Entertainment
How Mad Magazine’s humor created a revolution
Nestled the rolling hills of rural Massachusetts. swathed by manicured grounds, sits the Norman Rockwell Museum. And there, side-by-side with the wholesome works of America’s most beloved illustrator, is the world’s dumbest cover boy: Alfred E. Neuman.
“It’s sacrilegious! It’s an outrage!” laughed political cartoonist Steve Brodner. “But I do think if Norman Rockwell were here, he’d laugh his head off. He’d think this was fantastic.”
These hallowed halls are now home to the world’s largest exhibit of artwork from Mad Magazine, co-curated by Brodner. “I was formed by Mad,” he said. “My idea of comedy, humor, irreverent drawing comes from this.”
Mad began in 1952 as a comic book that made fun of other comic books. But if you came of age during Mad’s peak – the sixties, seventies and eighties – you know what it became: A hilarious guide to the hypocrisy of the authority figures in your life, whom Mad kept characterizing as idiots. “I know! Isn’t that marvelous?” said Brodner.
Mad made fun of dumb ads, and dumb politicians, and dumb trends:
And, of course, dumb movies.
They made fun of the government, corporations, and even parents. “That’s why parents were really not too pleased with Mad,” said John Ficarra, who was the editor of Mad for 33 years
Writer Dick DeBartolo was around even longer: “I have been in every issue for about 55 years, and I got paid for about half of them,” he laughed.
DeBartolo wrote hundreds of movie parodies, including “The Da Vinci Coma,” “Star Bores: The Empire Strikes Out,” and “TryPanic.”
Pogue said, “I remember, as one of those readers, not understanding all the jokes. Sometimes you were making fun of stuff that were over my head.”
“Well, that was sort of the charm,” said Ficarra. “And we figured, either kids’ll get it or they won’t, and they’ll look it up and find out. Or, five years later they’re looking at old Mads and, Oh, now I get that joke.“
Mad’s artists and writers called themselves “the usual gang of idiots.” And when they said usual, they meant it; they tended to work for Mad for decades, including Al Jaffee, whose art appeared in every issue but one for 65 years. He died last year at 102.
In 1978 Jaffe told CBS’ “30 Minutes,” “People have been doing satire one way or another throughout the ages. The only difference is, most of them wound up in dungeons, and we wind up on the newsstand.”
Brodner called Jaffee one of the geniuses of Mad, who concocted the interior back page, which turned into a “fold-in.”
But one Mad artist gets a whole museum room: Mort Drucker, who died in 2020. “Everything is experimentation,” Drucker once said. “And that’s the fun of it all, once you get a handle on what a good artist is supposed to be and do.”
“He really loved people, and I think that’s why he was such a successful caricaturist,” said Mort Drucker’s daughter, Laurie Drucker Bachner. “Because he, like, inhaled the persona of somebody, and wanted them to be realized in the best way possible.”
Oddly enough, Drucker did not have professional training. “He did go to Parsons for three months, and they told him he really was ‘not cut out to be an artist,’” said his daughter. “He was pretty devastated, you know, ’cause he always thought of himself as an artist.”
Drucker went on to draw for Mad for over 50 years.
At its peak in 1974, Mad sold 2.1 million copies. It was wildly profitable, even though Bill Gaines (its publisher from the magazine’s founding until his death in 1992) refused to accept advertising. “This is just a thing with me: I’ve always been against ads,” Gaines told “30 Minutes.” “It’s a good thing to publish, if you can, without any outside help, so you’re not beholden to anybody.”
But eventually, readership began to decline. People have all kinds of theories as to why: magazines began dying off, the ‘usual gang of idiots’ began dying off, the internet happened.
And then, there was the ownership problem, according to Ficarra: “Bill sold it to a guy who owned another magazine that was losing money. They sold it to, I think, a holding company. We became part of Warner Publishing. And then, just as I was leaving, AT&T bought the company, really screwed it up (please don’t cut that out!), and sold it again now to Discovery.”
DeBartolo said, “For a very brief time, I think it was just a month, it was Smucker’s Jams and Jellies! We thought, ‘How did we get there?‘”
Mad’s last regular issue came out in April 2018; the Mad exhibition runs through the end of October. But the Mad influence still runs strong, its impact acknowledged by “The Simpsons,” Weird All Yankovic, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. Laurie Drucker Bachner said, had there been no Mad, “You think there would have been ‘SNL’? Or any of the standups?”
Brodner said, “Mad actually created a revolution in the United States. People are still saying, ‘I don’t believe that. I’m gonna investigate this and see what the truth of it is.’ And I think that’s what Mad is saying: Don’t buy the con, you know?“
For more info:
- Mad Magazine
- Exhibition: “What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of Mad Magazine,” at the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Mass. (though October 27) | Exhibition magazine
- Cartoonist Steve Brodner
- MAD and all related elements © and TM E.C. Publications. Courtesy of DC
- Norman Rockwell images courtesy of Norman Rockwell Museum. © SEPS, Curtis Licensing and/or Norman Rockwell Family Agency
- Norman Rockwell Museum video footage © Norman Rockwell Museum; all rights reserved. Used with permission.
- Drone & aerial footage by Richard Sands & Terry Holland
Story produced by Robert Marston. Editor: George Pozderec.
During San Diego Comic-Con 2024, singer and songwriter Jason Derulo discussed his latest project, a graphic novel called Uzo, with Fandom.
Uzo takes place in a dystopian world where there are only seven cities left on Earth. Stones from a meteor crashed into Earth and left behind powerful energy signatures that power the cities. With the world falling apart, money is useless, but these stones are valuable. The world has descended into a war to protect and retain these precious stones.
Uzo, the main character of the series, is a humble warrior who harnesses the power of the stones to become a superhero. Derulo tells us Uzo began as a musical but eventually morphed into a written and illustrated graphic novel.
“Uzo definitely has a lot of similarities to me. I love to have a good time. I love to laugh. And I have a very serious side as well,” Derulo says. “People don’t quite know all the layers of me.”
Check out the full interview with Derulo above to hear everything he had to say about Uzo.
gamescom is back! From Xbox to HoYoverse, Capcom, and Ubisoft, the games industry’s top publishers are set to deliver a week of previews, hands-on demos, and surprise announcements. As we count down the days, join us as we run through the four games we’re most excited to see this year.
gamescom kicks off on August 21, so grab your tickets now. For those who can’t attend the event in person, tune in to gamescom Now via the gamescom website, where you can find all of the events, trailers, live streams, announcements, and much more!
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San Diego Comic-Con 2024 has come and gone. Over the course of the week, there was so much to take in. Whether it be the show floor, the many panels, the activations, or news coming from movies, TV shows, and more, it can be an information overload.
This was a big year for Fandom, as its numerous sites had a superhero team-up to tackle Comic-Con and spread their wings to cover every moment it could. Outside of the TV and movie news, Fandom also celebrated its 20th anniversary by throwing a giant birthday party featuring a 360 camera, dancers, a red carpet, celebrities galore, and a performance from Jason Derulo (who even chatted with us about his graphic novel). And, of course, there are the panels. Fandom had its own panel, debating what video game should get the prestige TV treatment next. Meanwhile, GameSpot’s own Lucy James moderated the Dragon Age: The Veilguard panel.
So as we walk away from this past year’s event, let’s take a look at what Fandom covered over Comic-Con weekend.
Marvel Studios:
There was a lot of Marvel news over the course of SDCC, mainly tying into the upcoming slate of movies. The Marvel panel covered the upcoming Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Thunderbolts movies, and there were plenty of surprises along the way.
DC:
There was a lot going on with upcoming TV shows and movies from DC Entertainment. There’s a new animated Batman series, a sequel to a Batman movie, a spinoff of the latest Batman movie, and more from James Gunn’s upcoming DC projects.
Transformers One:
The origin story of famed Transformers Optimus Prime and Megatron will be revealed in the upcoming animated film. While the duo are rivals, at one point in time, they worked together to fight a greater evil. Here is what we learned by talking to those involved with the upcoming film.
Alien Romulus:
On August 16, the Alien franchise goes back to its horror roots with a new installment. Alien Romulus follows a group of space colonizers scavenging a space station. However, what they find is something more terrifying than they have experienced before.
Movies:
TV:
- Lord Of The Rings: The Rings of Power Cast Interview [Video]: The cast of Prime’s The Rings of Power, Maxim Baldry (Isildur), Tyroe Muhafidin (Theo), Ismael Cruz Cordova (Arondir), Sophie Nomvete (Princess Disa), preview what to expect from Season 3.
- The Walking Dead: Dead City Interview [Video]: Showrunner Eli Jorne and actors Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lauren Cohan, Gaius Charles, and Željko Ivanek preview Season 2 of Dead City.
- Doctor Who Interview [Video]: Writer/producer Russell T. Davies and stars Millie Gibson and Ncuti Gatwa look back at the series introducing Gatwa as The Doctor and Gibson as Ruby Sunday and their feelings about those characters, as well as what comes next.
- Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy Interview [Video]: Writers and producers Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez, along with star Bobby Moynihandiscuss the 25th anniversary of the Lego/Star Wars partnership and their new animated series, which also includes jumping into fan theories like Jar Jar Binks secretly being a Sith.
- Star Trek: Prodigy Interview [Video]: Executive producers Kevin and Dave Hagement and actors Kate Mulgrew and Brett Gray discuss the Nickelodeon animated series.
- The Cast Of Star Trek Prodigy Talks Skibidi Toilet [Video]: Kate Mulgrew is curious about what Skibidi Toilet is, so Brett Gray tries to explain.
- Like A Dragon: Yakuza Cast Interview [Video]: GameSpot sat down with the actors Ryoma Takeuchi and Kento Kaku who are helping bring the elements of the world from the video game Yakuza to life.
- Like A Dragon: Yakuza Casts House Of Ninjas Star As Its Tragic Villain: San Diego Comic-Con breaks the news of Ryoma Takeuchi being cast as Kazuma Kiryu.
- AEW Wrestlers Recast The Avengers With Their Coworkers [Video]: All Elite Wrestling’s Orange Cassidy and Willow Nightingale dream cast the next Avengers movie with their fellow wrestlers taking on the roles.
- Those About To Die Interview [Video]: Direct and executive producer Roland Emmerich and actors Jojo Macari, Moe Hashim, Dimitri Leonidas, Iwan Rheon, Gabriella Pession, and Sara Martins discuss the first season of the Peacock original series.
- The Cast of ‘Those About to Die’ Play Bed, Wed or Behead [Video]: The cast of the series debate which characters they’d sleep with, which ones they’d marry, and which ones they would kill.
- What We Do In The Shadows Interview [Video]: Executive producer and writer Paul Simms and actors Mark Proksch, Matt Berry, and Kristen Schaal talk about the final season of the vampire comedy.
- Surprising New Dexter TV Show Announced At Comic-Con: Michael C. Hall returns as the titular serial killer in Dexter: Resurrection, which will take place in present day. The series will air in Summer 2025.
- Everything We Know About the Dexter Prequel, Dexter: Original Sin: The latest installment of the serial-killer series Dexter in another new show on the horizon. TV Guide has put together a piece, so you can keep up-to-date on the latest news, before the series arrives this December.
- Interview with the Vampire Season 3: Cast, Latest News, and Everything You Need to Know: While it’s currently unknown when Season 3 of Interview with the Vampire will arrive, TV Guide will be keeping fans up-to-date on what’s happening with the next season.
- We Chatted With Critical Role [Video]: It’s nearing the 10th anniversary of Critical Role. Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Ashley Johnson, and Liam O’Brien discuss Critical Role’s perfect 10th anniversary party, and of course, they discuss their characters.
Video Games:
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard Cast Plays Romance/Befriend/Banish [Video]: The cast of Dragon Age: The Veilguard play a fun game that ultimately ends in wanting to romance many, many people.
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard Devs Interview [Video]: The Dragon Age developers speak to how the newest entry in the franchise won’t leave plays of the old games behind.
- Mortal Kombat’s Ed Boom Interview [Video]: Ed Boon, co-creator of the Mortal Kombat franchise, looks back at the series’ history, looks to the future, and gives a small preview of the upcoming second movie.
Olivia Munn and John Mulaney welcomed a second child via surrogate, the couple announced Sunday. Their daughter’s birth comes after Munn’s breast cancer diagnosis last year.
“Méi June Mulaney came into the world September 14, 2024, the year of the dragon,” Munn wrote in a social media post that included pictures of her and Mulaney at the hospital and at home with the new baby. She also recounted her positive experience with surrogacy.
“I had so many profound emotions about not being able to carry my daughter. When I first met our gestational surrogate we spoke mother to mother. She showed me so much grace and understanding, I knew I had found a real-life angel. Words cannot express my gratitude that she kept our baby safe for 9 months and made our dreams come true,” Munn said. “I am so proud of my little plum, my little dragon for making the journey to be with us. My heart has exploded.”
Munn shared that her daughter’s name is pronounced like May and means plum in Chinese.
Mulaney unveiled photos of their family’s latest addition in a similar post of his own on social media.
“We stole so much stuff from the hospital,” the comedian’s caption read in part. “I love my little girl so much.”
Munn and Mulaney welcomed their first child, son Malcolm, in November 2021. She announced in April that she’d been diagnosed last year with breast cancer, saying she’d had four surgeries over the previous 10 months, including a double mastectomy, in a social media post shared at the time.
“I hope by sharing this it will help others find comfort, inspiration and support on their own journey,” the 44-year-old actor wrote in that post. Her diagnosis sparked conversations about breast cancer screening, as she said a risk assessment score many women may not know about helped her doctors identify the disease.
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