MAD Magazine

Mad is an American humor magazine founded by publisher William Gaines and editor Harvey Kurtzman in 1952. Offering satires on all aspects of American pop culture, the monthly publication deflates stuffed shirts and pokes fun at common foibles. It is the last surviving title from the notorious and critically acclaimed EC Comics line. Publisher Gaines had suffered greatly from censorship, which had literally driven his prior line of EC horror comics from the stands.

Mad Merchandising

Mad has stepped gingerly into other media. Three albums of novelty songs were released in the early 1960s. A successful off-Broadway production, "The Mad Show," was staged in 1966, featuring sketches written by Mad personnel (as well as an uncredited assist by Stephen Sondheim). An early 1970s television pilot was not picked up.

Related Topics:
1960s - Off-Broadway - 1966 - Stephen Sondheim

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In 1979, a very successful board game was released. "The MAD Magazine Game" was an absurdist version of Monopoly in which the first player to lose all their money and go bankrupt was the winner. Profusely illustrated with artwork by the magazine's contributors, the game included a $1,329,063-dollar bill which could not be won unless one's name was "Alfred E. Neuman." It also featured a deck of cards (called "Card cards") with bizarre instructions. Among them:

Related Topics:
1979 - Monopoly

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• "Change chairs with anyone."
• "If you can jump up and stay airborne for 37 seconds, you can lose $5,000. If not, jump up and lose $500."
• "Stand up and boo the person on your left. Also, lose $1,000."
• "Put this card on top of your head and walk around the table backwards. If it doesn't fall off before you sit down, you lose $1,000."
• "This card can only be played on Friday."

In 1980, following the success of the National Lampoon-backed Animal House, Mad lent its name to a similar risque comedy entitled Up the Academy. It was such a commercial and critical failure that Mad successfully arranged for all references to the magazine (including a cameo by Alfred E. Neuman) to be removed from future TV and video releases of the film.

Related Topics:
1980 - National Lampoon - Animal House - Up the Academy

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A TV show was introduced in 1995 based on the magazine: MAD TV, which aired comedy segments in a fashion similar to Saturday Night Live and SCTV. However, there is no editorial connection between the sketch comedy series and the magazine. The characters from "Spy vs. Spy" have featured in animated vignettes on MAD TV, and more recently, TV ads for Mountain Dew soda.

Related Topics:
1995 - MAD TV - Saturday Night Live - SCTV

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While Mad frequently repackaged its material in a long series of "Super Special"-format magazines and paperbacks, Mad-related merchandise was once scarce. During the Gaines years, the publisher had an aversion to milking his fanbase and expressed the fear that substandard Mad products would offend them. He was known to personally issue refunds to anyone who wrote to the magazine with a complaint. Among the few outside Mad items available in its first 40 years were cufflinks, a T-shirt designed like a straitjacket, complete with lock, and a small ceramic Alfred E. Neuman bust. After Gaines' death came an overt absorption into the Time-Warner publishing umbrella, with the result that Mad merchandise began to appear more frequently.

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One steady form of revenue has come from foreign editions of the magazine. Mad has been published in local versions in many countries, beginning with Britain in 1959, and Sweden in 1960. Each new market receives access to the publication's back catalog of articles and is also encouraged to produce its own localized material in the Mad vein. However, the sensibility of the American Mad has not always translated to other cultures, and many of the foreign editions have had short lives or interrupted publications. The Swedish, Danish, Italian and Mexican Mads were each published on three separate occasions; Norway has had four runs cancelled. United Kingdom (35 years), the Netherlands (32 years) and Brazil (31 years and counting) have produced the longest uninterrupted Mad variants.

Related Topics:
Britain - 1959 - Sweden - 1960

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Current foreign editions:

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• Germany, 1968-1993, 1998-present;
• Brazil, 1974-present;
• Finland, 1970-1971, 1981-present;
• Australia, 1980-present;
• South Africa, 1991-present;
• Hungary, 1997-present;
• India, 1999-present.

Foreign editions of the past:

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• United Kingdom, 1959-1994;
• Sweden, 1960-1992, 1996-2002;
• Denmark, 1962-1971, 1979-1997, 1998-2002;
• The Netherlands, 1964-1996;
• France, 1965, 1992;
• Argentina, 1970-1975;
• Norway, 1971-1972, 1981-1993, 1995, 2002-2003;
• Italy, 1971, 1984, 1992;
• Mexico, 1977-1983, 1984-1986, 1993-1998;
• Carribean, 1977-1983;
• Greece, 1978-1985, 1995-1999;
• Iceland, 1985;
• Taiwan, 1990;
• Israel, 1994-1995;
• Turkey, 2000-2003.

Some of the foreign editions have spoofed material that is completely unfamiliar to American audiences, or which is not in keeping with Mads general avoidance of obscenity (for an example of both, see the Swedish Mad parody of Fucking Åmål http://www.collectmad.com/swedencoversite/99001.htm).

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