# Mad Magazine is political? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 10, 2003, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220 "2003-12-10T23:03:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/1 "2003-12-10T23:03:59Z")
Whaaaa? Mad Magazine, the very home of inoffensive harmless joshing? With all the political acumen and satiric bite of _Good Housekeeping_? The most stinging satire one can imagine there is “Boy, those politicians sure like to talk a lot, huh?” and maybe a wry dig at Ike playing golf… But this! This, I don’t friggin’ _believe_… [http://www2.warnerbros.com/madmagazine/files/onthestands/ots\_437/6.html](http://www2.warnerbros.com/madmagazine/files/onthestands/ots_437/6.html) ---
**Author:** ![Road\_Rash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Road\_Rash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Road_Rash)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/2 "2003-12-10T23:20:12Z")
You have not had much history with MAD magazine. They have pushed the buttons over the years, while still aiming primarily at teenagers. I remember back in 74, when they had a raised middle finger on the cover. I also remember on the back fold with two men and two women on a double date, but with the back folded it showed two men kissing. This was also around the early to mid 70’s. They produced a movie around 1980, called “Up the Academy.” Never saw it. I heard it sucked. But it was rated “R.” MAD has had its subversive moments, where, considering who its market, it has definitely pushed the envelope. ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/3 "2003-12-10T23:23:20Z")
Kudos to Mad Magazine for begining the indoctrination of the next generation. A Democratic majority in both houses by 2020 or bust! I have a mind to buy that issue, cut off the back cover, and hang it in my cubicle wall ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/4 "2003-12-10T23:25:18Z")
They still make Mad Magazine? Far out. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/5 "2003-12-10T23:29:13Z")
AWESOME!!! (you must have missed the Geroge Bush I cover with the barf bag covered in puke) ---
**Author:** ![Dizzy\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dizzy\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dizzy_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/6 "2003-12-10T23:33:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tars Tarkas \* > \*\*(you must have missed the Geroge Bush I cover with the barf > bag covered in puke) \*\* “Yecch! Don’t read his lips!” Classic. ---
**Author:** ![Lucki\_Chaarms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lucki\_Chaarms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucki_Chaarms)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/7 "2003-12-10T23:34:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Giraffe \* > \*\*They still make Mad Magazine? Far out. \*\* Yeah, I read it for years as a kid. I stopped when I was around 14 or so, but they could still crank out some funny stuff, and they also reused a lot of classic stuff. Sergio Aragones died sometime shortly after I stopped reading, I think, which kinda bums me out. LC ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/8 "2003-12-10T23:35:41Z")
They do take advertising now, though. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/9 "2003-12-10T23:43:22Z")
And Bill Gaines is still, sadly, dead. ---
**Author:** ![Lucki\_Chaarms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lucki\_Chaarms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucki_Chaarms)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/10 "2003-12-10T23:43:42Z")
Correction - that was Don Martin, not Sergio Aragones who died. My bad. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/11 "2003-12-10T23:44:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lucki Chaarms \* > **Sergio Aragones died sometime shortly after I stopped reading, I think…** [Sergio and the citizens of Guadalajara](http://www.sergioaragones.com/) would be surpised at that news. ---
**Author:** ![PigArcher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@PigArcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigArcher)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/12 "2003-12-10T23:46:36Z")
[Sergio Aragones](http://www.sergioaragones.com/) isn’t dead. ---
**Author:** ![mazirian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@mazirian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazirian)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/13 "2003-12-10T23:46:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lucki Chaarms \* > Yeah, I read it for years as a kid. I stopped when I was around 14 or so, but they could still crank out some funny stuff, and they also reused a lot of classic stuff. Sergio Aragones died sometime shortly after I stopped reading, I think, which kinda bums me out. Señor Aragonés would like to have a word with you: [http://www.sergioaragones.com/](http://www.sergioaragones.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Lucki\_Chaarms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lucki\_Chaarms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucki_Chaarms)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/14 "2003-12-10T23:47:13Z")
Bill Gaines died? The one with the big bushy beard who was frequently caricatured in “The Lighter Side”? Awww. I remember seeing photos of prominent MAD crew members together in various foreign countries looking like they had been indulging in a little fear-and-loathing style fun. I bet that was a wild crowd to run with, once upon a time. MAX KORN IN '04 LC ---
**Author:** ![PigArcher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@PigArcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigArcher)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/15 "2003-12-10T23:49:44Z")
Woohoo! Triple post! All with the same link, no less. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/16 "2003-12-10T23:51:49Z")
WHOA! **Lucki Chaarms**! Sergio is one of my heroes! you got me jumping here! Well **elucidator** , in 1999’s list of the MAD 20, George W. Bush made the list with his “transparent dodge of the Cocaine Question”. To show that MAD is an equal opportunity offender, Hillary Clinton also made the list with her dull “listening tour”. Around that time, MAD also published a mini poster were they pictured him with a bag of cocaine, and saying things like: “Ok, how about this one. I have “made mistakes.” But I never got caught…I mean, “I have learned from my mistakes.” Wink, wink. Get it? To the 28,000 prisoners in my own state of Texas who were arrested for cocaine in 1998, I would say this. Follow my example. learn from your mistakes. Of course, I’ll be learning from my mistakes while riding my private jet, while you’ll be learning from your mistakes while kneeling in front of a 280-pound sociopath named Armond. But it is from our differences that the american mosaic stays strong.” -From MAD magazine #391 March 2000 issue. ---
**Author:** ![mazirian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@mazirian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazirian)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/17 "2003-12-10T23:52:16Z")
Poor Lucki Chaarms, one mistake (which you corrected immediately) and you have three Dopers going for your throat. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/18 "2003-12-10T23:52:36Z")
Antonio Prohias (the original Spy vs. Spy guy) died in 1998. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/19 "2003-12-10T23:53:54Z")
**Lucki** , he died in [1992](http://www.comic-art.com/bios-1/gaines01.htm). ☹ ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2003, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220/20 "2003-12-11T00:20:57Z")
Oh, they have had political digs all along. Originally of the “subtly subversive” vein (it was other times), but as time has gone along they can get away with more (whether it’s artistically worthier to be subtle is another story). Still, they have ALWAYS been clearly inclined in the anti-corporate, anti-political-establishment direction (though with someone like Prohias on staff, you can hardly say “leftist”) – remember, Gaines creates MAD after the politics of the 1950s essentially wiped out EC Comics. This was quite funny – and quite _prescient_ seeing as a REAL Bush-as-fighter-jock action figure just got introduced. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-is-political/218220.md?page=2)