MAD – The Usual Gang of Inspirational Idiots

Hey everyone – Frank G here, with an expanded version of what I was talking about on this week’s episode of 252.

Now, I realize that many of my sentences begin with this statement, but : “Back when we were kids…”, many of us got our first taste of subversive material when we found – or a hip older relative handed us – our first copy of MAD Magazine.

Black and white, printed on the lowest grade of paper imaginable – very similar to the stuff with the giant lines in kindergarten – MAD seemed normal enough at first – like an oversized, less colorful comic (originally, it WAS a color comic, but that was long before our time) --- or maybe a long collection of newspaper comic strips.  From the humorous letter department, through the film parodies, fold-ins, and all the other regular features – MAD was everything a kid could want – despite being written above our heads.  Well, not MY head, because I was an odd child, but the material was not aimed at preteens – it was written for adults, primarily, with the sort of Looney Tunes style humor that works on multiple levels.  As a result, you could re-read your MAD collection through the years and get entirely new laughs as you grew to understand the world.

The initial attraction was based on the cover of whichever issue we first discovered.   I remember EXACTLY which issue was my first, and I remember where I got it.  MAD 206 – Apr 79.  The first time I spotted it, it was in my Dad’s magazine pile.  We used to go to the comic shop together – Comic Kingdom in Detroit, one of THE first comic specialty stores – I would get my 2 DC comics (He was a DC guy, and always steered me away from the Marvels) and he would get a few magazines.  OMNI, Playboy, and occasionally – MAD.   This particular issue had Alfred E. (though I didn’t know his name at the time) standing on his head in a burning building, next to a fire extinguisher that said “In case of Fire, turn Upside Down”.   I HAD to see the inside.  Now, at first, this was very similar to trying to sneak peeks at Playboys.  A brief peek inside when no one was around, but you’d almost never hit one of the GOOD pages.  I saw lots of ads for cigarettes and booze when I’d get 30 seconds alone, but never ONCE saw any nudity. Go figure. Anyway, my dad must’ve seen me peeking at MAD, so he just handed it to me.  Nothing really unsuitable for kids in there – especially not in 1979.  I read the whole thing a couple times, laughed at some of it, didn’t get some of it, and went on with my day.   A few weeks later, I was helping my grandma clean out the attic after my uncle moved out, and we found his old stash of MAD.  She figured they were comics and gave me the whole stack.  I treated them with care, but I breezed through those before I left the next day, and I was officially hooked.

My FAVORITE part of MAD was (and is) “The Lighter Side Of…” – Dave Berg’s semi-autobiographical strip about average people leading average lives (with an above average level of snark and sarcasm.)  You’d usually get 6-9 little strips per issue, all grouped together into a three-page article.  In my first issue, there was a Lighter Side in which a guy invited his parents over for dinner without calling to tell his wife.  They walked in and there was a shot of the wife at the top of the stairs waiting for her husband -- totally naked except for high heels.  This was the first time I remember thinking the kid version of “Daaaaamn!”  She was all legs and ass and heels and…. A lifelong preference was formed in an instant.  So, thank you for THAT, Dave Berg… In general, the strip was mildly humorous in that “yeah…I’ve been THERE” sort of way that MAD did best.  I say “did’ because they kinda blow these days.  We’ll talk more about that later, though.

I would have been 4 years old when this came out.  Apr 79 = Jan 79 on sale date.  I turned 5 in Fall 79. I would say that a LOT of my particular sense of humor comes from the MAD magazine influence.  Especially starting at such an early age.  After that first issue, I didn’t see another for a few months, then Superman : The Movie came out and there was a MAD parody – with a Superman cover.  

I asked for (and received) that issue, and another a few months later with Empire Strikes Back and Alfred E. as Yoda on the cover.  Before long, I had convinced Mom to get me a copy whenever she had $1 to spare at the grocery store – or whenever I went along to the grocery store – which was surprisingly often, all the way through high school  -- but anyway… 

From 1981-1992, I read nearly every issue of MAD.  Somewhere around 1989, they lost Don Martin to Cracked.  Cracked was always a 2^nd rate MAD, but at times I actually preferred their mag.  Cracked had an even CHEAPER feel than MAD, but they also had the artwork of John and Marie Severin, which gave the Cracked movie parodies an awesome (if decidedly NOT MAD) look and feel.  They also had Nanny Dickering, which was a Bill Ward creation – and they'd usually throw in some Dan DeCarlo art, too! 

1981-1985, I was buying MAD AND Cracked on a regular basis – and beginning to build a decent stack of back issues.  Which I read CONSTANTLY.  I was not only allowed, but encouraged to read at the table.  This would keep me from listening and / or contributing to whatever the adults had going on, and I could get lost in my own little world.  Lots of comics, and lots of MAD.  They had stuff spilled on them, pages would get torn, covers would fall off, my mom would read them, then @#$@%ing WRITE NOTES on them or use them as a cutting board when trimming coupons (at least I THINK she was trimming coupons…)  My MAD collection was definitely well-loved. 

Even so, I generally did NOT fold the back cover twice to do the MAD Fold-In.  My brain has always been good at connecting things and filling in blanks, so 99% of the time, I could just look at the image and text and see what the end result would be – thus keeping my mag in the grocery store version of “mint” condition.  At least until one of my parents grabbed it…A large portion of my knowledge of 70s (and early 80s) films comes from MAD magazine parodies.  I read them all, so I was learning the basic plots of the top movies from around 1972-1985 before I was ever able to see an R rated movie.  Horror films, drama films, crime films.. all the stuff that I wouldn’t be likely to watch at a young age – but still got consumed via MAD.  I learned about A Clockwork Orange, The Godfather, 2001, Alien, most of those 70s disaster films, and all of the teen sex comedies – long before I would actually see them.  For the most part, I DID go back and watch them all.  I think that’s something that kids might be missing now.  They don’t seem to like older films a lot of the time, but then they never got introduced to them through those old MAD mags.  Don’t like old movies, don’t like reading… WTF is wrong with these kids today? 

The only things I -didn’t- like were the occasional bits that had really bad art.  In a magazine filled with Don Martin, Dave Berg, Sergio Aragones, Mort Drucker, Al Jaffee, etc, there would be an occasional fill in bit that looked so bad, I couldn’t comprehend what was going on.  I would usually skip any article that was extremely heavy on text, too.  Those three page humorous poems about sports and things like that.   If I didn’t know the subject matter, I read.  If I didn’t LIKE the subject matter (ie, sports) I occasionally skipped it.   For the most part, the magazine maintained a high example of low quality, if that makes any sense.

One of the best things about MAD was that 100% of its content was there for entertainment.  The letter column was humorous, the ads were fake (and usually parodies of existing ads,) not a single page took itself seriously.  Today’s MAD is a different beast.  First of all, it’s printed in full color on slick paper, like every other magazine.  It loses half the charm – or more – right there.  Next, we find REAL advertisements scattered throughout.  I was shocked the first time I saw that.  It took me a few seconds of looking before it registered – there IS no joke – from that point, I essentially lost interest.  I grabbed a subscription a few years back, because it was a super cheap promotion, but 2-3 issues failed to show up, and the ones that did were mediocre at best.  My kid found bits of them entertaining.  He’s not sure about old school MAD, because it's black and white.  I guess that explains why they have made those changes, eh?  Kids today…  Modern MAD still manages to entertain at least once or twice an issue, of course :