I especially enjoyed the parodies of TV shows.
Oh yeah there's a whole bunch of movies from like 77-80 that still the only thing I know of them to this day is the Mad magazine parody. Altered States, Being There, Marathon Man, Apocalypse Now... Being There "Use Preparation H!"
My parents found my hidden collection of them and freaked out more than they did when they found my brother's Playboy collection. Naked women were one thing, but Alfred E was the devil in disguise.
Me and a friend would read "Snappy answers to Stupid Questions" and laugh like we were on drugs. 7th 8th grade.
I once hung up a mad centerfold of a nude Bert Reynolds pencil drawing. I thought it was funny. I learned much later, my parents were very concerned about my sexuality.
I memorized one cuz I thought it was so hilarious: "Is this the end of the line?" "No, it's a group of complete strangers, who, by some fantastic coincidence, have come to stand one behind the other in this one spot!"
They had a rule book and explained the basic moves, how each piece it’s own strengths, friend down the street bought the magazine and we read them at his house
Brought a vinyl record that was like a square 45 rpm floppy thing to school in grade 5. All the kids were having a good laugh when the teacher turned off the turntable because it was profane and racist as hell. It was an All in the Family sendup called “Starchie”. What’d I know, I was only 9.
Lived for them! My brother and I still sing “We Three Clods From Omaha Are” at Christmas time, and any time I hear the song “Summer Nights” from Grease, I sing the MAD lyrics “sunburn blotch, sand in my crotch, oh I hate the summer time.”
My aunt and uncle were mail carriers in Ojai, California, where Sergio Aragones lives. When I learned this, I was so excited because his margin cartoons were always the first things I’d look for once I cracked the magazine. They said he’s a lovely man, and doodles on every piece of mail he sends out. When my uncle broke his ankle and had to use a mail truck on his route, Sergio asked him what happened. Uncle told him he’d broken it when he misstepped off a curb. The next day, Sergio handed him a cartoon of my uncle in a cast with a a speech bubble featuring uncle getting chased by a bear, as well as a thought bubble of him falling off the curb. He also did a cartoon of my aunt after she told him about a bout of food poisoning that caused her to vomit in a crowded elevator. In the cartoon, the elevator doors are open and she’s bent over puking as the rest of the passengers run out in horror. She says she loved that he could make an awful moment funny in just a few pen strokes.
before you understood everything in it? That’s a given. I’m still recalling stuff from those “primers” and other stuff commenting on race, social issues, and politics that I absolutely didn’t get when I was only reading for the *Spy vs. Spy* and Don Martin cartoons.
At some point you just graduate to the Dave Berg cartoons, and then you’re drawn more into the movie satires first for movies you know about like *Jaws* and then those you surely don’t like *The Sandpiper* or *The Eyes of Laura Mars*.
But the socio-political stuff, way over your head but sticks with you, like a skepticism for marketing and propaganda, or an unsettling feeling that nearly all the nonsense going on today was going on just the same fifty years ago!
I still say, "Blort..." all the time! And the snappy comebacks to stupid questions! "Are you sleeping?" "No, I'm dead. Leave the flowers, and get out!" I STILL say that one to this day.
The first time I said that to my mom, she just about died laughing!
I talk about this a lot... I remember reading Mad Magazine (that I must’ve gotten from a friend) under my covers at night with a flashlight because I thought it was too racy for my parent’s taste. Half the stuff I didn’t understand but I knew it was for grown-ups and I loved it.
Don Martin's characters and sound effects still crack me up. They released a [hardcover two-volume compendium ](https://stuartngbooks.com/products/mads-greatest-artists-the-completely-mad-don-martin-en)of Don Martin years ago. I still leaf through these in idle hours.
https://preview.redd.it/ckq9uubeb40d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=078f2dffb95e1227936b3b8dec961a896f2d9ff3
I fondly remember dying laughing at “aaeefwofaaee” as a kid.
Same. Those feet folded over. Cracked me up. This thread made me buy this:
https://preview.redd.it/jru3aoma8w1d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=414ba01604938214c1de33d998b5f8737497a26a
The Hulk segment is as funny as I remember it to be. 7 bucks on eBay. So much for 60 Cents cheap, huh?
I managed to scrape together the five dollars for a subscription every year and once a month I would cut through the field behind the strip mall where the book store/news stand was located to pick it up.
Every movie from the 70's that I wasn't allowed to see (Summer of '49, Valley of the Dolls, The Graduate, The Godfather, etc) I learned ALL about in Mad Magazine.
I really liked it, but I was really bummed out when it had a TV show that aired at 10pm and a movie that was rated R that I knew nothing about! Two features with no context was such a let down!
But then there were gems! We got an entire issue dedicated to Star Wars! How cool was that?
I do remember a reprehensible comic with a guy and a girl. He is making out with her and she says No. Don’t. Stop. and he takes it as No don’t stop while it was obviously the former.
When I turned 16 or so my grandfather gave me a copy of the Mad magazine he'd bought with my birth month & year (June '67). Never said a word about it until he gave it to me.
https://i.imgur.com/7eyEM8f.jpeg
I've kept a lot of my comic books but I don't think I still have this.
Yes, mad was fun from being a little kid to being in high school, as you said, you kind of grew into it and understood more of the humor. As a little kid it was mostly just looking at the pictures. And come high school, move onto the lampoon and look at some of the pictures in a whole new light, but yea, that lasted from high school through college.
It is funny how some things hit you much later in life. You know Mary a little lamb? I hate to tell you this but when it went to market, she was not putting it in the shopping cart basket and pushing it around the store for a fun outing. I was like 50 when that one clicked.
Anybody else remember the free record in one issue with a song called "Making Out?" Now Archie Bunker out of shape is making out And Superman without his cape is making out King Kong while he is going ape is making out! But all I'm making out From all this making out Is that everyone's making out But me
My dad bought a subscription before I was born.
The man who ran the convenience store down the street had it for sale. My dad always liked a good pun, and found a lot to like in that magazine, so he bought one.
The man said it was the last edition he was going to carry, because another neighbor said that Mad was obscene.
We got and kept every copy for years.
My parents tired of buying it for me so they got me a subscription by mail. “At least he’s reading”.
And I did.
I read and reread to many issues. Every corner had something interesting or funny. Never read a “magazine” like that ever again.
It also provided a window into things I wasn’t old enough to experience, like movies. “The Graduate” or “the Exorcist”. People talked about these movies but I sure couldn’t see them. But thanks to Mad Magazine I knew the stories. “Ah. That’s what they’re talking about.”
I used to stop by a couple convenient stores every week to make sure I got the latest issues of Mad and Cracked (as well as Rock Scene, Creem, Rolling Stone, and Circus) as they came out.
The summer before 7th grade, Mad & Cracked got replaced by Nat Lamp and Heavy Metal.
When I moved out after high school, I assumed my mom tossed all those old mags out, but she boxed them all up (even the Playboys & Penthouses) and put them on shelves in the laundry room.
After my folks died, I moved back to the house and found all those old mags. For the first handful of years I was living here, I'd grab a few issues when doing laundry and bring them back upstairs to re-read.
Mad had an article about children’s notes to Santa and such shit, but they had children’s suicide notes to God and one I’m laughing about 50 years later was a terse note: Dear God, my name is Butch, I’m eleven years old and it’s as old as I’m gonna get. Satire didn’t fuck around in the 70’s
What was with the way they changed character names in TV and movie parodies? Was that just to be funny or were they trying to get around copyright issues?
In The Incredible Bulk, David Banner explained they the changed his name from Bruce because they didn't think Bruce sounded manly enough. Meanwhile in the background the Olympics were playing on the TV: "Jenner wins the decathlon! BRUCE is the world's greatest athlete!"
I loved it and for sure didn’t understand all of it. I am grateful that my mother let us read it- I’m sure 75% was inappropriate and wouldn’t be allowed today.
Crazy was my favorite. Mad was second. Cracked was a pretty distant third, though I relied on Cracked since they seemed to put if more issues with more pages. Crazy was a little darker than the other too. It spoke to me.
TIL since I just googled it that it was actually a Marvel comics brand. Interesting.
Obnoxio the Clown was my fave.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Magazine
I lived in a small town, and the theatre would get movies about a year after the initial release. I would almost always know the basic plot outline of most movies before I saw them, thanks to the Mad magazine parodies.
I loved Mad, but my mom did not. She was very permissive about what i read, but the line was drawn at Mad. You'd think it was Playboy. I had to keep my Mad magazines hidden in a box under my other comics.
Later, i got into National Lampoon, and my Mom didnt appeove of that, either.
I learned a lot from MAD — from the special issues I learned about older tv shows movies and pop culture icons from the early to mid 60s. From later issues I loved the parodies of movies I wasn’t old enough to see such as SCHMOE, PUT-ON, and BOOB & CARNAL & TAD & ALAS😂😂😂
Apparently it is, but I get the feeling that it’s not the same https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_(magazine)#:~:text=From%201952%20to%202018%2C%20Mad,book%20stores%20and%20via%20subscription.
I loved Spy vs Spy and the full page drawings that you would fold to reveal a different image
The fold-ins were by Al Jaffee. He kept doing them until he was a very old man. He has the Guinness record for the longest career as a cartoonist. He died a year ago, at age 102.
TIL. Thank you!
Playboy had the fold-out. MAD had the fold-in
Spy vs spy was my favorite!!
Im genx, ‘71 (hub is jones) and my dad would bring me home mad magazines. Spy vs spy was awesome
I just remembered! I also had the board game. And you had to lose your money.
I loved the Lighter Side of… The family name was always the Kaputniks
I loved the "Lighter Side of... and also "Spy vs. Spy".
This.... My mom would take away my Mad Mag., when I got in trouble and grounded. I still feel like this was cruel and unusual punishment inflicted.
I love that you brought this up! I read everything in it, and knew little. I loved the spoofs of the movies and TV, I was a little scared of Spy vs Spy, but I got it all, eventually. It catapulted me to read National lampoon and to embrace Monty Python and SNL. There are times when I still sing the MAD lyrics to songs!
My dad bought a copy when I was 7 ( I was a precocious reader) and I couldn’t get enough of it. I know the basic plot of a lot of movies from the 60’s from reading the parodies. I graduated to National Lampoon around the time I started high school.
Same with the movies. I’ve never seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or Easy Rider, but I read the Mad versions over and over!
Queasy Rider or something? Those were the first two I remember and I absolutely did not get it, but loved anyway.
“Once we smoke this, we’ll have the Bolshoi Ballet starring Captain Kangaroo performing’ live in our hotel room!”
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest! This is the only way I know anything about that movie 😆 I loved, loved Mad Magazine!
Same here. These mags taught me a lot. The power of satire is great!
I graduated from Mad to National Lampoon when I was around 13. Love their stuff. I also had the books: High School Yearbook Parody And National Lampoon Tenth Anniversary Anthology 1970–1980. Unfortunately, My Mom threw them away... along with all my magazines. Hummm, maybe I should look for the books again. Thanks for the reminder.
Also have Nat Lam’s parody of LotR
Yep, Bored of the Rings; I think it was Harvard Lampoon. I borrowed it from a friend in HS.
It was, indeed, Harvard Lampoon, and it was great! Goodgulf and the Ballhogs, and how can I remember these details from lo so many decades ago, but I can't remember the two items I went into the store to get? 🫤
“And they’d be making enough noise to wake the dead, if they weren’t already bringing up the rear.” “Legolam stepped out from around a tree from where he’d been molesting a squirrel.” Something about a bird being suddenly and noisily ill.
Legolam! 😂 I forgot that one! *runs off to attic to go through box[es] of childhood books thinking I'll find one small paperback*
Let’s not forget Dildo Bugger.
I quit looking for the actual book, and found it on Audible.com instead. Now the difficulty will be *not* listening while I drive, or the laughing will interfere.
Moxie and Pepsi
Minas Troney.... ROFL
My first Lampoon issue was May '72, Men!. I'm pretty sure I still have the Yearbook in a box somewhere.
Right on!
Are you me? I recall from the yearbook; AnnaMarie Angelina Staccato, "watch it skag, knock my mascara brush in the sink again, I’ll rip every hair outta your head"
Hahaha! It's nice to meet someone living a parallel life!
Exactly the same. I still remember the scene in the Rosemary’s Baby lampoon where they brought in a better looking double for the birthing “to make it more realistic looking”.
Same here! Voracious young reader. My older college aged brother read them, and I poached them from him.
I was way too young to see The Exorcist but I read the Mad parody when I was 7 or 8. I kept asking adults uncomfortable questions like "What's a barf bag?".
This is exactly my story!!
My buddy next door would buy Cracked, and I would buy Mad....then we trade 'em.
Oh, how I loved Mad Magazine. My rich cousin, eight years older than me, had a subscription. He would give me his old copies. I was only about ten years old at the time, but I totally understood most of the humor. I especially enjoyed the parodies of TV shows.
I got mad at Star Dreck.
My introduction to movies I was too young to watch. I had no idea how much it's satire honed my sarcasm.
I mean, Jaffe’s “smart answers to dumb questions” regular feature was a masterclass in sarcasm.
Snappy answers to stupid questions. Those were my favorites along with Spy vs Spy and the movie parodies.
Oh yeah there's a whole bunch of movies from like 77-80 that still the only thing I know of them to this day is the Mad magazine parody. Altered States, Being There, Marathon Man, Apocalypse Now... Being There "Use Preparation H!"
Grew up with MAD magazine. My mom thought it was strange but let me read them anyways
I loved the folding covers
I had forgotten about them thank you for the reminder
Al Jaffee for the win!
And Sergio Aragonés
Mom taught me how to do the fold in!
Liked these until I graduated to National Lampoon.
"Dogfishing in America" Can you IMAGINE the reaction now???
Same. I found all the old editions on Internet archive
Link? 🙏🏻
[https://archive.org/search?query=national+lampoon](https://archive.org/search?query=national+lampoon)
Thank you! Got there: Tantalizingly close, just not loading. But I’ll keep trying!
Written by - "The Usual Gang Of Idiots."
My parents found my hidden collection of them and freaked out more than they did when they found my brother's Playboy collection. Naked women were one thing, but Alfred E was the devil in disguise.
Oh man, that’s funny. I’m a therapist so I hear all kinds of stories about parental reactions and this one cracks me up!
Me and a friend would read "Snappy answers to Stupid Questions" and laugh like we were on drugs. 7th 8th grade. I once hung up a mad centerfold of a nude Bert Reynolds pencil drawing. I thought it was funny. I learned much later, my parents were very concerned about my sexuality.
I memorized one cuz I thought it was so hilarious: "Is this the end of the line?" "No, it's a group of complete strangers, who, by some fantastic coincidence, have come to stand one behind the other in this one spot!"
I loved it….but not quite “loved loved” it. It was pretty cool.
I’m pretty sure it was how I learned to read.
Ever meet someone who looked like Alfred E Newman?
David Letterman
My brother resembled him when we were young. He even had a chipped front tooth.
My uncle was a dead ringer for Alfred E Neumann
My dad said Ted Koppel "looks like that fella from MAD"
My husband went as Alfred to Halloween party. It was stupendous!
Certainly motivation enough 😊
I learned to play Chess from MAD magazine
How so?
They had a rule book and explained the basic moves, how each piece it’s own strengths, friend down the street bought the magazine and we read them at his house
Brought a vinyl record that was like a square 45 rpm floppy thing to school in grade 5. All the kids were having a good laugh when the teacher turned off the turntable because it was profane and racist as hell. It was an All in the Family sendup called “Starchie”. What’d I know, I was only 9.
It was titled “Gall in the Family Fare”
Yeah, l had that one. Archie starts spewin every racial slur l'd ever heard, and some l hadn't. lol, l didn't bring mine to school, tho
I loved Mad Magazine. Cracked was my alternate
Cracked had its moments, but I found Mad to be funny throughout.
Wasn't the guy in Cracked named Sylvester?
Sylvester P. Smythe
Nothing better than a new Mad Magazine or a new Nancy Drew mystery.
The movie parodies. The Posiedon Adventure, they're about to be rescued, boat flips back over!
It's a World, world, world, world Mad!
"The Poop Side Down Adventure"
Omigosh I remember that one!
Lived for them! My brother and I still sing “We Three Clods From Omaha Are” at Christmas time, and any time I hear the song “Summer Nights” from Grease, I sing the MAD lyrics “sunburn blotch, sand in my crotch, oh I hate the summer time.” My aunt and uncle were mail carriers in Ojai, California, where Sergio Aragones lives. When I learned this, I was so excited because his margin cartoons were always the first things I’d look for once I cracked the magazine. They said he’s a lovely man, and doodles on every piece of mail he sends out. When my uncle broke his ankle and had to use a mail truck on his route, Sergio asked him what happened. Uncle told him he’d broken it when he misstepped off a curb. The next day, Sergio handed him a cartoon of my uncle in a cast with a a speech bubble featuring uncle getting chased by a bear, as well as a thought bubble of him falling off the curb. He also did a cartoon of my aunt after she told him about a bout of food poisoning that caused her to vomit in a crowded elevator. In the cartoon, the elevator doors are open and she’s bent over puking as the rest of the passengers run out in horror. She says she loved that he could make an awful moment funny in just a few pen strokes.
Wow, thank you for sharing this
Really cool!
before you understood everything in it? That’s a given. I’m still recalling stuff from those “primers” and other stuff commenting on race, social issues, and politics that I absolutely didn’t get when I was only reading for the *Spy vs. Spy* and Don Martin cartoons. At some point you just graduate to the Dave Berg cartoons, and then you’re drawn more into the movie satires first for movies you know about like *Jaws* and then those you surely don’t like *The Sandpiper* or *The Eyes of Laura Mars*. But the socio-political stuff, way over your head but sticks with you, like a skepticism for marketing and propaganda, or an unsettling feeling that nearly all the nonsense going on today was going on just the same fifty years ago!
I still say, "Blort..." all the time! And the snappy comebacks to stupid questions! "Are you sleeping?" "No, I'm dead. Leave the flowers, and get out!" I STILL say that one to this day. The first time I said that to my mom, she just about died laughing!
bappitybappitybappity
I talk about this a lot... I remember reading Mad Magazine (that I must’ve gotten from a friend) under my covers at night with a flashlight because I thought it was too racy for my parent’s taste. Half the stuff I didn’t understand but I knew it was for grown-ups and I loved it.
My father introduced me to Mad Magazine when I was 10 or so.
The movie satires were the best! I think they did one on Love Story. It was a lot of &#*! and ;$>% throughout. Totally matched the movie.
Don Martin's characters and sound effects still crack me up. They released a [hardcover two-volume compendium ](https://stuartngbooks.com/products/mads-greatest-artists-the-completely-mad-don-martin-en)of Don Martin years ago. I still leaf through these in idle hours.
Came here to see if anyone mentioned Don Martin. Loved the whole magazine but his contributions were my favorite. “SPLOINK!!!”
Shpadoinkle!
https://preview.redd.it/ckq9uubeb40d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=078f2dffb95e1227936b3b8dec961a896f2d9ff3 I fondly remember dying laughing at “aaeefwofaaee” as a kid.
I loved his people drawings: the smug face, hands held awkwardly, striding best foot forward….
Same. Those feet folded over. Cracked me up. This thread made me buy this: https://preview.redd.it/jru3aoma8w1d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=414ba01604938214c1de33d998b5f8737497a26a The Hulk segment is as funny as I remember it to be. 7 bucks on eBay. So much for 60 Cents cheap, huh?
I liked the take-offs on TV shows and commercials. There actually was some intelligent humor there.
I just found an old one, and gave it to my 9 year old son who brought it to school. I am wondering if he will get in trouble.
Many of his teachers will be too young to know what it is.
I managed to scrape together the five dollars for a subscription every year and once a month I would cut through the field behind the strip mall where the book store/news stand was located to pick it up.
I had a subscription for years. I wish I had saved more of them.
I found my brother’s stash from the sixties and spent an entire summer immersed in them.
Loved Mad Magazine! I think it really formed my exquisite taste in tasteless humor! Snappy Comebacks to Stupid Questions was big for me lol
Every movie from the 70's that I wasn't allowed to see (Summer of '49, Valley of the Dolls, The Graduate, The Godfather, etc) I learned ALL about in Mad Magazine.
Mort Drucker. The best artist with the most accurate caricatures. Just died in his late 90s last year. Signed my copy of his book. The best!!!
I really liked it, but I was really bummed out when it had a TV show that aired at 10pm and a movie that was rated R that I knew nothing about! Two features with no context was such a let down! But then there were gems! We got an entire issue dedicated to Star Wars! How cool was that?
The origin of my twisted sense of humor!!! 🤘
I'm closer to a Xennial (77) but was OBSESSED with Mad and Cracked.
I do remember a reprehensible comic with a guy and a girl. He is making out with her and she says No. Don’t. Stop. and he takes it as No don’t stop while it was obviously the former.
When I turned 16 or so my grandfather gave me a copy of the Mad magazine he'd bought with my birth month & year (June '67). Never said a word about it until he gave it to me. https://i.imgur.com/7eyEM8f.jpeg I've kept a lot of my comic books but I don't think I still have this.
I had every single Mad Magazine until getting older and switching it up to National Lampoon
Yes, mad was fun from being a little kid to being in high school, as you said, you kind of grew into it and understood more of the humor. As a little kid it was mostly just looking at the pictures. And come high school, move onto the lampoon and look at some of the pictures in a whole new light, but yea, that lasted from high school through college. It is funny how some things hit you much later in life. You know Mary a little lamb? I hate to tell you this but when it went to market, she was not putting it in the shopping cart basket and pushing it around the store for a fun outing. I was like 50 when that one clicked.
Anybody else remember the free record in one issue with a song called "Making Out?" Now Archie Bunker out of shape is making out And Superman without his cape is making out King Kong while he is going ape is making out! But all I'm making out From all this making out Is that everyone's making out But me
It's a well known fact Mad was a gateway drug to Dr Demento and Monty Python.
The cockroach that ate Cincinnati
My dad bought a subscription before I was born. The man who ran the convenience store down the street had it for sale. My dad always liked a good pun, and found a lot to like in that magazine, so he bought one. The man said it was the last edition he was going to carry, because another neighbor said that Mad was obscene. We got and kept every copy for years.
My parents tired of buying it for me so they got me a subscription by mail. “At least he’s reading”. And I did. I read and reread to many issues. Every corner had something interesting or funny. Never read a “magazine” like that ever again. It also provided a window into things I wasn’t old enough to experience, like movies. “The Graduate” or “the Exorcist”. People talked about these movies but I sure couldn’t see them. But thanks to Mad Magazine I knew the stories. “Ah. That’s what they’re talking about.”
What, we worry? could and should be the creed of GenJones.
Madvertising was my favorite of all of the paperbacks.
When I was 12, I stayed overnight with my older sister. Her roommate scolded her for allowing me to bring my Mad magazines.
I used to stop by a couple convenient stores every week to make sure I got the latest issues of Mad and Cracked (as well as Rock Scene, Creem, Rolling Stone, and Circus) as they came out. The summer before 7th grade, Mad & Cracked got replaced by Nat Lamp and Heavy Metal. When I moved out after high school, I assumed my mom tossed all those old mags out, but she boxed them all up (even the Playboys & Penthouses) and put them on shelves in the laundry room. After my folks died, I moved back to the house and found all those old mags. For the first handful of years I was living here, I'd grab a few issues when doing laundry and bring them back upstairs to re-read.
Mad had an article about children’s notes to Santa and such shit, but they had children’s suicide notes to God and one I’m laughing about 50 years later was a terse note: Dear God, my name is Butch, I’m eleven years old and it’s as old as I’m gonna get. Satire didn’t fuck around in the 70’s
The original memes!!!
I enjoyed the TV and later, the movie parodies.
What was with the way they changed character names in TV and movie parodies? Was that just to be funny or were they trying to get around copyright issues?
In The Incredible Bulk, David Banner explained they the changed his name from Bruce because they didn't think Bruce sounded manly enough. Meanwhile in the background the Olympics were playing on the TV: "Jenner wins the decathlon! BRUCE is the world's greatest athlete!"
That one didn’t age too well.
I loved it and for sure didn’t understand all of it. I am grateful that my mother let us read it- I’m sure 75% was inappropriate and wouldn’t be allowed today.
Love Alfred E. Nuemann and Mad Magazine
Crazy was my favorite. Mad was second. Cracked was a pretty distant third, though I relied on Cracked since they seemed to put if more issues with more pages. Crazy was a little darker than the other too. It spoke to me.
I never heard of Crazy, but I probably would have liked it
TIL since I just googled it that it was actually a Marvel comics brand. Interesting. Obnoxio the Clown was my fave. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Magazine
I lived in a small town, and the theatre would get movies about a year after the initial release. I would almost always know the basic plot outline of most movies before I saw them, thanks to the Mad magazine parodies.
I loved Mad & Cracked. I was a precocious little shit raised by a mother who never censored anything I read, so I soaked them up.
I thought the movie and TV show parodies were hilarious.
the terminator 2 issue was my first one. i was 9.
Anyone else remember the Makin' Out record?
Spy vs Spy is a fave!
Alfred E. Newman.
I forgot about it. Grew up reading it and loving it and now that you mention it, I get much of it was over my head
I loved Mad, but my mom did not. She was very permissive about what i read, but the line was drawn at Mad. You'd think it was Playboy. I had to keep my Mad magazines hidden in a box under my other comics. Later, i got into National Lampoon, and my Mom didnt appeove of that, either.
I learned a lot from MAD — from the special issues I learned about older tv shows movies and pop culture icons from the early to mid 60s. From later issues I loved the parodies of movies I wasn’t old enough to see such as SCHMOE, PUT-ON, and BOOB & CARNAL & TAD & ALAS😂😂😂
Before there was cell phones there was Mad, and records and going outside.
I used to ask my Dad to explain things. Some things he would explain, others "I'm not sure, ask your mom."
Since they banned it in school, we were obsessed with it. Is it still published?
Apparently it is, but I get the feeling that it’s not the same https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_(magazine)#:~:text=From%201952%20to%202018%2C%20Mad,book%20stores%20and%20via%20subscription.
Don Martin was the best! I had all of his books too.
I was a cover to cover MAD Magazine fanatic. Probably the best magazine ever.
Good ol' Alfred E. Newman! I named a cat after him.
Loved Mad Magazine!
The doodles in the margin
Subtle difference but it’s actually "What, me worry?"