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.

Recurring Subsections

Most magazines include ongoing, internal segments or domains, and Mad is no exception. An issue of Mad includes these "cluster" departments.

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Table of Contents

The first page of each issue lists all the articles to follow, including their "Department" headings, which are plays on words. For several years, the Table of Contents has listed one article which does not actually exist. Some of these imaginary listings have included "Santa Claus, Porn Star"; "When Goats Go Bad"; "What if Cap'n Crunch Was Brought Before a Military Tribunal?"; "If the Amish Used Zombies to Do Their Chores"; "The MAD Urinary Tract Infection Primer"; "Dick Cheney Electrocardiograms We'd Like to See"; "If Bobby Knight Coached the Special Olympics"; "Only the Assistant Undersecretary of Transportation Would Possibly Believe..."; and "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions During the Bombing of Belgrade."

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Letters and Tomatoes Dept.

An esoteric version of the standard "Letters to the Editors," this commonly runs three pages and includes correspondence from readers, reader drawings or craft projects, celebrity photos, references to Mad in other media, and so forth. All letters are typically answered in a snide and insulting manner. There are also a few (very small) sub-departments that sometimes live within its pages:

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• "Antiques Freakshow with Hans Brickface" - in which readers send in photographs of their bizarre household items to have their values appraised by the slightly psychotic Hans.
• "MAD Mumblings" - absurd one-sentence observations, typically non sequiturs, posted online by the readers.
• "The Make a Dumb Wish Foundation" - in which the magazine promises to make readers' stupid requests come true, but usually doesn't.
• "The Nifty Fifty" & "Mad Celebrity Snaps" - a reader who sends in a photo of a famous person posing with a copy of Mad gets a free three-year subscription (if the celebrity is touching the issue). Once a year, Mad puts out a kind of hit list called The Nifty Fifty: fifty famous people they'd like to see in Celebrity Snaps. The magazine was delighted to publish a photo of Dan Quayle unwittingly holding the "PROOFREADER WANTED" cover of Mad #355, on which the magazine's logo appeared as "MAAD."
• "The Two-Question Interview" - celebrity interviews which are essentially over before they begin, accomplishing nothing.

The Fundalini Pages

Beginning with its February 2004 edition, Mad has begun its issues with this catch-all section of various bits, which are far shorter or smaller than normal Mad articles. They often appear at as many as 3 to 6 per page. Some of these pieces are produced in-house; others are the work of freelancers. All contributors for each month are credited en masse, as "Friends of Fundalini." For this reason, it is not always apparent which contributor is responsible for which item, particularly the writers. Most Fundalini features are one shot gags that never appear again, some have appeared multiple times, and a few appear in nearly every issue. Among the recurring elements in the Fundalini section are:

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Created for Fundalini

• Bitterman, a short comic strip by Garth Gerhart about a hateful slacker;
• Classified ads; these frequently deal in absurdity and non sequiturs;
• The Cover We DIDN'T Use, purporting to be the second choice for each issue's front cover;
• The Fast 5, which is essentially half of a Letterman "Top 10 List";
• Foto News, in which topical photographs are given word balloons (similar to fumetti, though usually without the storyline aspect);
• The Godfrey Report, a small 3x 3 grid showing three classes of objects and their current cultural status (arbitrarily rated as "In," "Five Minutes Ago," or "Out.");
• Graphic Novel Review, written by Desmond Devlin, which analyzes fictional comic collections and graphic novels such as "The Anally Complete Peanuts" or "Tintin in Fallujah";
• The Kitchen Sink, a lengthy barrage of spoof titles for topics such as "Reality Shows Currently Under Development" or "Proposed Star Wars Sequel Titles";
• Magazine Corrections You May Have Missed, providing editorial commentary on other publications;
• Monkeys Are Always Funny, by Evan Dorkin, showing famous news photographs with the image of a monkey Photoshopped in;
• Pull My Cheney!, a one-panel gag by cartoonist Tom Cheney;
• The President's Dog, a short comic strip by Peter Kuper, in which George W. Bush converses with Barney the Terrier;
• The Puzzle Nook, a multiple choice fill-in-the-blank phrase;
• Vey to Go!, a one-panel gag by cartoonist P.C. Vey.

Preexisting; moved into Fundalini

• Celebrity Cause of Death Betting Odds, written by Mike Snider, which ranks the hypothetical future demises of the famous by decreasing likelihood;
• Melvin and Jenkins' Guide to..., drawn by Kevin Pope and written by Desmond Devlin, in which the upstanding Jenkins and the derelict Melvin illustrate good and improper behavior in various situations.

Of these, the most regular features have been Bitterman, The Godfrey Report, Celebrity Cause of Death Betting Odds, and The Puzzle Nook.

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Newer Additions

• "The Strip Club"

First appearing in the July 2005 issue, it is a 3- to 4-page assortment of short gag comic strips drawn by various artists. Judging from its early installments, there may be a high turnover of contributors.

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• "Go Fetch!"

Further blurring the line between advertising and content is Go Fetch!, a list of newly-released media products such as videogames, DVD releases, music albums and books. Each product listing has The Hype and The Snipe, in which its good and bad qualities are expounded. Each Go Fetch! also promotes "the Must Have", an idiosyncratic (but real) product which no Mad reader should be without, such as cold galvanizing spray, or a pneumatic jackhammer.

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