I just recently bought the entire mad collection on computer CD. Has every magazine up to issue 500.
I’ve read from number 1 to about number 348 in a month’s time. Seems to still be just as funny when it first started.
Anyone else a fan?
Sergio Aragones is still the man.
WHERE did you find the archive CD?
How much was it?
(I want one!)
~VOW
Here ya go.
I found one in a store that was only 25 bucks, but the price on Amazon isn’t THAT bad (about 40).
Always loved Mort Drucker’s caricatures–terrific artwork. And Little Nemo, Aragones is the man, you’re right.
I might have to get that. MAD was one of the chief joys of my childhood and provided a solid education in the basics of snark.
I love Sergio too, but Don Martin’s always been my man.
This has been posted before, but here is a list of his sound effects.
For example, SHKLURCH is the sound of a hippie squeezing food out of his beard.
mmm
I read it faithfully from about 1962-69, and can still sing by heart many of the parody musical numbers. “How come I’m alone, and there’s so much music? High up on a hill with no one in viiieeww . . .”
I picked up the collection of the Complete Don Martin a year ago.
I read Mad religiously for about ten years, never skipping an issue. Dick DeBartolo was my favorite (he wrote all the classic TV parodies of the 60s: “Loused Up in Space,” and “Star Blech,” for instance).
My favorite article of all time.
I glance at it today, but it’s a shadow of its former self, and Cracked, of all things, has surpassed it as a web-based humor site.
I seem to fondly remember those parodies of popular movies from back in the 1970’s and early 1980’s…have they always done those?
Two titles have stuck with me all these years…“A Crock Of S@#! Now” for “Apocalypse Now” and “Conehead The Barbituate” for “Conan The Barbarian”.
I was reading Mad pretty much as soon as I could read (my older brother was a fan).
It is possible I got as much education from *Mad *as I did from school. *Mad *taught a generation of smart-aleck kids to question government statements and corporate ads, pointing out the selfish motivations of such venerable institutions. This was before the rest of the country began thinking like this in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate - Americans had previously been much more trusting. That may be why there’s no modern-day version of *Mad *- people today don’t need to be told to question authority.
Another *Mad *influence on America: irony. It used to be rare to encounter ironic humor and sarcasm, but now the whole country’s turned into David Letterman. What made Mad’s sarcasm more insightful and effective was that it usually contained self-deprecating elements.
Too many great *Mad *moments to pick my favorite. But the intros to articles always seemed to have inspired writing.
The TV satire of *Lassie *(which focused on how incredibly smart this dog was) brought up the debate over who was the most intelligent American: “Now that Albert Einstein has gone to his reward, and Charles Van Doren was caught accepting his…”
The intro to an article on the proliferation of specialized, arcane magazines contained the information, “Motorcycling alone has over three dozen publications, obviously trying to appeal to the three dozen motorcyclists who can read”.
There was an article on the time-honored routine of a father explaining to his young child what Daddy did for a living, and on how challenging that must be for modern jobs like PR agent or psychologist. The intro contained a three-panel strip detailing how it used to be done: “1) Daddy is shoe salesman, dear. He sells shoes. 2) Daddy is a cop, son. He arrests bad men. 3) Daddy is a crook, dear. He publishes *Mad *magazine”.
They don’t make 'em like that anymore!
Not a current reader, but used to be. Back in the 50’s and early 60’s. Ernie Kovacs was my favorite.
ETA: axolotls, potrzebies, Spy vs. Spy, Marginal Marvin, fold-outs (or was it fold-ins), movie parodies…
I also remember learning a lot about the LBJ/Bobby Kennedy/Jimmy Hoffa feud from MAD.
The OP’s question isn’t stupid, so I don’t have a snappy answer.
One of my favorites was “East Side Story” - a retelling of “West Side Story” as a Cold War metaphor.
Please note that this and the earlier CDROM version are not complete. Mad didn’t properly get the rights to some early articles and can’t reproduce them. E.g., their “What it was, was football” article with Andy Griffith.
Reading some of the late '50s issues is an absolute joy. And they did do TV/Movie parodies fairly early on.
Right you are: in Modern Teacher magazine, they man-on-the street interviewed various people for their opinions on whether teachers should be allowed to go on strike. One of these was “James Hoffa, labor union leader and humanitarian”, who answered yes, adding, “I like to strike the big companies. I like to strike the big corporations. I’d like to strike Bobby Kennedy. Right inna mouth!”
Hard to tell from the product listing – does that include the pre-“modern” MADs where they were entirely comic book parodies? (Mostly Kurtz/Elder, I think) I believe they started those ca. 1952, +/- 2 years, so I’m not sure.
I was (and still am) a big fan, but as far as I’m concerned Mad died with William Gaines. To be more accurate, it started dying with him. The whole tone of the magazine just started changing. The last gasp was when they started accepting advertising. It’s a shame, because Dick DeBartolo is still as funny as ever, but there was something about Gaines’ leadership that defined the magazine, and it’s just not there anymore. It’s kind of like when Lt. Hauk took over Cronauer’s broadcast in Good Morning Vietnam.
Yes, it includes the comic book issues. With the exception of a couple of articles from the early magazine period that had to be omitted due to copyright issues, it contains everything, even reproductions of the inserts from the specials.