The World According to Mad Magazine (opens in new tab)

(nytimes.com)

46 pointsMagicPropmaker6y ago5 comments

5 comments

an article about the demise of Mad from a publication that was regularly in its crosshairs. nicely ironic.

here’s some alternative coverage: https://reason.com/2019/07/04/mad-magazine-is-dead/

serf6y ago

which part is ironic?

nytimes is bound to continue, it's a massive cog in the US propaganda engine, and has always been many many times larger than MAD ever was.

MAD didn't really ever poke fun at NYTimes for being on it's last legs, if anything it poked fun at how disconnected from the real world it and it's authors sometimes seemed to be -- this was made very clear when checking out MADs humor from 89-01 regarding the NYTimes and their coverage of the numerous wars in the middle east.

Nothing about this outcome seems contrary to what anyone thought would happen; MAD has been struggling for years.

Stratoscope6y ago

Related discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20351524

And a tribute to Al Jaffee, who has been with MAD for 54 years and at the age of 98 still does every fold-in:

https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2017/03/al-jaffee-the-gen...

syphilis26y ago

I love the CD collection, and hope there's some plan to make a new version with the remaining issues.

MAD is better than any history book in that it gives a view to how people really felt about events at the time. It also records minutia in its jokes that otherwise become forgotten after decade go by.

In general it's good to read old humor if only to see how slowly things change. The Realist has their archive online and it's a good read because much of it is still relevant from 1958: http://www.ep.tc/realist/

kingludite6y ago

Is there is some effort to keep MAD going? I learn everything I know from this magazine.

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