Mad Magazine Letter Pages
|
| LETTER TITLE | SEEN ON OR IN | RIP-OFF DESCRIPTION | ISSUE / DATE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mad At G.M. Futurama |
General Motors Futurama Exhibit |
Building looks a lot like Dave Berg's City Ranch Houses in
"The Suburbs Are On Their Way Out!" from #39. |
94 - Apr 1965 |
| Poiuyt-inent Comments | Mad | Mad #93 cover with "The Mad Poiuyt" could have been copied from a variety of sources. |
95 - Jun 1965 |
| A "Timeless" Cover | Time | Magazine has Pac-Man on its October 25, 1982 cover, similar to Mad #233. | 238 - Apr 1983 |
| Double Mad E.S.P.??? | Newsweek | Magazine has the cast of Mash on its February 28, 1983 cover, similar to Mad #234. |
240 - Jul 1983 |
| Ripoff! | Discover | Magazine has an ape with a human mask on its July 1983 cover, similar to Mad #157 "Planet of the Apes" cover. |
242 - Oct 1983 |
| Ripoffs Continued | San Diego Tribune | Newspaper's June 15, 1983 editorial cartoon has Ronald Reagan transforming into Margaret Thatcher like Dustin Hoffman's transformation to a woman in the movie "Tootsie," similar to Mad #240 "Tootsie" cover. |
242 - Oct 1983 |
| Mad Rip-Offs | John Darling - Salt Lake Tribune |
Comic from November 1980 congratulates Ronald Reagan on his election as President of the United States on the left side of the strip and (upside-down) congratulates Jimmy Carter on the right side, similar to the Mad #60 Nixon / Kennedy covers. |
246 - Apr 1984 |
| Mad Rip-Offs | Scripps Howard | Newspaper editorial cartoon from November 1983 has Syrian President Hafez al-Assad standing on his head next to a sign while a fire is blazing. The sign reads "In Case of FIRE Turn Upside Down," similar to Mad #206. |
246 - Apr 1984 |
| Mad Rip-Offs | Cleveland Plain Dealer |
Newspaper editorial cartoon from December 1982 has Pac-Man declared "Time Magazine's Man of the Year," similar to the Mad #233 Pac-Man cover. |
246 - Apr 1984 |
| Cover Charge | A Mad reader's enclosed photo |
Mad #243, with Superman's face covered by Alfred E. Neuman's face from a Mad cover, is similar to a photo a reader sent in 21 years earlier showing the reader covering his own face with Alfred on the "Mad Twists Rock 'N' Roll" album cover. |
250 - Oct 1984 |
| Mad Rip-Offs - Continued |
Chicago Tribune | Newspaper editorial cartoon from December 1984 has the Earth wearing a gas mask, similar to the Mad #157 back cover "The Choke's On Us!" |
255 - Jun 1985 |
| Mad ESP - In Reverse? |
WFYV-FM | Mad #254's Special Rock Issue cover is similar to the radio station's 4-year-old logo featuring a rock wearing headphones. |
256 - Jul 1985 |
| Another Mad Rip-Off |
The Durham Morning Herald |
Newspaper editorial cartoon has Ronald Reagan walking a tightrope while holding one end of the tightrope in his hands, similar to Mad #246. |
268 - Jan 1987 |
| We Stand Corrected | The Durham Morning Herald |
Editorial cartoonist for the above mentioned Reagan cartoon notes his cartoon appeared six months before the Mad cover. |
270 - Apr 1987 |
| Mad Vs. Newsweek: The Great Rip-Off Battle Continues |
Newsweek | Max Headroom's layout on its April 20, 1987 cover rips off Mad #269. | 273 - Sep 1987 |
| Mad Vs. Newsweek: The Great Rip-Off Battle Continues |
Newsweek | Mad #271 rips off Newsweek's Dec. 22, 1986 "Star Trek IV" cover. | 273 - Sep 1987 |
| Separated At Mirth? | The New Yorker | UPC Symbol is blown up on its November 14, 1988 cover like Mad #198. | 286 - Apr 1989 |
| Alfred E. Boggs | Sports Illustrated | Magazine has Wade Boggs swinging a bat on its March 6, 1989 cover with the words "What, Me Worry?" similar to Mad #282. |
289 - Sep 1989 |
| What About Sergio? | What About Bob? movie ad |
Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss get the same sort of "The Shadow Knows" treatment Aragones is famous for. |
306 - Oct 1991 |
| Mad Ripoffs All New 1992 Edition |
Sony ad in Rolling Stone |
Ad shows the Moai Face Statues of Easter Island
wearing headphones similar to the #254 back cover. |
310 - Apr 1992 |
| Dial-A-Mad Ripoff | Voice Changer Telephone Ad |
Ad for new telephone device looks like Disguise-A-Phone from "Future Phone Gimmicks" in #270. |
312 - Jul 1992 |
| Wrestling with a Ripoff | WWF Magazine | World Wrestling Federation creates a character simmilar to Harold on the back of #272. |
316 - Jan 1993 |
| From One Al To Another |
"Weird Al" Yankovic's "Alapalooza" Album |
"Weird Al" notes the simmilarities of his album cover to Mad #323. | 324 - Jan 1994 |
| Mad Ripoff of the Year |
Time | Time's March 9, 1998 cover, made of tiny back-issue covers, looks like what Mad did for its January 1998 Special. |
372 - Aug 1998 |
| That Sinking Feeling | Mad | Mad plans to sue itself for plagarism because its #369 cover rips off #161. | 373 - Sep 1998 |
| A Rolling Stone Gathers Some Slack |
Rolling Stone | Magazine has the lead characters from Smallville on its March 28, 2002 cover, similar to Mad #415 "Smellville" cover. |
418 - Jun 2002 |
| The Fast and the Furious | movie promotions | The fifth installment in "The Fast and the Furious" movie franchise has the same title of a Fundalini feature "The Fast 5" which first started in Mad #438. |
508 - Apr 2011 |
| Blowing Our Cover | The New Yorker | Magazine has a character skiing on its February 4, 2013 cover. Part of the cover is torn away to reveal the inside of the magazine, similar to Mad #293. |
521 - Jun 2013 |
| Mad Sighting | "The Fartist" Comedy Special |
Brian Posehn's poster and title for his comedy special are almost identical to Mad's blog post from The Idiotical (which is no longer viewable online). |
522 - Sep 2013 |
| America The Disputable |
Reader's Digest | Cover story from July 2013 "Best of America - 50 More Reasons to Love Our Country!" is "an obnoxious rebuttal" to (and maybe even a rip off of) Mad's "The 50 Worst Things About America" article from Mad #515. |
523 - Oct 2013 |
| Trying to Sweden the Deal |
IKEA | A contest for kids to have their designs made into Christmas toys is a blatant rip-off of Al Jaffee's same feature in Mad #76 from 1963. |
543 - Feb 2017 |
Compiled by John R. Racano
excerpt from Mad Rip-Offs - from #246 - April 1984