Don't fast forward this one: My 'When We Went Mad: The Unauthorized Story of MAD Magazine' trailer reaction

Does anyone still read "MAD Magazine" anymore?

I mean anyone under the age of 40. Anyone at all?

Probably not. But as I'm already in my early 40s and listen to the Gen Zs and Gen Alpha's I've found myself working with in my last three jobs, the more I realize just how out-of-touch I am with whatever's popular now. I'm long into the "when I was your age" stage of my life, especially when talking to my kids. It's a bit painful to think 'MAD Magazine' is an old joke. As I heard someone once say, there's no such thing as an old joke if you've never heard it before!

These kids today with their sensitivity, and inclusivity, and trigger warnings, and cultural appropriation labels, and all that other crap just don't have a good and hearty sense of humor anymore thanks to their flaky parents who take everything way too seriously. 

I love satire! Jean Shepherd. P.G. Wodehouse. H.L. Mencken. Gilbert and Sullivan. "Weird Al" Yankovic. If these are my entrees, "MAD" is my dessert! *Chef's kiss. 

The best thing about "MAD" is that no one in politics or pop culture is spared a ribbing. When it comes to politics, I guess you can say each side gets the same treatment. It's comedy where it hurts. Humor in the jugular vein. How's that for equal outcome? 

Our politically divided country needs a sense a humor, especially among those sour faced, hysterically shouting zim/zers with their face masks and half-shaved dyed heads.

They're too comfortable telling the rest of us what kind of humor we can or cannot have, and what demographics are untouchable or not when it comes to cracking jokes. And anyone who dares question their "expertise" must feel the wrath of the woke like a heretic about to be torched at the stake. 

As long-time "MAD" publisher and EC Comics Co-Creator Bill Gaines once said, "Don’t believe in ads. Don’t believe in government. Watch yourself--everybody is trying to screw you!"

"MAD" was once America's joke book.

It started off as a satirical horror comic published by EC Comics back in the 1950s called "Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad." It was started by American cartoonist, Harvey Kurtzman.

EC is especially known for a variety of other comics, which include the horror classics, "The Vault of Horror," "The Haunt of Fear," and the ever popular, "Tales from the Crypt." I've collected a nice, delectable assortment of such EC horror reprints for my leisurely reading pleasure.
In 1955, "Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad" was converted into a magazine to skirt the requirements of the Comics Code Authority which enabled comic publishers to self-regulate the content of comic books in the United States. Comics would be required to brand their covers with an ugly little comics code label.

So, the first "MAD Magazine" is issue no. 24. Kinda weird, huh?

I read "MAD" on a fairly regular basis in the late 1980s through the early to mid-1990s. I even had a subscription, paid for reluctantly by mom, from 1992 to 1995. And though mom most likely threw my stack of 'MADs' away years later, deservedly so no doubt, little by little I've come across those issues I used to own...and then some.

I had quite a stack of "MAD" in my younger days. Aside from issues received in the mail, a few of my issues were hand-me-down issues from my older brothers. And some I picked up from the magazine rack at my local Safeway grocery store.
For years I was on a hiatus from "MAD" until around 2018 when, in a random bookstore, I came across the latest issue at the time which had the words "Landmark Final Issue" (no. 550) scrolled along the top. 

To my shock, but really no surprise, it looked as though the "What, me worry?" magazine was on its last chapter with issue no. 550. 

"MAD" moved its DC Comics owned publishing office from 485 MADison Avenue, New York over to Los Angeles. 

It then ended its news stand distribution. "MAD" readers would only be able to purchase their regular issues through subscriptions and comic store sales - if local comic shops choose to sell 'MAD.' 

"Landmark final issue!" That just couldn't be. The era of "MAD" could not end. The number one "Echh" magazine couldn't disappear, despite the encouragement to do so from parents and schoolteachers alike, and the merriment and mirth they would obtain from seeing it go. But "MAD" couldn't go. Not like this. The idiots can't untie for the last time without me. 

So, I bought my first issue in 30 years, for $5.99 - cheap!

I then started hunting old back issues of "MAD" at comic stores, antique stores, dumpsters, back alleys, the black market, the internets, the back alleys behind the black markets on the internets, shady dealers, garage sales, doctors' office waiting rooms, and anywhere else where people were trying to rid their homes of 'MAD.' And, well, I have a lot of 'MAD Magazines' now. Over 200 issues which includes mostly regular issues along with a bunch of 'Super Specials.' I even own a Swedish issue thanks to my 3rd-cousin, Sten, in Sweden. Not to mention a (dis)respectable library of 'MAD' paperbacks often found in the "Please, get them outta here" sections found in used book stores and thrift shops. 

I'll add that 'MAD Super Specials' can still occasionally be found on newsstands and grocery store magazine racks. 

I thought I possessed the end of an era with issue 550. I even bought a little bag and cardboard backing to preserve this garbage.

I read it and it wasn't completely as I remembered 'MAD.' To begin with, it went from the $1.75 (cheap) cover price to a $5.99 (cheap) cover price. 

And the pages are printed in color on glossier stock. It's nice but there's something about the paper pages of old, in glorious black and white print that entices me. 

That ink and paper smell that permeates when breaking open a "MAD" is the scent of those childhood days sneaking an issue onto the school yard
or staying home from school and lying in bed sick with a cold or flu and flipping through this rag.

I admit I went a bit out of my head collecting these things. Or maybe my brains fell out thanks to those years of reading this stuff - a side effect I knew would come about someday. After buying that landmark final issue, I ended up buying more back issues. And then more. And more...and more. Now, I have three long boxes full of 'MADs' along with a handful of (dare I say) 'Cracked magazines' and one issue of 'Crazy Magazine' - Marvel's attempt at humor in the jugular vein. I never read nor heard of "Crazy" magazine, but I read a few issues of "Cracked" in my day. 

My back issues date back to the magazine's early days of magazine-hood in the mid-1950s. My oldest issue is no. 33 from June 1957.

When "MAD" relocated to Los Angeles, they have continued printing the magazine, starting over at no. 1 which was printed in 2018 right after issue no. 550.  

Since issue one in 2018, the magazine is mostly reprinted material from previous issues, along with some new content. I've purchased subscriptions to "MAD" since 2019. 

But the majority of my back issues are from the 1970s and 1980s. 

So, I guess all that's left for me to say is...hello! My name is Mike, and I'm a "MAD" reader. I don't

know? It just sorta happened. One thing led to another. I was just minding my own business. You know, it's just one of those things. I'm a victim of circumstance, really. Honestly, I just read it for the articles. As a matter of fact, I don't really enjoy it that much. I swear it's not my fault, officer! I'm just holding them for a friend! Am I being detained or am I free to go? 

'MAD Magazine' has been pushing limits when it comes to society's sensitivities since its beginnings. Issue #166 had a fat, big, middle finger printed on the cover for all to see. Newsstands and grocery stores refused to carry that issue because decent people existed in large numbers back then.  Despite public outrage, both from adults and from school kids who got their magazines taken away by teachers across the nation that April in 1974, the magazine managed to survive.  

In issue no. 270, they poked fun of the 80s sitcom "Perfect Strangers" which is probably the satire I love most. The usual gang of idiots over at "MAD" titled that parody, "Perfectly Strange." Even as I write this, I can think of a few movies I would like to see "MAD" kick around a bit, or just re-read from issues passed.

In a 1989 interview, Bill Gaines said he didn't know why his magazine had lasted among young readers, even amidst the distractions of video games and such. But somehow it has, so they kept it going.
"MAD" artist, Ray Alma, stated on a recent YouTube interview with a channel called "Pop Goes the Culture" that, perhaps the publication would fare a whole lot better with an on-line presence - leading the internet in colorful, tongue-in-cheek memes, and the like. I think it would pump some new life into 'MAD.' It could well give it a few more years. Somehow, I feel the end is on the horizon for the magazine. It hasn't come yet, but I have a sense it's coming sooner than later. 

(Reel Me In Dept.)

My Thoughts on the Trailer

I had no idea before today (Aug. 5, 2024) that a documentary and tribute to the legacy and influence of 'MAD Magazine' was in the works. 

Evidently a trailer for it dropped back in 2013. 

And I just discovered that the documentary's world premiere, according to the film's Facebook page, is supposed to premiere Aug. 22, 2024. 

According to the film's description, it'll include celebrity interviews from Judd Apatow, Quentin Tarantino, Howie Mandel, the late great Gilbert Gottfried, David Zucker, Bryan Cranston, and “Weird Al” Yankovic. 

But I'm particularly interested in the interviews with the artists and writers including Al Feldstein, Dick DeBartolo, my favorite caricature artist Mort Drucker, Sergio Aragones, "MAD" fold-in creator Al Jaffee, and bunch of other faces from among the "usual gang of idiots." 

As stated in this trailer, the magazine is a "fun house mirror of our culture and society." 

I'm anxious to see what sort of impact this one satirical magazine has had on American popular culture. As a former news reporter, probably undermedicated after what that all entailed, I take interest in this kind of highly informative content. 

"MAD" dropped on American society at a time when society was ripe for a little self-satire -1955. It persisted with its tongue-in-cheek humor through periods when society needed some common ground amidst division here and there. 

America finds itself ripped in two, politically speaking, these days. WE Americans have very little in common these days, especially left-wing college students completely saturated with politics and social issues compared to all the rest of us normal Americans.  

The political has permeated into every facet of life and society. Lightening up seems out of the question.    

I would love to see "MAD" find some new blood and reach a new audience, perhaps in a new format, if possible, to raise the levity a bit. It's no cure to anything, but maybe it would be an enticement to cool off the thick social tension. 

I generally enjoy documentaries, especially about oddball subjects (i.e. "Shut Up Little Man," "The Pez Outlaw") so this one is right up my alley. "MAD" is a unique piece of pop culture and media.

There have been other such publications that most likely take some amount of inspiration from "MAD" such as 'National Lampoon Magazine," "Cracked Magazine," "'The Onion" and "The Babylon Bee." 

As some of "MAD's" long time artists and writers have passed, there's no more opportunities to get the stories from their own mouth as this upcoming film has accomplished. There's little in the way of full-length documentaries, if there are any, in which the gang at "MAD" are all together to share their stories, experiences, and shattered dreams of doing anything else other than working for "MAD."

I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach (different from indigestion) that this is a last big hurrah for "MAD." 

Otherwise, if they haven't done so already, the publishers (i.e. DC Comics) might start considering other platforms and formats to publish the decades old magazine, even if alongside printing the actual magazine itself. Maybe not? Maybe the magazine is doing just fine financially. Should young blood find its way into the magazine, I hope they don't resort to preferential treatment of one political side while taking cheap shots at the other. But I'm old, and these guys from "MAD" (the ones still alive) are even older, so these kinds of things are nothing short of old people talking about the good ol' days, how they came to be, what they were like, and where they've gone. I'm all for that! If I'm not in that mindset now, I'm a lot closer to it than before. Very close!

Still, I sincerely wonder if anyone still reads "MAD" anymore.

*Read my review of the not commercially nor critically successful 'MAD Magazine' movie, "Up the Academy." Spoiler - it's revolting! So revolting, in fact, that the publishers called it "Throw Up the Academy" in issue no. 218.