Did Mad Magazine change our world?

[AppallingGael]

I’m not sure this has specific relevance to anything said yet in this thread. I thought so, but on looking it over, I’m not sure what I thought I saw. But it may yet relate to something to be said, and I’d really hate to have wasted my time. So let me present Lord Buckley(1955) vs.MAD (I am guessing Frank Jacobs, but it appeared uncredited. 1958, it appears).

Also, that Beatles rhyme begins “Ringo, Paul, George and John” as it sacrilegiously spoofs “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John”. As for the Judaism of MAD, the editors saw fit to print, without reply, a complaint by the Imperial Wizard and a(?) Grand Dragon of the KKK, about a mildly insulting Klan reference in their “Animal House” parody, that described them as “the Jew/Communist MAD”.

[Tibby]

@Wendell_Wagner

<snip>

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a copy of Mad in a doctor’s waiting room in the U.S.

Interestingly, I saw a current issue of Mad in my attorney’s waiting room just two days ago. It looked out of place in the tastefully decorated, dark wood paneled room, among sober news magazines. I hadn’t read Mad in many years and only had time to page quickly through this issue. I liked the premium paper stock and the color artwork looked good. If the satire matched the artwork, I’d say they’ve kept up their standards.

I was tempted to slip the magazine in my briefcase, but that’s something I would have done as a juvenile Mad reader. I’ve matured…a little.

I’m also tempted to subscribe to Mad and keep it in my waiting room. If I do, I’ll take a photo and send it to you, Wendell.

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

@AppallingGael

I’m not sure this has specific relevance to anything said yet in this thread. I thought so, but on looking it over, I’m not sure what I thought I saw. But it may yet relate to something to be said, and I’d really hate to have wasted my time. So let me present Lord Buckley(1955) vs.MAD (I am guessing Frank Jacobs, but it appeared uncredited. 1958, it appears).

Yep, Mad stands guilty on that one. Lord Buckley recited the first few lines of his version on You Bet Your Life in 1956, so it had wide exposure even if none of the Mad writers had ever seen his nightclub routine.

[Ignatz]

I still have several issues from MAD COMICS year #1 & 2 that I bought at my folks’ Mom & Pop stationery store.

[Bryan_Ekers]

@terentii

What about “schnook,” as in “Hey! Get a load of that schnook!”

The 1948 cartoon The Foghorn Leghorn had “schnook” as a running gag.

[terentii]

@rowrrbazzle

Their first riff was in December 1967. Star Trek: Main Engineering

This one is from 1988:

http://mystartrekscrapbook2.blogspot.ca/search/label/Mad

[CaptMurdock]

@Thudlow_Boink

. (I still can’t think of Grease without seeing Mad’s take on it.)

Especially the ending: “In order to get the guy you want, you have to become a slut! What a message for the youth of America!”

@Tibby or Not Tibby

[Bolding mine]
Like many, I transferred from Mad to National Lampoon as a teenager, but I don’t put NL in the same league as Mad with regard to influence. NL was/is (?) biting college humor that started a couple decades after Mad and benefited primarily from a readership/viewership weaned on Mad.

@drad_dog

Lampoon was the new face of comedy, but Mad was a big influence on the culture overall. Mad was made by Jews basically, where Lampoon was made by gentiles for the most part. The midcentury jewish humor was huge across the culture. And Mad was the gateway for every kid to find out about the world.

I found National Lampoon to be EXTREMELY uneven compared to MAD. NL could have several pages of brilliant satire next to several more pages of absolute horse manure. Michael O’Donaghue and Doug Kenney and the rest may have been brilliant, but they needed a shit detector in the worst way. MAD, on the other hand, delivered consistently almost every issue.

@F.U.Shakespeare

*Spy *once published a letter opining (IIRC) that their readership was people who’d read Mad as kids.

@Tibby or Not Tibby

As a kid, I tried, but could not get into the Mad magazine knock-off, **Cracked **(launched 1958). It offended my young self that they copied my hero, Mad, too closely. **Cracked **was, at best, an anemic, somewhat dim-witted clone of the original.

Slight hijack: Cracked, at least its web edition, seems to have evolved from a low-rent MAD to a low-rent SPY.