Mad Magazine died. They announced the end of production of new material. We are all poorer for this.
For anyone over the age of 55 (more or less) and even for many who are much younger than that (more on that later), the passing of the magazine is worth mourning. The skewering of entertainment, politics and plain shallowness of much popular culture was the target of most of their barbs over the years, and they stuck the arrow in deep.
As a 10- or 11-year-old, I remember our dad reading Mad at our grandparents’ house and him snorting in laughter. He roared and roared. The skit mocked a television show or movie and he found a closing remark hysterical. A guy rode off on a horse, looked back and said, “Goodbye Fred.” The other guy said, “Who’s Fred?” The answer, “The mountain behind us.”
My dad nicknamed our mom “Fred” after that, something I never got until later in life (which was likely true with a lot of other humor in the magazine; it was adult humor, which made it funnier when you did get it, but it often zoomed over your head). Our mom was the mountain behind us.
Alfred E. Neuman, of “What, Me Worry?” fame, said it all with his goofy gapped-tooth smile. If you get a laugh, you don’t worry. That’s what the magazine was about. By inciting chuckles, you learn to live with some of our cultural stupidity and inanity. And you better be on top of things, whether you are an adolescent or an adult, or the references pass you buy.
As our kids got into their early teenage years, Mad magazine hopped out at me one day at an airport newsstand. I bought it on a lark. It was the annual issue that ripped the 20 of the most stupid things in public life over the past year. I think I LOL-ed at 17 of them (damn good batting average there), and was hooked again. I bought if off the newsstand a few times, our two older kids read it and found it funny (and our third latched onto it later).
This led to getting a subscription for them to read. Like me at that age, I imagine much soared above their cognitive powers as a 13- or 15-year-old. But they devoured it. I could hear them laughing. I would point out something, and they’d get it, and there is a joy in seeing your kids developing a keen sense of humor.
Spy vs. Spy was an early favorite of mine because it was so simple. Those miniature drawings in the side of the panels intrigued me until I got so old I couldn’t even read them with my x-ray glasses on. Those are meant for the little kids. The foldout on the back page, man what a piece of art! Always coming up some tongue-in-cheek remark that was relevant and amusing. The time they must have put into doing that…..
Now there’s no time. No more news. No more fresh content. They will repurpose old issues. You will be able to buy the magazine at comic bookstores. I wonder if the library will still carry it.
Two years ago in Oconomowoc, Wisc., I stopped into the public library to kill some time and checked out the magazines. Alfred E. Neuman stared back at me with his glassy smile. I was heartened. I sat down, dug in, and thought, “You know, this is a heckuva library.”
For anyone over the age of 55 (more or less) and even for many who are much younger than that (more on that later), the passing of the magazine is worth mourning. The skewering of entertainment, politics and plain shallowness of much popular culture was the target of most of their barbs over the years, and they stuck the arrow in deep.
As a 10- or 11-year-old, I remember our dad reading Mad at our grandparents’ house and him snorting in laughter. He roared and roared. The skit mocked a television show or movie and he found a closing remark hysterical. A guy rode off on a horse, looked back and said, “Goodbye Fred.” The other guy said, “Who’s Fred?” The answer, “The mountain behind us.”
My dad nicknamed our mom “Fred” after that, something I never got until later in life (which was likely true with a lot of other humor in the magazine; it was adult humor, which made it funnier when you did get it, but it often zoomed over your head). Our mom was the mountain behind us.
Alfred E. Neuman, of “What, Me Worry?” fame, said it all with his goofy gapped-tooth smile. If you get a laugh, you don’t worry. That’s what the magazine was about. By inciting chuckles, you learn to live with some of our cultural stupidity and inanity. And you better be on top of things, whether you are an adolescent or an adult, or the references pass you buy.
As our kids got into their early teenage years, Mad magazine hopped out at me one day at an airport newsstand. I bought it on a lark. It was the annual issue that ripped the 20 of the most stupid things in public life over the past year. I think I LOL-ed at 17 of them (damn good batting average there), and was hooked again. I bought if off the newsstand a few times, our two older kids read it and found it funny (and our third latched onto it later).
This led to getting a subscription for them to read. Like me at that age, I imagine much soared above their cognitive powers as a 13- or 15-year-old. But they devoured it. I could hear them laughing. I would point out something, and they’d get it, and there is a joy in seeing your kids developing a keen sense of humor.
Spy vs. Spy was an early favorite of mine because it was so simple. Those miniature drawings in the side of the panels intrigued me until I got so old I couldn’t even read them with my x-ray glasses on. Those are meant for the little kids. The foldout on the back page, man what a piece of art! Always coming up some tongue-in-cheek remark that was relevant and amusing. The time they must have put into doing that…..
Now there’s no time. No more news. No more fresh content. They will repurpose old issues. You will be able to buy the magazine at comic bookstores. I wonder if the library will still carry it.
Two years ago in Oconomowoc, Wisc., I stopped into the public library to kill some time and checked out the magazines. Alfred E. Neuman stared back at me with his glassy smile. I was heartened. I sat down, dug in, and thought, “You know, this is a heckuva library.”