# Mad Magazine parodies the Onion **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 14, 2002, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766 "2002-11-14T21:14:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kantalooppi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@Kantalooppi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantalooppi)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/1 "2002-11-14T21:14:09Z")
[http://www2.warnerbros.com/madmagazine/files/onthestands/ots\_424/bunion.html](http://www2.warnerbros.com/madmagazine/files/onthestands/ots_424/bunion.html) For a change for current Mad Magazine, this one’s actually quite funny. Still, glass houses and all that. ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/2 "2002-11-14T22:01:34Z")
Don’t get me wrong, I grew up reading my dad’s collection of Mad from the 50s and 60s and loved them. But Mad today? Sorry, you’re far less funny than The Onion. You know what, just about everything in this parody is true and yet the Onion STILL is funnier and certainly more risk-taking than you are, Mad. This is especially ass because on at least one occasion The Onion has referenced Mad in a sort of “props to ya” type of way. ---
**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:** [November 14, 2002, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/3 "2002-11-14T23:00:56Z")
Lego, I don’t think MAD only parodies things they don’t like, so it’s not necessarily a put down. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/4 "2002-11-14T23:31:21Z")
I thought the headline about the headlines was pretty funny. ---
**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:** [November 14, 2002, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/5 "2002-11-14T23:34:21Z")
> [@](#): > > This is especially ass because on at least one occasion The Onion has referenced Mad in a sort of “props to ya” type of way. Have you ever read Mad Magazine? Since when do they do parodies where they compliment the victim? ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/6 "2002-11-14T23:41:26Z")
“What if we called it ‘Everybody _Hates_ Raymond’?” ---
**Author:** ![TheeGrumpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheeGrumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheeGrumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/7 "2002-11-14T23:49:15Z")
I realize MAD’s stock-in-trade is deflating the high-and-mighty, and kicking the lowly when they’re down. Still, this comes off as petty. “That’s not funny,” they seem to be saying, “whereas pointing out that they’re not funny _is_ funny.” Actually, I see what the beef is. The Usual Gang of Idiots are ticked at the Onion’s treatment of a certain terrorist attack upon their fair city. Most Overused Theme #6: > [@](#): > > Thinly-veiled “humorous” take on a horrific tragedy done sooner after the actual event than good taste would dictate. MAD has become an arbiter of taste. That’s the funniest joke of all. ---
**Author:** ![ElwoodCuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/edb3f5/32.png) [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/8 "2002-11-15T07:23:47Z")
I don’t think there was any malice here. Come on, Mad makes fun of everyone and everything. I love old-school Mad and I love the Onion, and with the exception of the terrorism joke TheeGrumpy mentions, I think it’s really funny. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/9 "2002-11-15T08:01:16Z")
_Mad_ hasn’t been funny since they changed Al Potrzebie’s name to “Alfred E. Newman.” [/pulp geek] ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/10 "2002-11-15T08:18:08Z")
Personally, I think the funniest part is seeing MAD magazine take shots at someone for bad taste, mis-use of coporate property and being “sacreligious”. Unless, of course, they weren’t being ironic. Then it would be the saddest. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/11 "2002-11-15T09:20:10Z")
I think it’s entirely appropriate that Mad the Onion that the latter is turning into . . . Mad. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/12 "2002-11-15T09:21:15Z")
Of course, that’s Mad **warn** the Onion . . . ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/13 "2002-11-15T09:23:19Z")
Kind of like if Andy Roony were to go on about Camille Paglia: “Did you ever notice that Paglia is turning into a culturally irrelevant heckler just like me”? Not that I see CP around much these days. ---
**Author:** ![Riboflavin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Riboflavin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riboflavin)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/14 "2002-11-15T12:58:12Z")
Well, it does mention some of the stuff on The Onion that I get annoyed with, so I liked it as a parody. The fact that they’re making fun of The Onion doesn’t mean that they don’t like them, the whole thing with Mad is poking fun at stuff and I suspect that The Onion guys take it as a compliment to be worth parodying(somewhat like having Weird Al do a version of your song). Some examples: the point-counterpoint is just tired out; some of them are funny, but it seems to be more by accident than design. Usually the headlines and man-in-the-street bits are funny, but the point about how the articles often don’t do anything but rehash the headline is spot-on. I also get tired of the feature columnists; a few done in that style would be good (I liked all of them at first) but how many ‘I’m a pothead talking about cruising around and scoring weed’, ‘I’m a messed-up housewife’, and ‘I’m a gangsta-accountant’ articles can you do (and I loved several of the gangsta-accountant ones). OTOH, I thought the “Thinly-veiled ‘humorous’ take on a horrific tragedy bit” was pretty lame - IMO The Onion’s 9/11 issue was their single best issue ever. Sure, the parodies weren’t just made-up silliness but I think topical humor works better and I don’t see where ‘thinly veiled’ comes in. (That one had a good point-counterpoint, BTW, with the first guy saying ‘bomb the hell out of where they might be’ and the second guy strongly disagreeing with ‘find out exactly who they are, then bomb the hell out of them’ which kind of summed up most of the discussions I was in after it happened). ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/15 "2002-11-15T13:31:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Riboflavin \* > I also get tired of the feature columnists; a few done in that style would be good (I liked all of them at first) but how many ‘I’m a pothead talking about cruising around and scoring weed’, ‘I’m a messed-up housewife’, and ‘I’m a gangsta-accountant’ articles can you do (and I loved several of the gangsta-accountant ones). You be lucky you didn’t say no shit about Smoove B. Otherwise I’d have to go Sam Peckinpah on yo’ ass. On the other hand, they **did** retire T. Herman Zweibel. ---
**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:** [November 15, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/16 "2002-11-15T13:42:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TheeGrumpy \* > \*\* > MAD has become an arbiter of taste. That’s the funniest joke of all. \*\* MAD certainly avoids the potentially offensive stuff a lot more than The Onion, at least when I read it years ago. One of the very few things they never reprinted in a Super-Special (Bart Simpson: “They only print 14 of these a year!”) was an article poking fun at JFK; they didn’t want to make fun of him after he was killed. ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/17 "2002-11-15T13:46:51Z")
OKay, folks, you know, I do GET that Mad pokes fun at everything, being a satirical magazine. Please float me a little credit here. What I’m saying is that I didn’t get any vibe off of this other than, “The Onion is a humorous publication. So are we. To make ours better, we will have to reveal them as less funny than us.” Maybe it’s just that I didn’t find it especially astute or funny. The things they say aren’t anything that hasn’t been said before by others, and I find it especially disingenuous coming from a magazine that stopped being relevant satire years ago. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/18 "2002-11-15T13:49:48Z")
I don’t read Mad these days, but that was absolutely 100% dead on. The Onion does use the same old tired tricks every issue and it’s amazing the audience hasn’t gotten wise to their games. ---
**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:** [November 15, 2002, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/19 "2002-11-15T18:21:52Z")
I think **Legomancer** is just bitter Mad has ads now. ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766/20 "2002-11-15T18:30:13Z")
Ideally, the Onion will now do a Mad parody, and Mad will retaliate. It’ll be an escalating war that just might lift both sagging estates up by each other’s bootstraps. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-parodies-the-onion/136766.md?page=2)