No joke: MAD Magazine marks 500th issue

[HiredGoon]

No joke: MAD marks 500th issue
Monday, April 27, 2009
By Virginia Linn, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

What, MAD worry?

Alfred E. Neuman and the Usual Gang of Idiots are keeping stiff upper lips as they mark a bittersweet occasion.

MAD magazine's landmark 500th issue hits newsstands tomorrow -- the same day the 57-year-old monthly publication goes quarterly.

The usual gang of suspects is the reason: bad economy, drop in advertising, changing demographics.

MAD's circulation peaked at 2 million a year in the early 1970s, but the numbers have slipped to about 200,000. Canceled earlier this year were MAD Kids, a 3-year-old quarterly for children, and MAD Classics, which featured reprint material.

Now part of DC Comics, the magazine is best known for its political satire, zany story lines and parodies of pop culture.

Has the change in humor affected the magazine's popularity?

"People's taste in humor always change and we hope MAD has reflected that," says John Ficarra, 53, who has been editor-in-chief since 1984 (he was co-editor with Nick Meglin for much of that time).

"We have a lot more political humor, the language has been ramped up," he said. "We always mirror society. There's been a coarsening of society and things that wouldn't have been printed years ago are in there now."

What's really changed is how people get their humor today. "It's now on the Web, where people are creating humor, 'The Daily Show,' Letterman's Top 10. There's an immediacy in humor that wasn't there when MAD first started."

To that end, the MAD masters are working on a new Web site to update their acerbic satire 24/7.

Still, if you haven't read MAD in a while -- the average age of its readers is 26 -- it's worth picking up No. 500 ($5.99 cheap!). In addition to a review of images from its first 499 editions, there's the "Bailout Hymn of the Republic," "The Dead Celebrity Apprentice" show, and spoofs on Obama, Octomom, the Jonas Brothers, Wolverine and even A-Rod.

And don't write MAD's obituary yet. Tomorrow's cover declares: "Look for our 1,000th issue in July 2134!"

[camper]

I used to like Mad up until a few years ago, and had bought it every so often for over 20 years (wish I kept the old issues). It got WAY over-sexed, and the political humor was relegated to bitter and caustic humor directed towards conservatives, whereas with liberals it was "Look....he's wearing a silly hat! Look how funny he looks with that silly hat!!" type stuff.

I like giving politicians and politicos of every breed a good ribbing, but it ruins your 'satire everything' credibility when you really aren't satiring everything...but they do have adds now, so once you go that route of worrying about retaining advertisers you tend to lose objectivity VERY fast.

Plus, it just isn't the same in color. The only thing that should be in color is the cover and the fold-in.

Essentially, a magazine that started under the banner of anti-establishment has become quite content with being part of the establishment.

camper

[HiredGoon]

I used to get them a lot, think I even had a subscription at one point, back in the '70s. I did keep a lot of them and pull 'em out once in a while to re-read them.

I don't recall why I stopped getting them, but haven't seen a "newer" one since the '70s. And didn't even know the insides were color now.

The movie and TV parodies were great. And of course the fold-ins. Also liked the Don Martin comics...I actually have a big book of his stuff as well. Dave Berg's stuff was great too.

Also have a few of the competitor's mags, like Sick and Cracked which were similar, but not as good.