Thank you, Mad magazine!

[Piggy]

I just want to say, for what it's worth, "Thank you" to Mad magazine.

When I was a kid -- and I mean a little kid -- I used to swipe my older brother's issues of Mad and read them. There was a lot that I understood, but a lot that I didn't... and I sure as hell wanted to. I wanted to comprehend the sex, the politics, even the movie satires.

It was the era of Watergate, and my political foundation was formed primarily by Mad's comic commentary on the events of the era, together with the documentary series The World at War (http://imdb.com/title/tt0071075/), which my father allowed me to watch over my mother's objections.

What I learned from Mad was that patriotism does not consist of unflinching loyalty to this or that leader. Rather, patriotism consist of loyalty to the highest principles of the nation.

I also learned that there's more than one point of view, that free speech is precious, and that a good sense of humor goes a long way.

Today, when I see so much acrimony, so much blind loyalty to this or that party, religion, or politician, I am truly saddened. Mad opened my eyes to the dangers of partisanship at a very early age, and I will never forget those lessons.

And The World at War, at the same time, opened my eyes to the truly horrible consequences that can result, among the most civilized of people, when a blind eye is turned.

[Piggy]

What? No other Mad fans?

No wonder we're in such sad shape. :(

[Darth Rotor]

What? No other Mad fans?

No wonder we're in such sad shape. :(
Been years since I read Mad. My first issue included the film Parody, The Sound of Money."

DR

[Darat]

Mad was a rare treat over here in the UK when I was a kid, only two newspaper shops sold it in my town and their stocking was quite irregular however whenever I could I would buy it. I learnt everything i know about USA culture and society from Mad....

Have to say The World at War had a profound influence on me - helped by the hauntingly beautiful music.

[Charlie Monoxide]

I too grew up with Mad Magazine in the late 60's (8-10 years old). Looking back it seems Mad Magazine was to me what the Daily Show is to the youth today, but on a monthly basis.

Nixon should be thanked by Mad Magazine for being both a caricature of a person and of a president (in a presumably non-dictatorial country).

I downloaded a while back from the Usenets the very first Mad as a PDF. Great art work and story lines.

Charlie (what, me worry?) Monoxide

[Mercutio]

I loved Mad magazine. I still remember, from close to 30 years ago, poem and song parodies, by heart.

From a Dr. Seuss environmental parody: "There was a man, whose name was Cliff. Of city air he took a whiff. He did not have a handkerchief, to strain the air he chanced to sniff--and now poor Cliff is cold and stiff. Who are you, with that funny head? What is your name--is it Fred, or Red? --"No, no, no, my name's Con Ed; I fouled the air that made Cliff dead. But I'll be punished, I can tell. A million bucks, they'll fine me well. A second's income, shot to hell."

And, to the tune of America the Beautiful:

Oh cancerous, for smoggy skies, for pesticidal grain
Irritated mountains rise above an asphalt plain
America, America, thy sins shall be thy doom
Monoxide clouds shall be thy shrouds, thy cities be thy tomb

wonderful, subversive, stuff.

[whitefork]

Get the complete set on CD-Rom (up until a few years ago, anyway). It's great - all the fold-ins animated, too.

http://www.amazon.com/Totally-MAD-Magazine-1952-1998-CD-ROM/dp/B0006J0HVC/sr=8-2/qid=1157642095/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-8553847-6159153?ie=UTF8&s=software

[varwoche]

What? No other Mad fans?

No wonder we're in such sad shape. :( Hey, I was a dues-paying member of the Alfred E. Neuman fan club. And Spy vs Spy inspired me to write comic strips, or at least try.

[Brainache]

I grew up reading MAD Magazine. My parents had a stack of them from the Kennedy years (I still have a box full). Most of what I know of America came from them.
William M. Gaines was my hero.

I sometimes leaf through them and chuckle at stuff. Don Martin was a genius.
Mort Drucker did the best movie parodies.

[Meffy]

Potrzebie.

Etaoin shrdlu.



And I know what they mean, too!

[Brainache]

Potrzebie.

Etaoin shrdlu.



And I know what they mean, too!

Please enlighten me. You will be solving one of the minor mysteries of my life.

I was going to sign this post Roger Kaputnik, but decided against it.

[Metullus]

Mad forever ruined the song "She's a Grand Old Flag" for me:

Oh she's a fat old hag
She's an unsightly bag
But she's still my true love
Emmy Lou
She's the emblem of
The land I love,
Her complexion is red, white, and blue.

Overweight and big,
In her ill-fitting wig,
Oh forever in peace may it wag,
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
I'll escape from that fat old hag!

[Gord_in_Toronto]

The three seminal magazines of my youth:

MAD
Consumer Reports
Scientific American

What else is there that you need to know?

What me worry?

[HarryKeogh]

I loved the Sergio Aragones drawings in the margins.

[Meffy]

Please enlighten me. You will be solving one of the minor mysteries of my life.

Two of them!

I was going to sign this post Roger Kaputnik, but decided against it.

:-D

The Linotype, a keyboard-operated machine that cast a line of metal type at a time, helped speed up the printing industry in the late 19th and 20th centuries. As you filled a line with text, the machine would assemble wedge-shaped "spacebands" and master type forms called "matrices" in a row. If you mess up there's no "Undo" -- you have to fill out the line, send it to be cast in hot type metal (then thrown in the "hellbox" to be re-melted) and start a new line.

To fill out a line of text, the easiest thing to do was to run the finger along the first two rows of keys. The Linotype isn't arranged like a typewriter, though; the letters in those rows are... you've guessed, haven't you? -- etaoin shrdlu.

Occasionally a Linotype operator would forget to discard a defective line, and it would sneak into the printed material.

Such a defective itme might looketaoinshrdluetaoinshrdluetaoinshrdlu

... like that. MAD Magazine adopted the mystical incantation etaoin shrdlu as nonsense words which typically appeared at random places in the (ostensible) page margins, in the early days often alongside printed cockroaches IIRC.

Righty, that takes care of etaoin shrdlu.

Portzebie was another early MAD catchword. It's a genuine Polish word, a forn of the noun "need" according to Wikipedia. It's not pronounced anything like the "pot-ra-ZEE-bee" most English-speakers use.

Donald Knuth, possibly the world's greatest computer scientist, didn't get his start with "The Art of Computer Programming" (Vol. 1 pub. 1962, Vol. 4 presently coming along in installments). His first published work was "The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures" in MAD, which included scads of MAD in-joke words as units.

[sillyhead]

I always just skipped to Spy Vs Spy, then tossed it. See, I AM a sillyhead. (:

[alfaniner]

I loved the Sergio Aragones drawings in the margins.

Me too, except now I'd need reading glasses to discern them.

I might actually consider getting that CD-rom. I always loved the movie parodies, except for the musical ones. Most of the time they referenced songs I didn't know. I don't know how many times I read "Sung to the tune of 'The Girl That I Marry'". Or maybe it was just the same issue many times.

I saw a MAD a couple years ago, and while pleased that they still had "Dave Berg's Lighter Side of...", I was a little disappointed that they cut from the former four-line panel layout to three. Better visuals, perhaps, but fewer jokes.

I used to frequent a certan comic shop quite a bit, and couldn't resist picking up the large "action figures" of Black Spy and White Spy. But the pieces I really like are the Alfred E. Neumann Justice League figures.
http://actionfigures.about.com/library/nosearch/n0801dcdalfred.htm

[Brainache]

Two of them!




Donald Knuth, possibly the world's greatest computer scientist, didn't get his start with "The Art of Computer Programming" (Vol. 1 pub. 1962, Vol. 4 presently coming along in installments). His first published work was "The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures" in MAD, which included scads of MAD in-joke words as units.

I also liked the potplant called Arthur.
And the little "if so and so married....." in the margins in the very early ones.

[Meffy]

My mate got me an official MAD Magazine "What... Me Furry?" shirt years ago. Gotta lose more weight, get back down to where that will fit again. :-D

[Euromutt]

Portzebie was another early MAD catchword. It's a genuine Polish word, a forn of the noun "need" according to Wikipedia. It's not pronounced anything like the "pot-ra-ZEE-bee" most English-speakers use.The combination "rz" in Polish is pronounced as a "ch," and the "ie" isn't a dipthong. It's pronounced, very roughly, "poh-cheh-bee-uh."

I read Mad as often as I could from 1980 until 1992 or so, and like Darat, much of what I know of American culture (or did prior to moving to the US) was gleaned from Mad (along with Doonesbury and Bloom County). I do own Totally Mad on cd-rom, that is, every issue up to 1998, though I haven't looked at in a while. Certainly, Mad in the 1990s I'm rather schmeh about. I guess I quit reading after they ran an anti-smoking article that was just plain unfunny. Strangely, when I was doing basic training in the Dutch army in 1993, I remember one of the platoon instructors saying to me, "You strike me as the kind of man who reads Mad magazine. Am I right?"

[rebecca]

I loved MAD! I would steal my brothers' collection, mostly for Spy vs. Spy. I also played the Spy vs. Spy Commodore 64 game until I could do it blindfolded.

[bluess]

Oft-heard conversation in the Bluess household...

Mr.Blue: Can you get rid of some the magazines, at least? Why are you hanging on to MAD magazines from 1970?

Bluess: Cause they're damn funny still. Here, read this.


I like the very old MAD's. There is a hysterical musical with Dick Tracy. And in the new ones, the Goofus/Gallant satires make me laugh.

[Meffy]

Oops, I misspelt it -- potrzebie, not portzebie.

@Euromutt: "Sir, you're smarter than you look, SIR!" =^_^=

@rebecca: I never did get the hang of that one, but it was refreshingly different.

@bluess: It's possible to parody Goofus and Gallant? =@.o=

[Piggy]

Mad forever ruined the song "She's a Grand Old Flag" for me:

Oh she's a fat old hag
She's an unsightly bag
But she's still my true love
Emmy Lou
She's the emblem of
The land I love,
Her complexion is red, white, and blue.

Overweight and big,
In her ill-fitting wig,
Oh forever in peace may it wag,
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
I'll escape from that fat old hag!
I remember that one! I even recall the illustrations. Somewhat old-timey and ineffably grotesque. I loved that whole piece.

Do you recall the counter-culture greeting cards? "Happy Birthday, Muthuh!"

[pgwenthold]

When I was a kid -- and I mean a little kid -- I used to swipe my older brother's issues of Mad and read them. There was a lot that I understood, but a lot that I didn't...

Like the rules to 43-Man Squamish

[Upchurch]

I learnt everything i know about USA culture and society from Mad....
Which was pretty much 100% accurate.

[Metullus]

I remember that one! I even recall the illustrations. Somewhat old-timey and ineffably grotesque. I loved that whole piece.

Do you recall the counter-culture greeting cards? "Happy Birthday, Muthuh!"They were great! I also still have a box of Mad stickers which includes my all-time favorite:

Fester Bestertester is alive and well and living in Argentina!

[kittynh]

do you have the computer version with ALL the issues?

It's wonderful!!!!

[Mr. Skinny]

Two of them!



:-D

The Linotype, a keyboard-operated machine that cast a line of metal type at a time, helped speed up the printing industry in the late 19th and 20th centuries. As you filled a line with text, the machine would assemble wedge-shaped "spacebands" and master type forms called "matrices" in a row. If you mess up there's no "Undo" -- you have to fill out the line, send it to be cast in hot type metal (then thrown in the "hellbox" to be re-melted) and start a new line.

To fill out a line of text, the easiest thing to do was to run the finger along the first two rows of keys. The Linotype isn't arranged like a typewriter, though; the letters in those rows are... you've guessed, haven't you? -- etaoin shrdlu.
And isn't the keyboard layed out this way because etaoin shrdlu are the letters of the alphabet, in order, from most often used, to less often used, i.e., e is the most often used letter of the alphabet; t is the second most often used, etc.? I seem to remember learning that in Boy Scouts while learning Morse Code.

[fuelair]

Potrzebie.

Etaoin shrdlu.



And I know what they mean, too!

Quid?, me vexari?

[Meffy]

And isn't the keyboard layed out this way because etaoin shrdlu are the letters of the alphabet, in order, from most often used, to less often used, i.e., e is the most often used letter of the alphabet; t is the second most often used, etc.? I seem to remember learning that in Boy Scouts while learning Morse Code.

Yes, that's true -- for whatever large sample of late 19th-century text they used for their statistical workup, anyway.

[Piggy]

They were great! I also still have a box of Mad stickers which includes my all-time favorite:

Fester Bestertester is alive and well and living in Argentina!
I tell you what I really miss -- and sadly I don't even know what happened to it -- is the special edition with a fold-out section of stickers featuring dozens of Don Martin sound effects, appropriately illustrated. What a treasure!

I do still have a small selection of stickers, including the timeless "Donnie and Marie can be cured!"

[alfaniner]

You know, it's amazing the impression something can have on you as a kid. I distinctly remember two Don Martin creations. The subject being "Cartoon Sound Effects" or some such.

Two I always remembered:

"PLOIP!" (Popeye's other eye popping out)
"SNIKT -- FLOOBADOOP!!" (Wonder Woman undoing her bra)

[Esperdome]

I used to buy the paperback books too. I always assumed these were distilled from the magazine, but I might be wrong.

My favorite magazine was a spoof of Star Trek, "Keep on Trekking", I believe was on the cover. I still remember most of the songs.

[Piggy]

I used to buy the paperback books too.
Oh yeah, me too. I remember I had "Hopping Mad", "Boiling Mad", "It's a World World World World Mad", a collection of Dave Berg's Mad strips, and a few others. I wonder whatever happened to all this stuff. My mom probably tossed it all out at some point.

[Alareth]

There were 3 magazines commonly in my possession in my youth:


Mad
Cracked
Car Toons

[Piggy]

There were 3 magazines commonly in my possession in my youth:


Mad
Cracked
Car Toons
I don't recall "Car Toons" but I also had several editions of "Cracked" and "Crazy". "Cracked" was pretty good. Did you know they relaunched the magazine (http://www.cracked.com/index.php?module=labPanels&func=display&panelid=29)?

[Alareth]

I don't recall "Car Toons" but I also had several editions of "Cracked" and "Crazy". "Cracked" was pretty good. Did you know they relaunched the magazine (http://www.cracked.com/index.php?module=labPanels&func=display&panelid=29)?

Yes, I know about the relaunch.

CARtoons was published by Peterson Publishing (Hot Rod, Carcraft, etc) and had a similar format to Mad or Cracked but all the stories and humor focused on cars.

Here's a website with some info (http://www.georgetrosley.com/cartoons.html)

[Kopji]

Getting caught with Mad would be like getting caught with porn at my house. (So I went over to my friend's to read it.)

Spy vs Spy. Yeah.

[rex]

The cover of Donald Duck Adventures (Disney) #11 (http://coa.inducks.org/issue.php/x/us/DDAD+11) parodied the cover of the first issue of Mad (http://www.collectmad.com/madcoversite/mad001.html).

[Flo]

My first exposition to the (written) English language, around age 12, were the lyrics of the Beatles' Seargent Pepper's Loneny Heart Club Band album, which I translated with the help of a basic English-French dictionnary, much to the annoyance of my parents (it took me years to understand what some of the songs were about ...). Then I found a newsstand near Geneva that would stock MAD magazine ... much to the fury of my parents, who had almost no idea of what it was about (neither spoke English) but were sure I wouldn't ever learn anything valuable through comic books.

English language lessons in Switzerland start only around age 16 (but German around 10, go figure), and by this time I was already somewhat fluent, and was therefore dispensed to attend class until I graduated from highschool. The examinators at the graduation examination remarked I took most of my references from MAD, though, but didn't hold it against me ...

I still own boxes full of MAD magazines from the 70 and 80s, and still use them as a teaching aid for the kids in my family.

[Piggy]

I still own boxes full of MAD magazines from the 70 and 80s, and still use them as a teaching aid for the kids in my family.
That is so incredibly cool!

[Foolmewunz]

If Meffy is still reading this thread.....

Really curious where you got the information. For the last 30/35 years, I've been the only person I knew who could explain it (often to cries of "b******t!").

I learned of the origin of etaoin shrdlu and the linotype machine from a printer when I was doing my high school newspaper. There were a few printers around who were approved by the school board, and this one took pleasure in trying to educate us about his business and the relationship of the printing medium to newspapers, themselves. (We were all budding journalists, of course... at the ripe old age of 16/17;) I remember the bunch of us discussing what a "really cool older guy" he was. (I was in high school - he could've been 30 and we would've thought him "older".) I only realized later that he was a great teacher and was using the link to Mad to pique our interest.

Had I not been such a precocious snot, and been on the school paper in my sophomore year, I would've never learned of it. By the time I was a senior, the move to photo offset was in full flow.

Never heard of potrzebie, though....

Back to thread:
Mad taught me that the question of "good" and "bad" was sometimes moot. Spy vs. Spy! They took turns being made the fool! That was just short of revolutionary for its time.

[a_unique_person]

What? No other Mad fans?

No wonder we're in such sad shape. :(

I have heard it referred to as 'beardless cynicism". I bought them with my hard earned paper round money, which my father thought was a total waste. I did learn a lot about American culture, and enjoyed the sendups of modern society and culture, although a lot of it did go right over my head. At least it was something that told you it was a confusing world out there, and you weren't crazy because you didn't understand it, or couldn't believe it.

[Soapy Sam]

I thought Etaion shrdlu was simply the order of most commonly used letters in English . (Which might explain it being significant to typesetters).

Mad was a rare treat for me. I liked Dick Bergs's delightfully middle class Americans. They were ludicrous, yet totally believable and looked just like the tourists we saw every summer. Only an American tourist could wear Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt in Glasgow - and get away with it.

[Polaris]

I don't recall "Car Toons" but I also had several editions of "Cracked" and "Crazy". "Cracked" was pretty good. Did you know they relaunched the magazine (http://www.cracked.com/index.php?module=labPanels&func=display&panelid=29)?

Sadly, this gem never made it in the magazine:

http://www.cracked.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=890

[Piggy]

Sadly, this gem never made it in the magazine:

http://www.cracked.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=890
Uh... you might want to post a NOT WORK SAFE warning on that link.

What I can't believe is that they actually did the art. From their notes, it seems that they developed the entire strip before it got nixed. They should have known it would never run.

I reckon that's funny in a certain way, but I think it shows why Mad was superior.

[Esperdome]

Mad, in my opinion wasn't about being in your face, it was a more delicate form of satire. Often the most provocative thing was the back cover, innocent till folded in half.

[Piggy]

the most provocative thing was the back cover, innocent till folded in half.
I used to date a girl like that.

[Polaris]

Uh... you might want to post a NOT WORK SAFE warning on that link.

What I can't believe is that they actually did the art. From their notes, it seems that they developed the entire strip before it got nixed. They should have known it would never run.

I reckon that's funny in a certain way, but I think it shows why Mad was superior.

Oversight on my part. I just haven't been in a work environment yet where a roughneck plunging a Bowie knife into Tigger's chest isn't work safe.

[Piggy]

Oversight on my part. I just haven't been in a work environment yet where a roughneck plunging a Bowie knife into Tigger's chest isn't work safe.
How about a cartoon of a roughneck approaching Piglet with a raging hardon, or Pooh shooting up while offering to give head? ;)

Could be a little much for the cubemate, or the Central Scrutinizers.

Where I work, logs are kept, and suspicious URLs investigated. Also, desktops are from time to time remotely monitored.

That's ok, but what's really annoying is that, occasionally, when the techs need to do some maintenance, a dialog will pop up saying "I'm taking over your machine now", and you'll lose control of the pointer.

I wasn't surfing this at work -- all message boards are suspicious URLs -- but others may be.

[fuelair]

I used to buy the paperback books too. I always assumed these were distilled from the magazine, but I might be wrong.

.

You aren't wrong, they were collected stuff.

[Polaris]

How about a cartoon of a roughneck approaching Piglet with a raging hardon, or Pooh shooting up while offering to give head? ;)

Could be a little much for the cubemate, or the Central Scrutinizers.

Where I work, logs are kept, and suspicious URLs investigated. Also, desktops are from time to time remotely monitored.

That's ok, but what's really annoying is that, occasionally, when the techs need to do some maintenance, a dialog will pop up saying "I'm taking over your machine now", and you'll lose control of the pointer.

I wasn't surfing this at work -- all message boards are suspicious URLs -- but others may be.

Those too - but I don't work in a cubicle, or office environment, so I'm guilty of not extending the courtesy - my apologies. The link I posted is ABSOLUTELY NOT WORK SAFE...

And that wasn't a roughneck, it was Calamity Jane.

I always thought it was that rabbit that was on something anyway, he was always so spaced out.