These days, most magazines are on the decline. Many are website only. Penthouse Forum couldn't stay around even by including a porn DVD in every issue. You think MAD could've survived if they added a flexi-disc, like they sometimes did in the 60's? Not likely, Arthur. (You do remember the name of the avocado plant.)
Yes, latest casualty of “FREE ON THE INTERNET” is MAD Magazine. Look, if “Christian Science Monitor” couldn’t make it on newsstands, what do you expect from a comedy mag started by, edited by, and pretty much cartooned by a bunch of Jews?’ From its original editor in its comic book format (Harvey Kurtzman) to its long-running editor in magazine format (Al Feldstein), MAD thrived primarily thanks to affluent Jewish kids who also identified with mascot Alfred E. Neuman, who could've been a classmate.
The best cartoonists through the greatest years of MAD were almost all Jewish. There was Will Elder, Dave Berg, Mort Drucker (90 and retired), and Al Jaffee (well over 90 but still doing the infamous MAD back cover.)
While I did have dealings with some MAD-men, via mail and even via collaberation in one case, the only one I ever met was Al Jaffee, a wonderful man who also sometimes cartooned elsewhere, notably Playboy. But speaking of Playboy, when it came to a risque drawing sneaking into MAD, that generally was the work of Will Elder (who would also do the "Annie Fanny" comic strip in PLAYBOY for many glorious years in the 60's).
Your welcome,
Rounding out the “Gang of Idiots” were Don Martin who contributed pioneering sick humor, the frantic Jack Davis a Southerner who could cram tons of great gags into every panel (and who thrived doing print ads and comedy record album covers) and the whimsical Sergio Aragones with his “marginal” gags. You'll find the Jack Davis covers for Homer & Jethro elsewhere on the blog. As for Don Martin, his stuff was always an eye-opener.
Lenny Bruce, Jackie Mason, Mort Sahl, Allan Sherman, The Three Stooges, The Marx Brothers...they all influenced generations of fans via records, stand-up and films, but the only literary humor influence most could cite would be MAD magazine, especially back in the late 50's and early 60's when there were few other sources for satire. Classic movies and TV shows of the era had to get the Mort Drucker treatment.
Generally, a TV star or movie star would turn up a few issues later, holding the copy of MAD and genuinely (usually) showing a delight in being parodied in the World's Greatest Comedy Magazine. (What, you thought it was Punch?) Drucker only really angered the "Star Wars" franchise, getting a cease and desist lawyer-letter and a demand that all issues of MAD be destroyed. Ironically, at the same time, George Lucas sent in a fan letter praising Mort's work. This was sent back to the lawyers!
So, what happened? Competition from SICK and CRACKED didn't harm MAD at all, but their millions of fans simply GREW UP. They went for R. Crumb comic books, the National Lampoon and SPY. There was cable TV bringing in George Carlin TV specials. Comic strips grew up too, with Doonesbury and The Far Side. Bare tits and fart jokes were in the movies, and the affluent audience they had assimilated, and the new generation of kids didn't know what "furshlugginer" meant and didn't care. They also didn't really want to read, and didn't GET satire at all. They preferred video games and the big laugh of killing cartoon characters and watching the Mario Brothers hop around.
That Mort Drucker image from "Star Trek." It meant something way back when. His talent wasn't diminished when he took on famous people in the 90's, but did it have the same impact? Do you get much of a kick seeing Jay Leno lampooned for being nuts about cars?
No. A big reason why MAD meant so much at one time, was because AT THAT TIME, nobody else was doing it. That "Gang of Idiots" -- all geniuses.
The world has gotten a lot more serious. It's simply not so easy to find humor in incompetent Presidents sending kids to war, ignoring climate change, and allowing gun laws that turned schools into massacre sites. It certainly isn't the kind of material suitable for MAD-type lampooning.
The worst blow for MAD came with the Internet Age of FREE. MAD could be bootlegged in PDF form. Why BUY? Almost all their skilled artists died or retired. Kids went to the Cartoon Network to watch some crap, and there were "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy." Now? You go on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram and you're bombarded with "funny" memes for FREE, and most think this shit is pretty funny. There is no shortage of Photoshop comedy, commercial parodies or bad limericks. They are emailed to people despite Weird Al Yankovic’s song “Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me.”
Yes, Weird Al, there are many, many people (mostly 40 and over) who were DEEPLY influenced by MAD Magazine, and by Will Elder, Don Martin, Dave Berg, Mort Drucker and Al Jaffee in particular.
Officially, MAD will hang on with maybe ONE original issue a year. It will limp along with perhaps a quarterly "best of" issue featuring past glories. That's sort of like "Peanuts" still in some newspapers via re-runs. But the comic strip is in a newspaper as a kind of free bonus. You don't have to go to a comic bookstore and BUY a whole set, which is what MAD thinks people will do. Which is pretty optimistic consider they foolishly issued EVERY issue on a CD-Rom and various forums and blogs give every issue away so that there's no need to buy.
Back in the 60’s, affluent kids not only bought MAD magazine, they bought novelty singles. The radio had no shortage of goofy shit, from “Monster Mash” to “The Chipmunk Song.” Allan Sherman’s “Hello Muddah Hello Faddah” was a huge hit even if it was targeted almost exclusively to Jewish kids shipped off to summer camp. Oddly, MAD didn’t succeed on record. The 1959 “Musically Mad” album featured weak Spike Jones-influenced music and “Mad Twists Rock and Roll” and “Fink Along with Mad” didn’t sell too well either. Flexi-discs sometimes appeared in the mag, including "It's a Gas" (burps by Alfred E. Neuman) and even a short parody of "All in the Family" with Allen Swift (real name Ira Stadlen) as Archie.
Below is POTRZEBIE. This was a beloved nonsense word back when Mad was loaded with them. It is credited to Alfred E. Neuman And his FURSHLUGGINER Five. YOU GET IT FREEEEEEEEEEE. Yes, the Internet will tell you the BEST THINGS IN LIFE are free. But somebody has to pay for it. And if nobody is paying for it, there won’t be any more.
POTRZEBIE - download or listen on line
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