Mad Magazine Letter Pages
|
| LETTER / SECTION TITLE | MEDIUM TITLE | REFERENCE TO MAD MAGAZINE | ISSUE / DATE |
|---|---|---|---|
| T.V. Prop | Matinee Theater | NBC television anthology series used Mad as one of their props. | 29 - Sep 1956 |
| All About Mad | Scene | July 1958 magazine has an article about Mad: "A World Gone MAD." The article includes excerpts from Mad #36 ("Raw Guts: The Magazine For He-Men"), Mad #37 ("Mad's X-Mas Toys") and Mad #39 ("Commemorative Stamps") and the "Winsten Cigarettes" ad from Mad #37. Mad says, "Pick up a copy of Scene...laugh and laugh... and then put it back! We don't want MAD readers buying other magazines!" |
40 - Jul 1958 |
| Mad On TV | I've Got A Secret | On his April 30, 1958 television show, Garry Moore presented Mad's "TV Scenes We'd Like To See" from Mad #40. |
41 - Sep 1958 |
| Worst Of The Horrors | Famous Monsters of Filmland |
Issue #2 of magazine's article "MAD Creates A Horror Movie" reprints the first page of "ECCCCHHH, Teen-Age Son of Thing" from Mad #40 and some commentary from Mad editor Al Feldstein: "You figure it out…'cause I'm too stupid!" Mad's comment in the letter's section: "since they're putting out horrors, they wanted the very worst!" |
43 - Dec 1958 |
| The Pat Boone Show | The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom |
In the 1958 premier of this half-hour variety ABC television show, Pat Boone mentioned that one of his great accomplishments was "making MAD Magazine." (He was referring to the article from Bob and Ray in Mad #43: "Music Report." Pat Boone is shown holding his college diploma in his cap and gown on the second page of the article. This is similar to TV Guide's June 7 - 13, 1958 cover.) |
45 - Mar 1959 |
| From The D.J.'s | WNAR | Radio's morning show deejay's used items from Mad over the air. They saw their top-rated morning show drop in ratings to minus one. |
45 - Mar 1959 |
| Admission of Guilt | New York World Telegram & Sun |
Newspaper article "The Madding Crowd" mentions the results of Teen-Age Survey, Inc.: "43 percent of high school kids listed MAD as their favorite" and "58 percent of college students said they preferred MAD to all others." |
51 - Dec 1959 |
| Newsweek | Newsweek | August 31, 1959 issue of the magazine featured an article about Mad with Al Feldstein and William M. Gaines interviews. |
52 - Jan 1960 |
| An Evening With Fred Astaire |
Another Evening With Fred Astaire |
Fred Astaire dances while wearing an Alfred E. Neuman mask on his television show. | 54 - Apr 1960 |
| Mad Invades Television | Leave It To Beaver | In the third season of the television show, Wally, Beaver's brother, mentions "how his English teacher reads MAD Magazine to his class because he thinks it's funny." (In another episode, Beaver is called a "sheepdog" by a taunting girl and Eddie Haskell, Wally's teenage friend, tells Beaver a comeback to use on her: "You look like a cover girl...for MAD magazine!") |
55 - Jun 1960 |
| Mad Invades Television | Four For Tonight | On February 24, 1960, this NBC television Pontiac special featured Mad. | 55 - Jun 1960 |
| Pontiac Special | Four For Tonight | On February 24, 1960, this NBC television Pontiac special featured Mad. (In Tony Randall's series of blackout sketches to open the show, he did an adaptation of Don Martin's "Hair Tonic Commercial" from "Future TV AD" in Mad #32.) |
56 - Jul 1960 |
| Mad Comic Strip | The Jackson Twins | Newspaper comic strip about two identical-twin high school teenage girls. One shouts at the other: "Stop! Stop! Why Don't You Just Send Him A Copy of Mad Magazine!" |
60 - Jan 1961 |
| Mad On TV | Peter Loves Mary | In this NBC television show, Peter Lind Hayes gives his back-issues of Mad to his maid. | 62 - Apr 1961 |
| Mad On TV | Bob Hope - Buick Show | In this television show, "Hope said he was next-to-the-dumbest cadet in the Air Force Academy. Then, Alfred E. Neuman walked out onto the stage." |
62 - Apr 1961 |
| Mad On TV | Front Page Challenge | In this Canadian television show, Canadian author, Pierre Burton, read a copy of Mad. | 62 - Apr 1961 |
| A Mad State of Affairs | The Charlotte Observer | Newspaper from February 5, 1961 shows photo of Betsy Sanford, daughter of Governor Terry Sanford of North Carolina, reading Mad. |
64 - Jul 1961 |
| Mad Computer | Popular Science | Magazine's March 1961 issue mentions an electronic computer called the "Michigan Algorithm Decoder" (initials M.A.D.) which prints out a picture of Alfred E. Neuman with "What, Me Worry" on it when the machine is fed the WRONG information. |
65 - Sep 1961 |
| Congressional Record | On May 17, 1962, Benjamin Stanley Rosenthal, a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York's 7th district, read a statement praising Mad on its tenth anniversary. (Rosenthal's district included the part of Manhattan where Mad's offices were.) Rosenthal said, "Mad magazine, which for the past 10 years has humorously pointed out the laughable foibles of business, labor, advertising, television, sports, and entertainment-- to say nothing of politics...As their victims, we may not always be glad, but as good sports, we hope they will always stay Mad." |
74 - Oct 1962 | |
| Mad Twists Rock 'N' Roll | WTRA | A couple of songs from Mad's Mad "Twists" Rock 'N' Roll Album were played on deejay's, Ray Blair, Saturday radio show. "Within minutes, the telephones were ringing with people requesting more. Unfortunately, the station manager didn't like the idea at all." The deejay was fired. |
75 - Dec 1962 |
| Mad Goes on Record | Ahab the Arab | In Ray Stevens' song he sings: "Sipping on a 'R C' Co-Cola, listening to her transistor, watching the Grand Ole Opry on the tube, reading the Mad magazine while she sung, 'Does your chewing gum lose it's flavor?'" |
75 - Dec 1962 |
| Newspaper Strike-Back | The Seattle Times | Newspaper's humor column contained a joke that came from Mad. The paper referred to Mad as "that zany humor publication." |
81 - Sep 1963 |
| Fink Along With Mad | WINS | New York City radio station's deejay, Pete Myers, was the first to play Mad's Fink Along With Mad album. He said "the record makes a terrific flying saucer." His Program Director took "it off the turntable, ran to the nearest open window, and skimmed it across Central Park." Pete Myers was known as "Mad Daddy." He had a frenetic, rapid-fire patter delivered entirely in rhyme. Sadly, he took his own life on Friday, October 4, 1968. |
81 - Sep 1963 |
| Sub Subtrifuge | The Saturday Evening Post |
Magazine's December 21 - 28, 1963 issue has an article about Mad by Jack Skow. | 87 - Jun 1964 |
| Beatle-Mania Contest | WMCA | New York radio station had a mail competition to "put a Beatle wig on anyone." Alfred E. Beatle (Alfred E. Neuman with a Beatle's wig on) got approximately 1,000 votes. |
88 - Jul 1964 |
| Beatles Plug Mad | A Hard Day's Night | The group's general helper, Shake, reads the Son Of Mad paperback in the 1964 movie. | 92 - Jan 1965 |
| Mad Is Educational??? | Medical World News | In the June 5, 1964 issue in an article entitled, "Teen-agers Speak Their Mind On Smoking": "Noting that unattractive anti-smoking propaganda is no match for slick advertisements," teen-agers "called for improved pamphlets and films aimed at a teen audience. The kind of satire identified with Mad Magazine should have a place in educational programs." |
92 - Jan 1965 |
| Art Buchwald | Time | Magazine called Art Buchwald "a mythical person first thought up by Mad Magazine" on page 73 of the December 18, 1964 issue. Art Buchwald was a REAL person, an American humorist who had a syndicated newspaper column focusing on political satire and commentary. |
95 - Jun 1965 |
| Kind Hearts At Coronet | Coronet | Magazine's July 1965 issue praised Mad. | 99 - Dec 1965 |
| Beetle Bailey Goes Mad | Beetle Bailey | Alfred E. Neuman appears in the March 27, 1967 comic strip as "The Inspector General." | 113 - Sep 1967 |
| Mad On Television In Canada |
Take 30 | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation scheduled a telecast for December 28, 1967 at 3:00 P.M. featuring a documentary on Mad Magazine. |
116 - Jan 1968 |
| Visiting Editor | Youth | Magazine's June 1971 issue ran a story on Mad, including an interview with Mad Editor Al Feldstein along with photographs of Mad's staff at work. |
145 - Sep 1971 |
| Mad Surprise Party | CARTOONIST PROfiles |
June 1971 issue of the quarterly magazine contains photos of a surprise party for Mad's Lenny Brenner as well as drawings presented to him. |
146 - Oct 1971 |
| Mad's College Football Coach |
Wichita Falls Times Record News |
Newspaper reported that Gerald Stockton would be replaced as athletic director and coach at Midwestern U with Royal "Bear" Hades, Coach of the Year. The statement came from Mad #175 article "Mad's College Football Coach of the Year." It ran as an April Fools joke. A local radio station reported it as FACT and caused telephone lines to be tied up for hours. |
177 - Sep 1975 |
| A Score On Channel 44 | WTOG | Editor Al Feldstein and staff appeared on the St. Petersburg, Florida television station. | 206 - Apr 1979 |
| That's The Way It Is | Washington Journalism Review |
A photo session with Walter Cronkite captures an 'Alfred E. Neuman For President' poster hanging in his office. |
223 - Jun 1981 |
| Alfred Look-Alike? | TV Guide | Magazine's April 18, 1981 issue reports that ABC News President Roone Arledge made jokes about how "Nightline" anchorman Ted Koppel looks like Alfred E. Neuman. (Mad prints Ted Koppel's response: "I think he looks more like Prince Charles!") |
225 - Sep 1981 |
| Plugging Away | Good Morning America | In 1982, ABC's morning television program featured Dick DeBartolo, Mort Drucker and Al Feldstein in one of its segments. |
236 - Jan 1983 |
| San Francisco Chronicle | Ronald Reagan morphs into Alfred E. Reagan and says, "What... Me Worry?" in newspaper's editorial cartoon. |
237 - Mar 1983 | |
| The Courier-Journal | Newspaper editorial cartoon has Alfred E. Neuman with a pencil through his ears representing "The Fed," the central bank of the United States. "Economists are working to bring down interest rates... So don't despair...Hang in there!" But last panel shows what looks like the corpse of Uncle Sam hanging. |
237 - Mar 1983 | |
| John Darling | Comic strip features Ted Koppel, ABC News Anchor for Nightline, announcing he is going on vacation next week. Last panel has him sitting with his replacement: Alfred E. Neuman. Alfred also appeared in a John Darling Sunday strip on January 13, 1980. |
237 - Mar 1983 | |
| Stolen Material | The Grand Rapids Press | Newspaper article from June 1, 1983, "Robbery Reaction: What, Me Worry?" reports a man wearing an Alfred E. Neuman mask tried to hold up a gas station but couldn't get the clerk to take him seriously and fled without any money. |
243 - Dec 1983 |
| TV Show Goes Mad | Real People | On the February 15, 1984 episode of the television show, Mad's Sergio Aragones was featured in a segment as the world's fastest cartoonist. |
247 - Jun 1984 |
| Alfred At The Oscars | Sundae In New York | This 4-minute 1983 American film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 56th Academy Awards. It features an appearance by Alfred E. Neuman sitting at a table with other prominent New Yorkers enjoying Chinese food with chopsticks in his hand. |
249 - Sep 1984 |
| Veep Shot | New York Sunday News | Geraldine Ferraro paints a portrait of Ronald Reagan as Alfred E. Neuman in this July 15, 1984 newspaper editorial cartoon. "I call it, 'What? Me Worry?'" |
251 - Dec 1984 |
| What, Me Borrowed? | Peter Kohlsaat's editorial cartoon depicts an Alfred E. Neuman / Postmaster General William F. Bolger morph on the proposed new First Class 22 cent postage stamp with the words "What...Me Worry?" |
253 - Mar 1985 | |
| A Jaffee Imitator | The Greenville Piedmont News |
Newspaper editorial cartoon, drawn like an Al Jaffee Fold-In, uses the Mad logo (Miserable Area Democrats). The Fold-In represents the 1984 Democrat Presidential ticket of Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro. When folded, Geraldine Ferraro's name disappears. |
254 - Apr 1985 |
| Ronald E. Reagan | The Boston Globe | In a newspaper editorial cartoon from March 3, 1985, Ronald Reagan grins with an Alfred E. Neuman-like gap, says "What? Me worry?" about the claim: "20 Million Go Hungry In U.S." |
256 - Jul 1985 |
| Alfred For The Defense | Syracuse Herald-Journal |
Newspaper editorial cartoonist, Tim Atseff, draws a worried Alfred E. Neuman morphing into Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger saying, "What, Me Sacrifice?" in response to the Defense budget being cut. |
257 - Sep 1985 |
| Pope And Dagger Dept. | The New Republic | Editorial cartoon drawn by Taylor Jones (with "Apologies to A.E. Neuman") of the spies from Spy vs. Spy, up to their usual shenanigans on the pope's headdress, accompanies the text of the article by Claire Sterling: "The Great Bulgarian Cover-Up -- Betrayals, false alibis, and bungling by the pope's would-be assassins." |
259 - Dec 1985 |
| A "Goofie" Letter | The Goonies | In the Mad movie satire of "The Goonies" ("The Goofies" Mad #258) Mad got onto Pepsi for being in the movie, but didn't admit that Mad was too! Under the letter, Mad ran a photo of Mickey (Sean Astin) in the movie reading The Worst From Mad No. 12 Annual (Mad incorrectly identifies it as Mad Super Special #12 which is completely DIFFERENT). |
260 - Jan 1986 |
| Spy Vs. Spy Vs. Spy Vs. Spy... | Plympton | Bill Plympton comments on the espionage scandal at the time with a political cartoon showing an endless number of White and Black spies from "Spy Vs. Spy" taking pictures and milling about outside Congress, where a member says "Maybe we should tighten up our security." |
262 - Apr 1986 |
| Seattle Post- Intelligencer |
Newspaper editorial cartoon shows Philippines President, Ferdinand Marcos, seated next to South African President, P. W. Botha. Both take on an Alfred E. Neuman appearance. Marcos comments on the political violence overtaking his country, "What, me worried about a little domestic unrest??" Botha quips, "What, me worried that we need any changes around here??" in response to his country's black population demanding an end to Apartheid and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. |
263 - Jun 1986 | |
| Hoop-La | Second Wind | In Bill Russell's book the former Boston Celtic basketball star talks about Mad. He considered it one of the greatest compliments he received when Mad poked fun at the way he conducted television interviews in "Mad's Poll-Taker of the Year" (Mad #173). He said he borrowed many of his answers from Al Jaffee's "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" to keep strangers at arm's length. |
264 - Jul 1986 |
| The Greenville Piedmont News |
In a newspaper editorial cartoon, Muammar Gaddafi stands in front of what is presumably the aftermath of the U.S. bombing of Libya under the Mad-logo style title "Mad Dog". "Mad Dog" was Ronald Reagan's name for Gaddafi, missing a tooth like Alfred E. Neuman in this image, saying "What, me worry?" |
265 - Sep 1986 | |
| It's A Spies' Life | Life | Antonio Prohias and his spies from Spy Vs. Spy were in the Sept. 1986 issue of the magazine. | 268 - Jan 1987 |
| Madhattan, Inc. | Manhattan, Inc. | The magazine had an article about Mad in its August 1986 issue. | 268 - Jan 1987 |
| Regis Philbin's Lifestyles |
Mad writer Dick DeBartolo appeared on the Lifetime Cable Network show. | 268 - Jan 1987 | |
| The Wings of Mad | Eastern Review | Eastern Airline's in-flight magazine featured Mad Publisher William M. Gaines. | 273 - Sep 1987 |
| The Morley Majority | 60 Minutes | CBS reporter Morley Safer visited Mad's office and interviewed Mad editors Nick Meglin and John Ficarra, writer Dick DeBartolo, and publisher Bill Gaines for the television show. |
274 - Oct 1987 |
| North Jest Territory | Tulsa Tribune | Newspaper editorial cartoon shows Colonel Oliver North drawn with a missing tooth (similar to Alfred E. Neuman) saying "What Me, Worry?" The cartoon shows North wearing a halo with the words "Presidential Pardon???" printed on it. North was a National Security Council staff member during the Iran-Contra affair. |
276 - Jan 1988 |
| The Buckley Slop's Here | National Review | October 9, 1987 magazine cover, drawn by Mort Drucker, features guest appearance by Alfred E. Neuman in cap and gown, holding a college diploma. The cover is titled "Bachelor of Vacuity, '91: The Face of America's Universities." |
277 - Mar 1988 |
| Mad About 60 Minutes | 60 Minutes | Mad shares reader reactions about its appearance on CBS's Sunday night, prime time news program, September 20, 1987 (originally promoted on the letters page of Mad #274). |
278 - Apr 1988 |
| Spy Magazine? | Discover | Magazine cover and its accompanying article from March 1988 feature the White and Black spies from "Spy Vs. Spy." The cover is titled: "Who's Watching You? Spy-Tech Fever Sweeps America." |
280 - Jul 1988 |
| 60 More Mad Minutes | 60 Minutes | In Spring 1988, CBS's Sunday night prime time news program repeated its segment on Mad from September 20, 1987 (originally promoted on the letters page of Mad #274). |
283 - Dec 1988 |
| Tales from the Duke Side | Los Angeles Times | Mike Dukakis, Democratic presidential candidate in 1988, drawn with one missing tooth (similar to Alfred E. Neuman) saying "What me, worry?" appears in this newspaper editorial cartoon. |
286 - Apr 1989 |
| Heavy Metal Madness | State of Euphoria | The back cover of the Anthrax album drawn by Mort Drucker has one of the band's members wearing a Spy Vs. Spy shirt. |
286 - Apr 1989 |
| Alfred E. Boggs | Sports Illustrated | Wade Boggs says, "What, Me Worry?" on the Sports Illustrated March 6, 1989 cover. Mad compares it to their recent baseball cover #282 with Alfred E. Neuman swinging at a pie. |
289 - Sep 1989 |
| Exxon Marks The Spot | Pittsburgh Press | Newspaper editorial cartoon has Alfred E. Neuman as an Exxon executive standing in an oil-polluted ocean saying "What, Me Worry?" The cartoon is referring to the Exxon Valdez oil spill that occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska on March 24, 1989. The spill covered 11,000 square miles of ocean. |
290 - Oct 1989 |
| Hits 3, Mad 0 |
Hits | Magazine used Alfred E. Neuman on its August 1989 cover with the caption: "Worry! It's HITS' Third Anniversary Issue!" Greg Theakston drew Alfred with three fingers raised on one hand and a thumbs down on the other. (SIDE NOTES: Alfred also appeared on Hits Tenth Anniversary cover, by Mad Art Director Sam Viviano, with six fingers raised on one hand and four on the other. The caption read: "Ten Years of Giving You the Finger. RUN FOR COVER... It's HITS' Tenth Anniversary Issue!" and on another cover as "Adelfred" again by Sam Viviano to celebrate HITS 26th Anniversary. Sam has also done other HITS Anniversary covers that featured Alfred.) |
292 - Jan 1990 |
| What, Me Have A Cow? | Copley News Service | Old guy in newspaper editorial cartoon complains "This Bart Simpson cartoon kid is a terrible role model! Imagine, idolizing an underachiever! In my day, we had wholesome, traditional role models!" In the last panel the guy reveals he's reading Mad Magazine. |
299 - Dec 1990 |
| Nick - At Night | thirtysomething | Mad Co-Editor Nick Meglin was on the television show's episode "The Haunting of DAA." In the episode when Michael Steadman (Ken Olin) is forced to fire employees from the advertising corporation, DAA, on Halloween, he gets fired. Nick appeared in a scene with Elliot Weston (Timothy Busfield). He provided some of the drawings hanging in Billy Sidel's (Erich Anderson's) apartment in the episode "Never Better." |
305 - Sep 1991 |
| The Face Is Familiar | Esquire | June 1992 magazine cover has George Bush with a missing tooth (similar to Alfred E. Neuman) with the caption: "What, Me Worry? How George Bush Went Mad in the White House." |
314 - Oct 1992 |
| The Face Is Familiar | Texas Monthly | Magazine on its June 1992 cover has Ross Perot, an independent presidential candidate in 1992, with a missing tooth (similar to Alfred E. Neuman) with the caption: "What, Me President? How Perot Can Win." |
314 - Oct 1992 |
| William M. Gaines | The New York Times | A portrait of Alfred E. Neuman shedding a tear appeared in the newspaper on June 10, 1992 as a full page tribute to Gaines by Mad's staff. He had passed away on June 3, 1992. Here's a video of the same thing with the original New York Times printer plate. |
315 - Dec 1992 |
| A Mad Look At Bob | Bob | On the CBS television show's episode "You Can't Win," Mad's Sergio Aragones
guest-starred as himself. |
320 - Jul 1993 |
| Campbell's Whoop | Montreal Gazette | Newspaper editorial cartoon from October 24, 1993 depicts Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell as Alfred E. Neuman on a fake magazine cover of Mud (drawn similar to Mad's logo) with the caption: "SUPPORT 17% CHEAP. What-- me worry?" The cartoon was referring to the lack of support for the Prime Minister in the upcoming Canadian 1993 federal election. Her Conservative Party went down to a record-setting defeat. |
326 - Mar 1994 |
| President Signs Historic Document |
Prince George's County Memorial Library System Newsletter |
The Hyatteville, Maryland, newsletter reported that on February 9, 1994, President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore were at the Prince George's County Correctional Center to unveil the administration's National Drug Strategy. Two of the CDC library staff were told to stay home for the day. In an attempt to make some sort of contact, one staff member left on his desk the February 1994 issue of Mad #325 with its cover depicting Clinton and Gore as the "infamous, controversial" Beavis and Butt-head. When the two staff members came in the next day they found that Clinton and Gore had autographed the cover. An employee told them that the President and Vice-President thought the magazine was really funny. |
331 - Oct 1994 |
| Information Superspyway | Wired | The "Spy vs Spy" spies fight it out on the June 1994 cover of the magazine. The caption reads "Spy Vs. Nerd!" |
332 - Dec 1994 |
| Luann | Greg Evans' comic strip tribute to Mad appeared July 31, 1994. Teenager Brad reads Mad #328 and daydreams about applying for a job with the magazine. In an interview with Alfred E. Neuman, he imagines himself in "Spy vs. Spy," "The Lighter Side Of...," a Fold-In, and a Sergio Aragones marginal. Brad even gets a cover with his name drawn similarly to Mad's logo. His smile is missing a tooth and his shirt reads "What, Me?" |
333 - Jan 1995 | |
| Candice / Gingrich? | Murphy Brown | In a photo from the television show episode "All Singing! All Dancing! All Miserable!" Mad covers #126, #153, and #197 can be seen framed on the wall. |
347 - Jul 1996 |
| Super Mario | Time Warner | Television ad has New York Governor Mario Cuomo holding a copy of Mad over his face with the words on screen: "Won't admit it, but has every Mad magazine ever printed." |
355 - Mar 1997 |
| Duck And Cover | Home Worker | Duck Edwing appears on the cover of Kinko's magazine. | 364 - Dec 1997 |
| The Schmuck Stopped Here | The Simpsons | Television show's episode "The Simpsons in New York" (Actual Title: "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson") shows Bart visiting the Mad office. The Mad office's secretary tells Bart, "You probably think lots of crazy stuff goes on in there but this is just a place of business." Then he sees Alfred E. Neuman come partially out of a door saying "Get me Kaputnik in Fonebone, I want to see the drawings for the New Kids on the Blecch!" Behind Alfred you see among other things: a flying Mad Zeppelin, the White Spy from "Spy Vs. Spy," a Don Martin character on a pogo stick, and a pipe smoking Dave Berg walking by. |
365 - Jan 1998 |
| All The Neuman's That's Fit To Print |
The New York Times | Newspaper Sunday crossword puzzle by Peter Gordon for August 3, 1997, contained a quote from Alfred E. Neuman from Mad #310: "We're living in an age when lemonade is made with artificial ingredients and furniture polish is made with real lemons!" |
365 - Jan 1998 |
| With Friends Like These… | Friends | Mad's Co-Editor Nick Meglin appeared in a scene on the NBC television show. In the scene he hits Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) in the chest with a sloppy hot dog while he is buying it from a hot dog stand. |
367 - Mar 1998 |
| Mutts Ado About Nothing | Mutts | Newspaper comic strip paid homage to the first issue of Mad by closely reproducing the cover, with logo style, dialogue ("It's Melvin!" becomes "It's Mooch!"), and Mooch the cat's shadow replaces the cover's lurking Melvin. |
368 - Apr 1998 |
| Tooth In Journalism | The Cincinnati Post | Newspaper editorial cartoon shows Alfred E. Neuman as he normally appears on a cover of Mad. Then, it shows Alfred as he would appear on a cover of Newsweek: He has a FULL SET OF TEETH! The Cartoon was referring to the December 1, 1997 cover of Newsweek where they digitally filled in and whitened the teeth of septuplets mother Bobbi McCaughey. |
368 - Apr 1998 |
| Alfred E. Gates | Upside | Magazine's November 1997 cover depicts Bill Gates with a missing tooth (in the style of Alfred E. Neuman) with the words "What, Me Worry? Bill Gates Has Already Won Everything." |
370 - Jun 1998 |
| Antonio Prohias 1921-1998 | MAD TV | After Antonio Prohias passed away February 24, 1998, the TV show's creators dedicated their March 7, 1998 show in his memory. |
371 - Jul 1998 |
| Pipe-A Personality | Pipes and Tobaccos | Dave Berg appears on the Spring 1998 cover in a charcoal self-portrait, smoking a pipe. | 373 - Sep 1998 |
| Attorney For The Worse | The Orlando Sentinel | Newspaper editorial cartoon shows two men on a park bench. One reads Vanity Fair and says, "It's Monica Lewinsky!" while the other man looks at some sort of centerfold in Mad and says "It's William Ginsburg!" Ginsburg was an American lawyer, best known for representing former White House intern Lewinsky in her controversy regarding her relationship with President Bill Clinton in 1998. |
374 - Oct 1998 |
| Mad Blurbs | The New York Times | Newspaper article from March 8, 1998, reported that after John Goodman passed the offices of Mad on Madison Avenue in New York City, he reflected back on growing up with the magazine in Affton, Missouri where "Mad was the only cultural event of the month.... I got my education from Mad. If I didn't get a joke, I'd consult the encyclopedia." |
375 - Nov 1998 |
| Whose Motto Is It Anyway? | New York Daily News | Newspaper front page photo of Bill Clinton has captions that read "What, Me Worry?" and "Dems warn him to fess up" -- referring to Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky. |
377 - Jan 1999 |
| Political Issues | New York Daily News | A Mad Magazine with cover featuring Bill Clinton is among the magazines "on newsstands now" in this editorial cartoon. Also shown: Hillary Clinton on Vogue, Linda Tripp on Dog World, and Monica Lewinsky on Cigar Aficionado. All subjects played their roles in the Lewinsky scandal. |
381 - May 1999 |
| These Times Demand The Fold-Ins |
The New York Times | Newspaper used Mad's Fold-In concept for their Fall fashion supplement. "What Do Beautiful People Really Like To Do When They Get Together And Party?" Fold-In answer: "Back Stab." |
388 - Dec 1999 |
| Mad Blurbs | Gilliam On Gilliam | In his book, Terry Gilliam wrote about growing up with Mad magazine. Some excerpts: "Mad became the Bible for me and for my whole generation." "It was precise, because the editor, Harvey Kurtzman, was a real taskmaster. A lampoon had to look exactly like the real thing, and he insisted on real craftsmanship. This is what we ended up with on Python (Monty Python's Flying Circus)." |
389 - Jan 2000 |
| Mad Blurbs | U.S. News & World Report |
The January 24, 2000 issue of the magazine reported that John McCain, during a campaign stop in New Hampshire, saw a man wearing a Mad T-shirt and said: "As you know my dear friends, Alfred E. Neuman is a national hero." |
393 - May 2000 |
| Bush League Politics | This Modern World | George W. Bush gradually morphs into Alfred E. Neuman during the 2000 Presidential Election campaign in this Tom Tomorrow political cartoon. The text reads: "That boyishly tousled hair, those adorable jug ears, that devil-may-care grin, doesn't this guy seem vaguely... FAMILIAR?" and Bush say "What -- me worry?" |
394 - Jun 2000 |
| Bush League Politics | AP Photo | Grinning George W. Bush holds up an Alfred E. Neuman statue wearing a George W. Bush mask. | 394 - Jun 2000 |
| Bush League Politics | The Fairfield County Weekly |
Newspaper's February 10, 2000 cover has a surprised-by-the-camera-flash George W. Bush with the caption "What--Me Worry?" |
394 - Jun 2000 |
| These Times Demand The Spies |
The New York Times | Laurence Zuckerman's March 18, 2000 newspaper article "How the C.I.A. Played Dirty Tricks With Culture" was illustrated with Peter Kuper's "Spy vs. Spy" spies. Here's the article sans art. |
396 - Aug 2000 |
| Tears For Cheers | TV Guide | Mad reprints TV Guide's "Cheers" to Mad from the guide's July 8th issue, in which they praise Mad for their spoof of TV Guide's multi-cover issues in Mad #395. Mad Jeers the Cheer with "What do we have to do around here to piss somebody off?" |
398 - Oct 2000 |
| Mint Vs. Mint | Altoids Ad | Mad says to look in leading magazines everywhere for Altoids ads featuring the "Spy Vs. Spy" spies. Mad later puts the ad on its own back cover of Mad #403. |
399 - Nov 2000 |
| Strips Tease | Luann | Teenager Brad avoids chores, reads Mad lying on the couch in this August 21, 2000 comic strip. | 400 - Dec 2000 |
| Strips Tease | Heart Of The City | Newspaper comic strip for August 15, 2000 has two boys laughing while reading Mad. Heart Lamarr, a precocious girl in the strip, comes by and looks at what the boys are reading and does not find it funny at all. One of the boys says "Mad Magazine...It's A Guy Thing." (This strip is a continuation of the strip for August 14, 2000 where one boy asks the other boy, J.D. in the strip: "Did you see the new issue of Mad Magazine?" In which J.D. responds with a detailed description of what he likes in Mad. Then the other boy replies, "I just like the funny pictures.") |
400 - Dec 2000 |
| George W. Puts Nation In Crisis |
The Nation | Magazine cover for November 13, 2000 morphs Alfred E. Neuman and George W. Bush. | 402 - Feb 2001 |
| Mad Suffers Another Bart Attack |
The Simpsons | The show's "New Kids on the Blecch" episode features a deranged music producer destroying Mad's office after Mad publishes a scathing satire on Bart's boy band. |
409 - Sep 2001 |
| All The Quotes That Are Fit To Print |
The New York Times | Newspaper Sunday crossword puzzle by Peter Gordon for September 16, 2001, contained a quote from Alfred E. Neuman from Mad #408: "Understatement is a zillion times more effective than exaggeration!" Mad suggested its own question in response: "What's an 18-letter phrase for an unhappy Times founder Adolph Ochs? Answer: Spinning In His Grave!" |
413 - Jan 2002 |
| Funny Pages? | Flight Deck | Alfred E. Neuman is introduced as a new student in school in this November 15, 2001 newspaper comic strip. |
414 - Feb 2002 |
| From Cover To Cover | Lands' End | Alfred E. Neuman is on the cover and inside their March 2002 catalogue. (video) | 416 - Apr 2002 |
| Alfred E. Gates? | Upside | Magazine article image for "Upshot -- What, Me Worry?" morphs Bill Gates and Alfred E. Neuman. Article is about Bill Gates and Microsoft brushing aside lawsuits and the slow economy to bring out their latest operating system, Windows XP. Windows XP was successful, unlike Microsoft's previous operating system Windows ME (Millennium) which was heavily criticized for being buggy, slow and unstable. |
418 - Jun 2002 |
| We Haven't The Vega-est Idea |
Machine Ballerina | Suzanne Vega's song contains the lyric "I'm amusing. I'm a puppet for your play. Am I your Mad Magazine?" |
418 - Jun 2002 |
| We Haven't The Vega-est Idea |
Machine Ballerina | Readers respond to Mad's request from Mad #418 to give their interpretation of Suzanne Vega's Mad Magazine reference "Am I your Mad Magazine?" in her song. Examples: "She's no good between the covers anymore!" "She has no lighter side, she's not worth $3.50 and what, me worry? She should, just look at her record sales!" and "It's because when you fold her up, you can see a completely different picture!" |
422 - Oct 2002 |
| The Grand Marshal | Village of Strasburg | Mayor of the Village of Strasburg, Ohio, John E. Bitikofer, proclaimed October 15, 2002, Mad Magazine Day in conjunction with Mad's 50th Anniversary. |
427 - Mar 2003 |
| Fish Or Foul? | WTNH | On New Year's Eve, 2002, ABC's New Haven, Connecticut television station channel 8 Anchor/Reporter Keith Kountz reported on the "Mad 20 Dumbest People, Events & Things of 2002." He remarked "I'm glad I'm not in Mad!" The letter writer says he'd love to see Mad parody Kountz to death, compares his looks to a diseased fish. Mad left it up to its readers to decide with pictures of the anchor and a diseased fish. (A few pages later in the same issue, the editors responded to an unrelated letter with the same picture of a diseased fish labeled "WTNH Anchor/Reporter Keith Kountz.") |
428 - Apr 2003 |
| What, Saddam Worry? | New York Daily News | January 21, 2003, newspaper's lead story photo has Saddam Hussein captioned "What, Me Worry? -- Saddam Says He Sleeps Like A Baby" -- evidently not worrying about a United States invasion of Iraq. (A U.S.-led invasion of Iraq did occur on March 20, 2003.) |
428 - Apr 2003 |
| We Lost On Jeopardy! | Jeopardy! | The October 25, 2002 episode featured an entire Double Jeopardy! category (including a "Daily Double") dedicated to Mad. Mad gave the questions to the pictured answers: Except for #2 (see below) they were ALL WRONG! Here are the answers with the CORRECT questions from the show: 1. THE MARCH 2001 ISSUE INCLUDED THESE, A FIRST IN THE MAGAZINE'S HISTORY (Mad #403) -- What are advertisements? (NOTE: This Jeopardy question is ALSO WRONG! Besides the comic versions of Mad (Mad #1 to #23) REAL non-Mad advertisements appeared in Mad as late as Mad #32 (Apr. 1957) with an ad for Famous Artists Schools and Mad #45 (Mar. 1959) with an ad for Goldbrick Cuff Links.) 2. IN APRIL 2002 THIS NETWORK RENEWED ITS "MAD TV" FOR 2 MORE SEASONS -- What is FOX? 3. HIS NAME IS ON THE MASTHEAD AS "FOUNDER" -- Who is William M. Gaines? 4. ON EACH COVER YOU'LL FIND A LITTLE "IND" NEXT TO THE "M" IN MAD & THIS 5-LETTER WORD AFTER THE PRICE -- What is "CHEAP"? 5. (DAILY DOUBLE) A 1997 COVER HAD JERRY SEINFELD SAYING THIS GREETING TO SOMEONE AT HIS DOOR -- What is "HELLOOOOOOOO NEUMAN!" Mad #364 (Dec. 1997) |
428 - Apr 2003 |
| Agent Cody Banks: Mad Fan | Agent Cody Banks | In the 2003 movie, the bedroom door of Frankie Muniz, aka Agent Cody Banks, was adorned with the Mad "Who Needs You" poster. |
430 - Jun 2003 |
| Down With Mad | Down With Love | Ewan McGregor's character reads a custom-made 60s-era issue of Mad, created by Mad artist Richard Williams featuring Renee Zellweger's character as Alfred on the cover, in this 2003 movie. A mock up of this cover can be seen here. |
432 - Aug 2003 |
| Annual Distort | Cognex Annual Report | Cognex's 2002 Annual Report parodies an issue of Mad. Among the features were "One Day on the Assembly Line." "You Know You Really Need Machine Vision When..." and "Eye Vs. Eye." It even had its own Letter Pages and Fold-In. |
436 - Dec 2003 |
| A Heavy Crossover To Bear | Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, The Village Voice, TV Guide, Us Weekly, The New York Times Magazine, Blender |
Magazines printed Al Jaffee's Fold-In ad for VH1 (Music Video Television channel). | 440 - Apr 2004 |
| A Heavy Crossover To Bear | Newsweek | The magazine puts a "Mad Cow" saying "What, Me Contaminated?" in place of Alfred on a Mad-like cover in this editorial cartoon. |
440 - Apr 2004 |
| It Ain't Easy Being Dean | USA Today | Mad is put on equal footing with Newsweek and Time in this editorial cartoon featuring Howard Dean's face on each magazine's cover. Dean ran and failed in his bid for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in 2004. Mad's version of the cover has Dean with a missing tooth, of course. |
441 - May 2004 |
| Mad About Peanuts | Charles Schulz Museum | From March 20 to September 27, 2004, the museum showed Mad parodies of Peanuts' strips and characters (possibly including some in these examples). |
441 - May 2004 |
| The Spies Have It | Mountain Dew Ads | Four Mountain Dew television commercials feature Mad's Spy Vs. Spy duo battling it out over a soda can of Dew: Canopy, Dynamite, Hallway, Helicopter |
446 - Oct 2004 |
| G.O. Peeved | Republican National Convention |
Protest sign shows a George W. Bush / Alfred E. Neuman morph with the caption: "Four More Years of This? Are You MAD?" |
447 - Nov 2004 |
| The Curse Of The Clod | New York Post | The back page of the August 31 edition shows Alfred E. Neuman dressed in a New York Yankees uniform proclaiming "Call 'em mad, but Yankees don't fear surging Red Sox. What, Us Worry?" Mad points out that on that night the Yankees lost 22-0 to the Cleveland Indians. Mad goes on to spoof past historical events with fake New York Post covers: April 14, 1865 (President Lincoln to forget nation's troubles with enjoyable night at the theater), April 11, 1970 (NASA predicts Apollo 13 mission to be smoothest ever), April 13, 1912 (On eve of maiden voyage, Captain says, "Titanic Unsinkable!"). |
448 - Dec 2004 |
| Feds Or Tales | The New York Times Magazine |
In the June 20, 2004 edition of the magazine, David Cunningham's article The Way We Live Now: 6-20-04: Re-evaluation; What the G-Men Knew described how the F.B.I. considered using Mad to fight the Ku Klux Klan by copying and distributing the Mad Mischief sticker "Support Mental Illness - Join The Ku Klux Klan" from More Trash From Mad #9. J. Edgar Hoover, the F.B.I.'s first director, "vetoed the idea: he feared that Klan members' ignorance might lead them to believe that the Klan was actually supporting a charitable need, mental illness." |
448 - Dec 2004 |
| From Ad To Worse | Mountain Dew Ad | As part of Mountain Dew's advertising campaign, a giant Spy Vs. Spy billboard was put up in New York's Times Square. |
449 - Jan 2005 |
| The Greatest Story Ever Fold-In |
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book) |
Book contains "a special self-deprecating fold-in" by Al Jaffee featuring Richard Nixon. | 449 - Jan 2005 |
| Picker Treat | Miami Herald | Newspaper used Alfred E. Neuman's image to pick the winners of NFL 2004 football games. Alfred was 0-6 for his picks until he picked the Miami Dolphins to win the Super Bowl. |
451 - Mar 2005 |
| It Was The Worst Of The Times |
Los Angeles Times | Newspaper editorial cartoon from January 31, 2005 shows "Spy Vs. Spy" spies about to attack one another. Black represents the Pentagon. White represents the C.I.A. The cartoon refers to the Pentagon creating battlefield intelligence units for the first time that have been assigned to work directly with Special Operations forces on secret counter-terrorism missions, tasks that had been largely the province of the C.I.A. |
453 - May 2005 |
| Putting Shame In Your Games |
Games | Magazine's April 2005 issue Double Cross puzzle by Michael Ashley featured a Mad-related entry: Catch question coined by the Usual Gang of Idiots: 3 wds. (The answer is 11 letters long. Most likely it is "What Me Worry.") |
454 - Jun 2005 |
| Hippocratic Oaf | Medical Economics | The periodical printed a letter from a doctor who leaves Mad in his exam rooms. Mad parodied a typical conversation between the doctor and a patient: The doctor praises Mad instead of examining his patient. By ignoring the patient's complaints, he fails to see his patient slip into a coma. |
456 - Aug 2005 |
| Jaffee Better Watch His Beck | Girl | In the music video of the song, Beck walks through a neighborhood of living fold-ins. Beck said, "The whole thing is an East L.A. tribute to Al Jaffee." |
456 - Aug 2005 |
| Snot Ready For Primetime | Two and a Half Men | On the television show, Angus T. Young, who plays Jake Harper, is shown picking his nose while he is reading Mad Color Classics #11. |
457 - Sep 2005 |
| To Speech His Own | various newspapers | As reported in the news, in a speech delivered on July 10, 2005, New York Senator Hillary Clinton angered Republicans by comparing George W. Bush to Alfred E. Neuman: "I sometimes feel that Alfred E. Neuman is in charge in Washington." She added that Bush's attitude toward tough national issues was "What, me worry?" Mad printed various newspaper headline responses from Republicans. Among them: "Republicans 'Mad' at Hil," "Republicans Are MAD," "GOP 'Mad' as hell at Hillary." Mad editor John Ficarra responded by saying "Her remark is nothing more than a calculated attempt to short-circuit Alfred's widely expected 2008 presidential bid. Clearly, she was implying that a vote for Neuman in '08 would result in a continuation of Bush's idiotic policies when, in fact, Alfred has idiotic policies of his own." |
458 - Oct 2005 |
| Art-Trocious | Albany Center Galleries |
John Caldwell had an exhibit of his artwork at the Albany Center Galleries in Albany, New York. The show was titled "Definitely Not On Loan From The Louvre: Recent Nonsense on Paper." |
458 - Oct 2005 |
| In A Banner Of Speaking | Major League Baseball Game |
On August 14, 2005, at a Major League Baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees, a fan held up a banner with Alfred E. Neuman's picture on it with the words "What, Me Worry? GO SOX!" Mad noted that the White Sox managed to win anyway. |
459 - Nov 2005 |
| Sound Bites | The Osgood File | On his radio show Charles Osgood ended his commentary on financial responsibility by saying: "Just as the philosopher Alfred E. Neuman once said, 'What, me worry?'" |
460 - Dec 2005 |
| Beck Issues | Girl | In Beck's music video of the song: Things fold-in like the Mad Fold-In; Al Jaffee's name appears in a television commercial (GO FROM THE STREETS TO EASY STREET! CALL AL JAFFEE 1-800-555-CASH); Pinatas sign turns into a fold-in of Alfred E. Neuman's lips with the missing tooth the same time a bench Beck is sitting on turns into a fold-in ("SUPER SALES! Talk is CHEAP" turns into "SUPER CHEAP"). The video's fold-ins are shown in detail in Mad Classics #4 (Beck Goes Mad!). |
460 - Dec 2005 |
| Mad Blurbs | TV Guide | In the September 25 - October 1, 2005 issue of the magazine, Marc Cherry, the creator of the television show Desperate Housewives, reported that Mad magazine caught him in their parody "Disparate No-Lives" (Mad #453) using the idea for a mysterious 'I know what you did' note that the character Mary Alice received from the 1997 movie "I Know What You Did Last Summer." |
461 - Jan 2006 |
| Mad Blurbs | John Woo Interviews | In the book, John Woo talks about the link between Mad and his work. "[In] The Killer I tried to find a way to emphasize the friend and enemy [dichotomy] and I tried to create a fun moment." "At that time my favorite comic was Mad magazine's Spy Vs. Spy." |
462 - Feb 2006 |
| Electile Dysfunction | New York Daily News | Following the 2005 New York City Mayoral election, the newspaper pointed out that some voters wrote-in Alfred E. Neuman as their choice for Mayor. |
463 - Mar 2006 |
| Live And Let Spy | Toy Fare | Magazine ran a Spy Vs. Spy take-off by Ryan Dunlavey: Spy vs Spy vs Alien vs Predator. | 463 - Mar 2006 |
| Mad In The Media | New York Post | In the January 25, 2006 newspaper, Holly Ware's article "Mystery Rival Is Spying On Visa" a half-page picture of the black and white spies from Spy Vs. Spy appeared under the caption "Plastic explosives." (article without picture) |
464 - Apr 2006 |
| Mad In The Media | The Wall Street Journal | The Mad UPC Symbol cover from Mad #198 was shown in an above-the-fold write-up in the newspaper. |
464 - Apr 2006 |
| Mad In The Media | Modeler's Resource | Alfred E. Neuman appeared on the magazine's Winter 2005 cover. | 464 - Apr 2006 |
| A Slow Fake News Day | The Colbert Report | On the March 13, 2006 episode, host Stephen Colbert ended the show by wishing Al Jaffee a happy 85th birthday. Mad included a transcript of the segment with pictures. At the end of the segment a birthday cake cut into three pieces shows the words "AL, YOU HAVE REPEATEDLY SHOWN ARTISTRY & CARE OF GREAT CREDIT TO YOUR FIELD." To simulate a Fold-In, the middle piece is removed and shows the words "AL, YOU ARE OLD." |
466 - Jun 2006 |
| At A Cross For Words | The New York Times | An entry in the newspaper's April 1, 2006, crossword puzzle had the clue "Like MAD." The answer was "parodic" -- used as an adjective, defined as "having or of the nature of a parody." |
467 - Jul 2006 |
| Hyde And Seek | That '70s Show | Letter contributor mentions Steven Hyde wore a Mad t-shirt on one of the show's episodes. (Not in the reader's letter, but a fun tidbit: In one scene towards the end of the episode "Moon Over Point Place," Hyde reads a Mad Magazine in the Hub when Jackie Burkhart interrupts him. He tells her he's in the middle of "Smokey and the Band-Aid" which would have been great if Mad had ever done a parody of "Smokey and the Bandit." He's holding #183 from June 1976. Mad's parody in that issue is "Dum-Dum Afternoon," their parody of "Dog Day Afternoon.") |
467 - Jul 2006 |
| Mad Blurbs | Yahoo News | In an interview on the news website, David Zucker sounded off on how Mad has influenced him. "Mad used to have two pages each issue of scenes they'd like to see in a Hollywood movie. We've just taken that attitude and added a Saturday Night Live approach to sketch comedy and created a story which we could then translate to the big screen." |
467 - Jul 2006 |
| Of Vice And Men | Vice | The June 2006 issue of the magazine features a cover done by Al Jaffee and an in-depth interview. | 469 - Sep 2006 |
| Another Slow Fake News Day |
The Daily Show | At the end of the June 15, 2006 show, Stephen Colbert showed Jon Stewart the parody of The Daily Show from Mad #467 (MAD Deconstructs TV Talk Shows: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart). Mad included a transcript of the segment with pictures. Mad's parody showed Stewart checking in with Colbert with a cheap plug for The Colbert Report. In it Colbert tells Stewart that his conversation with Stewart is "a little too scripted." Stewart asks him "would you mind closing with a meaningless non sequitur?" Colbert replies "Come on, snake eyes!" In the segment, Colbert points this out to Stewart and says "our banter is not scripted." Stewart agrees. Then they spoof the parody by appearing to give scripted responses and end with Colbert giving a meaningless non sequitur response ("Yahtzee!"). |
469 - Sep 2006 |
| Of Vice And Men Part II | Vice | In the Letter Pages of Mad #469, a picture of the June 2006 cover of Vice magazine is attributed to Al Jaffee. It was, in fact, drawn by TWO people. Johnny Ryan wrote to Mad pointing out that he "drew all those critters floating around in Al's brain cloud." |
471 - Nov 2006 |
| But Sirius-ly, Folks… | Howard Stern radio show |
Mad printed the conversation between Howard Stern and Louis C.K. on Howard's Sirius radio show in which Howard talks about the first time Mad put him on the cover. They reprinted cover art of Stern's head being pulled out of a toilet bowl with a plunger. (The article incorrectly identifies the cover as Mad #335 instead of Mad #339.) |
471 - Nov 2006 |
| Comic Conned | Pearls Before Swine | Mad artist, Tom Richmond, guest stars as himself in the newspaper comic strip from August 27, 2006 and features his caricature of Barbra Streisand. |
472 - Dec 2006 |
| Photographic Spoof | White And Nerdy | "Weird Al" Yankovic's music video shows a card from a Trivial Pursuit game. The last question asks "How many Wicket Men are there on a 43-Man Squamish team?" Those who know the article of the same name in Mad #95 know the answer is "five." |
472 - Dec 2006 |
| We've Officially Been Pimped |
Pimp My Ride | In an episode, 7-inch monitors were put in the mud flaps of an '87 Chevy Blazer. The inspiration for that stupidity came from the "Dump My Ride" parody in Mad #456. Mad showed the screen captures along with the actual quotes from the show. |
473 - Jan 2007 |
| As Seen On TV | Jimmy Kimmel Live | On his show, Jimmy Kimmel showed Jason Lee, who played Earl Hickey in the television show "My Name Is Earl," the Mad #470 "MY NAME IS EARLFRED" cover. |
474 - Feb 2007 |
| Mad Blurbs | Danecook.com | On his website, Dane Cook reacted to his appearance on the cover of Mad #475, "From the caricature on the cover to the rapidly drawn comic strips inside it's all validation. I am now a part of pop lexicon." |
477 - May 2007 |
| Mad Blurbs | The Fifth Vial | In his medical thriller, author Michael Palmer mentions Mad: "In the chair there was a magazine called Mad, which had lots of weird cartoon drawings, but way too many words for him to read." |
478 - Jun 2007 |
| Transcript Of The Best Damn Mad Plug Period |
Best Damn Sports Show Period |
The cast and Bob Saget are pictured discussing the spoof of their show from Mad #475 (MAD Deconstructs TV Talk Shows: Best Damn Sports Show Period). |
479 - Jul 2007 |
| The Sandman Speaketh | CW11 | During an interview, Thomas Hayden Church discussed growing up reading Mad with the CW11's Emily Frances. Mad included a transcript of the segment with a picture. |
480 - Aug 2007 |
| Keep It On The Download | pulpsecret.com | The website did a webcast featuring interviews with Mad Editor John Ficarra and the Mad staff. | 480 - Aug 2007 |
| Mad Blurbs | Time | Writer Joyce Carol Oates admitted in an article reading Mad was one of her guilty pleasures. "(But why "guilty"? No one who admires Mad magazine really feels the need to apologize or defend himself.)" |
483 - Nov 2007 |
| Copycat Litter | New York Daily News | An editorial cartoon titled "NFL gone mad" used the Spy Vs. Spy spies to comment on the New England Patriots' cheating scandal known as "Spygate." The Patriots were disciplined by the league for videotaping New York Jets' defensive coaches' signals from an unauthorized location during a September 9, 2007 game. |
484 - Dec 2007 |
| Copycat Litter | Tampa Bay Times | The Spy Vs. Spy spies are made part of the New England Patriots' "special" teams in the newspaper's editorial cartoon dealing with the Patriots' "Spygate" cheating scandal. |
484 - Dec 2007 |
| Copycat Litter | Ventura County Star | An editorial cartoon in the newspaper morphed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Alfred E. Neuman. Ahmadinejad, the sixth President of Iran from 2005 to 2013, had controversial political policies involving Iran's nuke buildup, his stated goal of destroying Israel, and his promotion and funding of terrorism. In the cartoon Mahmoud says "What, Me Worrisome?" under the highlighted letters in his last name taking on the "MAD" logo style. |
484 - Dec 2007 |
| Mad Blurbs | Entertainment Weekly | In the February 15, 2008 issue of the magazine, director Mike Nichols talked about Mad and his film "The Graduate." "...I had been turning Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman's character) into a Jew." "...Mad magazine after the movie came out (had) the caricature of Dustin (say) to the caricature of Elizabeth Wilson, 'Mom, how come I'm Jewish and you and Dad aren't?'" In this quote, Mike Nichols is referring to Mad's parody of "The Graduate" in Mad #122 ("The Post-Graduate"). However, the scene Nichols describes does NOT appear anywhere in the parody. |
489 - May 2008 |
| This Could Be Your Schmucky Day |
Delaware Lottery Tickets |
The state of Delaware issued Mad scratch-off lottery tickets featuring Alfred E. Neuman's face. | 492 - Aug 2008 |
| Three Ring Circuits | USA Today and MSNBC |
As reported in the news, Mad's spoof of a Circuit City flyer in Mad #492, "Sucker City," caused Circuit City to issue a memo to employees telling them to remove and destroy all of their issues of Mad. However, once the memo was leaked and the press picked up on it, Circuit City apologized for overreacting. |
494 - Oct 2008 |
| Comic Stripped | New York Daily News | Commenting on the Wall Street Bailout bill, Bill Bramhall drew an editorial cartoon in the newspaper that showed George W. Bush asking Congress if anyone was opposed to it. The members of Congress were all drawn to look like Alfred E. Neuman and were all saying in unison "What, Us Worry?" |
496 - Dec 2008 |
| Mad Blurbs | various TV news channels |
As reported in the news, at the Alfred E. Smith dinner held in New York City on October 16, 2008, then-Presidential candidate Barack Obama said he shared "the politics of Alfred E. Smith and the ears of Alfred E. Neuman." The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner is an annual white tie fundraiser for Catholic charities supporting the neediest children of the Archdiocese of New York. Held at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on the third Thursday of October, it honors Al Smith who grew up in poverty and later became the Governor of New York and the first Roman Catholic nominated as a Presidential candidate. |
497 - Jan 2009 |
| Fairey Tales | obeygiant.com | On his website, Shepard Fairey (creator of the iconic Obama image which Mad #495's cover was based on) wrote that the parody of his poster "is something I consider a high point in my career for pop culture recognition." Mad's reply was "That gives US hope!" |
497 - Jan 2009 |
| Spy Vs. Spy Featured In Make Magazine! |
Make | Mad Art Director Sam Viviano created the Spy Vs. Spy cover for Make Magazine #16. The magazine featured articles about how to build and use tiny surveillance devices from tiny video cameras to "sneaky" recorders. |
497 - Jan 2009 |
| Mad Blurbs | Knucklehead | In his book, Jon Scieszka shares stories about trying to explain what Mad is to him to the nuns who taught him in grade school. An excerpt: "the other character in our book is...like the spies in Spy vs. Spy. They are always tricking each other…No, Sister. It's not a TV show. No, Sister. It's not a cartoon. They are little stories without any words. Yes, Sister. In a magazine. Mad magazine. I see, Sister. Probably sinful, too." |
498 - Feb 2009 |
| Strip Teased | Frank & Ernest | Alfred E. Neuman appeared in the comic strip on September 26, 2008. Mad noticed that Alfred's last name was misspelled as "NEWMAN." |
498 - Feb 2009 |
| Blight At The Museum | The Ojai Valley Museum |
Mad's Sergio Aragones had a retrospective exhibition of his work at The Ojai Valley Museum in Ojai, California from August 7 to October 4, 2009. |
501 - Oct 2009 |
| America's Next Top Model-Maker |
The Simpsons | In the episode "Father Knows Worst," Otto bought a bunch of model kits - including one of Alfred E. Neuman (based on a real kit put out by Aurora models in 1965). |
501 - Oct 2009 |
| Mad On Family Guy! | Family Guy | In the episode "Three Kings" a character in the style of Mad artist Don Martin appeared - complete with trademark sound effects. |
502 - Jan 2010 |
| Blight At The Museum | Toonseum | Toonseum, the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art, honored Mad artist Tom Richmond at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh with the exhibit "Tom Richmond: The MAD Art of Caricature." The exhibit ran from August 1 to October 18, 2009. Toomseum closed its doors on February 24, 2018. |
502 - Jan 2010 |
| When The Shirt Hits The Fans |
Funny People | In the 2009 movie, Seth Rogen wore a custom-made Mad shirt. | 502 - Jan 2010 |
| Blight At The Museum 2 | The Ojai Valley Museum |
In a follow-up to "Blight At The Museum" in Issue #501, Mad showed photos from Sergio Aragones "MAD About Sergio" exhibit at The Ojai Valley Museum in Ojai, California. The exhibit included a recreation of Sergio's studio and hand-drawn marginals, right on the walls. |
502 - Jan 2010 |
| MAD Reader Alert 1 | Jeopardy! | An entire category devoted to Mad was featured on the April 7, 2010 game show. | 503 - May 2010 |
| The Times, They Are A Fold-In |
The New York Times Sunday Magazine |
The newspaper's January 24 (not January 23), 2010 crossword puzzle was inspired by Mad's Fold-In. David Kwong and Kevan Choset, the creators of the crossword puzzle, were interviewed. |
503 - May 2010 |
| Trebek Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself |
Jeopardy! | As mentioned in Mad #503, Jeopardy would feature Mad on April 7, 2010. The title of every single category in Double Jeopardy was a reference to Mad: "Drawn-Out Dramas," "Letters In Tomatoes," "Spy Vs. Spy," "What, Me Worry?," "The Usual Gang Of Idiots," "Mad." |
504 - Aug 2010 |
| This Is Vinyl Crap | sleeveface.com | The 1959 album "Musically Mad" was featured on the website which shows images of people holding records in front of their faces. |
505 - Oct 2010 |
| Back To The Futurama | Futurama | In the episode, "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences," Mad's Sergio Aragones was shown with his head preserved in a glass jar. |
506 - Dec 2010 |
| A Fold-In And A Fillion | Castle! | In the ABC show, Rick Castle tries to decipher a map that has been folded over multiple times. When his daughter points out "It's like a puzzle…" Castle adds: "Or Mad Magazine." |
507 - Feb 2011 |
| A Frank Assessment Of Prohias |
The Frank Book | The quarterly publication focuses on a different theme each issue. One issue that featured Cuba had an article about Spy Vs. Spy creator Antonio Prohias written by his daughter Marta. |
507 - Feb 2011 |
| Tanks For Coming | The Colbert Report | An episode showed a recap of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's "Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear." The rally took place on October 30, 2010, at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. One protestor held up a sign with the spies from Spy Vs. Spy shaking hands (while holding a bomb and stick of dynamite behind their backs) with the words "Who's on OUR SIDE?" Another protestor drove a rhino-tank inspired by a Spy Vs. Spy strip from Mad #286. |
507 - Feb 2011 |
| Trebek And Forth | Jeopardy! | On February 11, 2011, the game show asked: "Former Harvard Lampoon staffer Doug Kenney was the first editor of this magazine." The answer given was "Mad" was wrong. The correct answer was "National Lampoon." National Lampoon was an American humor magazine which ran from April 1970 to November 1998 for 249 issues. It even did a Mad parody in its October 1971 issue titled "What, Me Funny?" which parodied many of Mad's features: Cover Page, Scenes We'd Like To See, Table of Contents, Letters Dept., Movie Satire (Citizen Kane becomes Citizen Gaines), The Mad Primer, Spy Vs. Spy, You Know You're Really…When…, The Lighter Side Of, Horrifying Cliches, Don Martin - One Day In The Park, Mad Fold-In. |
509 - Jun 2011 |
| Business Unusual | The Wall Street Journal | Newspaper article from April 17, 2011, "Call It the 'What Me Worry?' Market," ran a portrait of Alfred E. Neuman in place of showing the article's author, Dave Kansas. Kansas was the news- paper's chief markets commentator in New York at this time. |
510 - Aug 2011 |
| What The Zuck? | TechCrunch.com | Mad Editor John Ficarra was interviewed for the website. | 510 - Aug 2011 |
| Everything Bold Is New Again |
Batman: The Brave and the Bold |
The April 1, 2011 episode "Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!" featured a recreation of the Mad parody from Mad #8 "Bat Boy and Rubin!" as the title characters try to solve a wave of murders. |
510 - Aug 2011 |
| Nobel Intentions | A Visit from the Goon Squad |
In the 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, by Jennifer Egan, two children on an African safari show their Mad magazine to a bird-watching woman. |
510 - Aug 2011 |
| All In The Family Guy | Family Guy | In a parody of "The Return of the Jedi," the episode "It's A Trap!," Chris Griffin (as Luke Skywalker) suggests that Stewie Griffin (as Darth Vader) should hang out on the "lighter side" instead of "the dark side of the force." This leads to a cutaway which spoofs Mad's "Lighter Side" by Dave Berg: "The Lighter Side Of The Force." In it Dave Berg walks into his son's room and shuts off his desk lamp. His son tells him he needs that lamp to study. Dave Berg replies, smiling: "Sorry, son. Just trying to be a light saver." |
511 - Oct 2011 |
| Reader Alert | Cartoon Art Museum | From April 12 to September 16, 2012, the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, California, hosted an exhibit dedicated to the art of Mad. The exhibit, "What, Me Worry? 60 Years of MAD," featured art from the 1950s all the way up to the present day. It showed art from the original comic book form through the black-and-white magazine to its full-color bi-monthly publication supplemented by online content. (postcard promo video) |
515 - Jun 2012 |
| The Quotable Mad | Geek Out! / CNN.com | On the website, Celebrity Chef Anthony Bourdain stated he collected "anthologies of the Mad magazines in the pre-Comics Code era." He is referring to the first 23 issues of Mad. |
517 - Oct 2012 |
| Showing Your True Covers | Zeit Magazin, Suddeutsche Zeltung Magazin |
In December 2012, the German magazines, Zeit Magazin and Suddeutsche Zeltung Magazin, featured Spy Vs. Spy on their covers by Peter Kuper. Playing off their own rivalry, both magazines published issues about "Competition" in which they covered the same topics from two perspectives with the stories also connected. |
520 - Apr 2013 |
| The Disaster Of His Domain | The New York Times Magazine |
The cover story from the magazine's December 23, 2012 issue was about Jerry Seinfeld's joke- crafting process. In it, the writer describes Seinfeld's personal writing space containing an original cartoon of Seinfeld and Alfred E. Neuman that ran on the cover of Mad #364. |
521 - Jun 2013 |
| Preaching To The Esquire | Esquire | In the May 2013 issue, Jimmy Fallon talked to the magazine about his show being rerun on Esquire's new television channel. Esquire asked him "Is there any other magazine whose TV network you'd rather be a part of?" He answered "Mad Magazine. Because I've always wanted to meet Alfred E. Neuman." |
522 - Sep 2013 |
| Comically Inept | Simpsons Comics | Simpsons Comics #203 features a Mad-esque cover (Homer wearing what looks like a sweater with the words "What, Me Worry" on it) and Back Cover ("The Sound and the Funny" which looks like a Don Martin cartoon character with Sideshow Bob's Hair), as well as Mad-centric pages: Bart's homemade humor magazine D'OH!'s logo is similar to Mad's logo and Alfred E. Neuman makes an appearance inside. |
523 - Oct 2013 |
| A Visit From The 'Toon Squad |
Mutts | Comic strip from May 25, 2013 has a mischievous squirrel drop an acorn on Alfred E. Neuman's head and say "What, Me Worry?" to another squirrel. |
523 - Oct 2013 |
| Objectionable D'Art | Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
An exhibition on the career of film director Stanley Kubrick included Mad's parody of "A Clockwork Orange" - "A Crockwork Lemon" from Mad #159. It ran from November 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. |
524 - Dec 2013 |
| Mad Blurbs Part 1 | ew.com | In an October 3, 2013 article on Entertainment Weekly magazine's website, Guillermo Del Toro talked about creating the opening credits for 'The Simpsons' 'Treehouse of Horror XXIV' episode. In creating a mash-up to all sorts of his horror/fantasy inspirations he modeled it after Mad magazine's Mort Drucker, Will Elder and Harvey Kurtzman. "They would try to cram so many references in." You could use a "magnifying glass going through a frame of Mad magazine and find…all these references to this and that." |
525 - Feb 2014 |
| TCM: B-A-D | Turner Classic Movies | In early October 2013, Mad's Dick DeBartolo co-hosted an entire evening of movie satires on the Cable channel with Robert Osborne. Robert Osborne wore an Alfred E. Neuman pin that Dick had presented to him. |
525 - Feb 2014 |
| Mad Blurbs Part 2 | Joyland | In Stephen King's novel he mentions Mad magazine. "Sarcasm will get you nowhere in life, boy. Unless you're angling for a writing job at Mad Magazine, that is." |
525 - Feb 2014 |
| The Quotable Mad | hollywoodreporter.com | In a December 1, 2013 article on The Hollywood Reporter magazine's website, John Goodman's tribute by American Cinematheque was covered. American Cinematheque is an independent, non-profit cultural organization in Los Angeles, California. It is dedicated exclusively to the public presentation of the moving image in all its forms. In the Question and Answer session, Goodman talked about his relationship with the Coen brothers and Mad. He met the brothers in his audition for the movie Raising Arizona. The trio hit it off. They are "three mid-western wiseguys, Mad magazine readers, backsassers, guys who used to sit in the back of the room." |
526 - Apr 2014 |
| The Quotable Mad, Part 2 | pastemagazine.com | On the website, Jason Rekulak, the publisher of Quirk Books, was interviewed. He mentioned how he used to collect Mad magazines. "I would go to flea markets and buy old ones from the sixties… I was reading about "The Godfather" in Mad magazine before I actually watched it." |
526 - Apr 2014 |
| Strip Teasing | Baldo | Comic strip for December 16, 2013 shows a teenage boy reading Mad on the couch appreciating Sergio Aragones, "He can make me laugh without saying one word!" Dad, also not saying one word, gives his son an unapproving look, which the son recognizes immediately. Last frame shows the kid doing his homework. |
526 - Apr 2014 |
| Mad Blurbs | Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee |
The February 6, 2014 episode of the web series talk show featured Jerry Seinfeld interviewing Howard Stern. They both agreed that being on the cover of Mad was the greatest thing that ever happened to them. They both had a copy of their covers of Mad on display in their offices: Seinfeld on Mad #364 and Stern on Mad #339. |
527 - Jun 2014 |
| The Foldest Profession | The Record | Columbia University's newspaper for October 2013 reported that the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University has acquired Mad's Al Jaffee's archives. The archives arrived at Columbia in several stages. The first phase arrived in October 2013. It included magazine artwork, notebooks, fan mail, photographs and biographical materials used for Mary-Lou Weisman's 2011 biography, Al Jaffee's Mad Life. |
528 - Aug 2014 |
| Hi And Low-Points | Hi and Lois | Ditto reads Mad while sitting on the couch with his sister, Dot, in the newspaper comic strip for August 5, 2014. |
530 - Dec 2014 |
| Our Crossword To Bear | various newspapers | Newspapers nationwide ran a Sunday crossword puzzle by Merl Reagle on August 24, 2014 that featured titles from Mad movie spoofs. |
531 - Feb 2015 |
| Weapon Of Mascot Destruction |
All In | Alfred E. Neuman's face shows up on the cover of the September 2014 issue. A publication for poker fans, the magazine shows a very scary Alfred holding up a hand of FIVE Jokers. |
531 - Feb 2015 |
| Je Suis Charlie | CBS Sunday Morning | Mad Editor John Ficarra appeared on the television news program on January 11, 2015. He commented on the terrorist attack on the French humor magazine Charlie Hebdo that took place on January 7, 2015. |
532 - Apr 2015 |
| The Door Is A-Jarring | Non Sequitur | In the newspaper comic strip for May 3, 2015, the door of a law firm has the names of Mad's (Tom) Richmond, (Nick) Meglin and (Sam) Viviano on it. |
534 - Aug 2015 |
| Mad Blurbs | One on 1 with Budd Mishkin |
On NY1 cable news television channel, Budd Mishkin talked with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gregory Pardlo. Pardlo spoke of his fascination with Mad's Al Jaffee's fold-ins. "I've always been fascinated by those folding illustrations." "So you're looking at one image, and there's another image that's tucked within that, and there are deepening layers of meaning. That's absolutely how I come to the page." |
538 - Apr 2016 |
| Note-Unworthy | Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics |
In his book's Author's Note, Chris Grabenstein mentions Mad. "The thing was pure irreverence in ink and paper. Mad…did more to spark my love of words and humor than anything else during my middle school years." |
539 - Jun 2016 |
| Your Woe Of Shows | Everybody Loves Raymond |
In an episode of the television show, Raymond's brother's brother-in-law gets really mad when he finds his parents throwing away all the "trash" they find in his bedroom. All the trash was old Mad magazines. |
540 - Aug 2016 |
| Schlock Suspenstories | The Consultant | On a suggestion by his son to mention Mad magazine in his book, Bentley Little mentions Alfred E. Neuman in his horror book. "It was a man with the face of Alfred E. Neuman. Craig…never liked the Mad magazine mascot…there was something about that perpetually grinning gap-toothed mouth that had always creeped him out and set him on edge." |
540 - Aug 2016 |
| Trump Gets Mad | Fox News | On the cable news channel, Donald Trump showed off his "Magazine Table" - which featured stacks of every magazine cover he's appeared on, including Mad #540. |
544 - Apr 2017 |
| Tanks For Nothing! | Tank Girl | The comic's Gold #2 issue, Super Sports Special, cover shows a grinning Tank Girl with a missing tooth (similar to Alfred E. Neuman) with tattoos "THE USUAL GANG OF IDIOTS" and what looks like the face of Alfred E. Neuman covered over with a bandage. The issue featured "Australian Rules Crennis" which was an homage to "43-Man Squamish" in Mad #95. Mad incorrectly spells "Squamish" as "Squamash." |
544 - Apr 2017 |
| Mad Sightings | For Better or For Worse |
In the newspaper comic strip for January 15, 2017, Mad joins corn chips, cola, bubblegum, a comic book, and Walkman tunes on a very awake kid's bed after his Mom checks that he's sleeping. |
546 - Aug 2017 |
| March Mad-Mess | Equality March | At the march in Washington, DC, on June 11, 2017, a protestor's poster was a reproduction of the cover of Mad #142 (THIS COUNTRY IS OUT OF ORDER). |
547 - Oct 2017 |
| At First Site | madcoversite.com | Mad notes madcoversite.com's 20th anniversary! | 547 - Oct 2017 |
| Knock It Off | Young Sheldon | TV episode shows Sheldon in a comic book store with four issues of Mad behind him: Mad Follies #3, Mad #153, Mad #289, Mad #291. The episode was set in 1989. Mad #289 and Mad #291 came out in 1989. But, Mad Follies #3 came out in 1965 and Mad #153 came out in 1972. |
12 - Apr 2020 |
Compiled by John R. Racano
Last panel from January 15, 2017 For Better or For Worse comic strip
mentioned in the letters section of Mad #546 - August 2017.