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.

"The MAD 20"

Since 1998, Mad has done an annual issue commemorating the "20 Dumbest People, Events and Things" of the year. These emphasize the visual motif above all else, parodying such things as movie posters, famous paintings, or fake magazine covers, though one or two text-heavier takeoffs are usually sprinkled into each year's assortment. The feature is reminiscent of the defunct Spy Magazine's "Spy 100" list, which purported to catalogue "Our Annual Census of the 100 Most Annoying, Alarming, and Appalling People, Places and Things."

Related Topics:
1998 - Spy Magazine

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Mad named the Reverend Jerry Falwell as one of the dumbest people of 2001 for blaming the 9/11 attacks on feminists, gays, and lesbians. (Though Falwell appeared in the #1 slot in MAD's annual "20 Dumbest People, Events and Things" issue, and the examples are numbered 1-20, the "rankings" are completely random. The "20th dumbest" slot of 2001 was awarded to Mad itself for its "slide down the slippery slope of greedy commercialism" in finally permitting advertising in its pages.)

Related Topics:
Jerry Falwell - 9/11 attacks - Feminist - Gay - Lesbian

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Keeping in mind the indiscriminate positioning, these were the "#1" selections for the various years:

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• 1998: "Starr Wars," a movie poster parody of the partisan Kenneth Starr investigation, depicting Starr as Darth Vader, and Bill Clinton holding a cigar instead of a light saber;
• 1999: "Y2K Panic," a chaotic cartoon showing a crashing airplane displacing the Times Square New Year's Ball, sending it careening into a terror-stricken crowd;
• 2000: A rewritten Presidential oath of office. The issue went to press one week after the disputed 2000 election; MAD's editors had thought they could plug in the winner, but were obliged to publish two versions of the image, one with Al Gore being sworn in, the other depicting George W. Bush.
• 2001: "A.I. Asinine Ideology," a movie poster parody of the Steven Spielberg film "A.I." highlighting Jerry Falwell's placing blame on the 9/11 attacks on gays, feminists, abortionists and the ACLU;
• 2002: "Martha Stewart Lying," a magazine spoof of Martha Stewart's insider trading scandal;
• 2003: "Term Eliminator," a movie poster parody of the third "Terminator" film mocking Arnold Schwarzenegger's victory in the California recall election;
• 2004: "Donny Rumsfeld and the Prisoners of Abu Ghraib," a book cover in the style of the third Harry Potter jacket.