In 1964, Playboy Magazine was the talk of the town. Not only did they achieve a measure of journalistic credibility with cutting-edge writers, they did it while showing those . . . PICTURES! The most outrageous of all was the centerfold.
Playboy managed to transform the primary definition of the very word from a feature of a magazine to the most beautiful woman in the world that particular month.
The brains behind MAD decided it was time to cash in. But not with a centerfold. Nah, that had been done.
What they conceived was the idea that the back cover would need to be folded INWARDLY to reveal a hidden gag.
That's what made MAD the greatest satire publication of all time: thinking like that. For the job, they picked Al Jaffe.
Jaffe, the genius behind Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions, was the perfect choice. In fact, he continues to create the fold-in today! That's 63 years at presstime. I believe it might have been a good choice.
Jaffe was drawing for Marvel Comics before they became Marvel in the 1940's. He joined MAD in 1955. He has appeared in over 400 issues of the venerable journal.
Fold-ins have covered the gamut of humorous situations, with an emphasis on current events. The pictured one is aimed at anti-American sentiment which is running rampant at the moment. Of course, it makes it funny, as fold-ins should.
MAD is still around, although I must confess I don't read it anymore. I'm sure it's still above the rest as far as satire is concerned, but life has gotten too busy for me to spend those leisure hours reading the works of Aragones, Berg, Martin, and, of course, Jaffe. Here's hoping Al is still at it when I finally get caught up.
Comments (4)
I loved reading the Mad article as I too was a hard core fan of that mag. I noticed that some friends didn't get it. They thought it was stupid, just nonsense,but then as today it mirrows our culture as all good satire does by spoofing and making fun of all that is good about our country and all that we'd rather forget about. I too, don't read it much, tho I have a a young girlfriend who was born a year before Elvis died, yet has discovered the pleasures of Mad magazine. She buys it often and I do get to see the bits she has to show me. I get a kick out of hearing her sit on the couch chuckling at the pages. It's good to know that the thing crosses the generations.
Posted by Stephen Sterrett | February 18, 2007 11:38 AM
Posted on February 18, 2007 11:38
Ahh, the fold-in...I was a bit anal about that fold-in, because
I didn't want to ruin the magazine. Go figure. I remember one that turned into a mushroom cloud. In fact, as that was during the cold war, I believe the mushroom cloud made an appearance in the fold-in quite often.
Classic Mad was from about '58 - '77....after cable and video games, kids were too busy on the tube to read anymore. Finally, remember those paperback mad collections, with titles like "Son of Mad", "Mad goes Bezerk", and so on, and alfred e on the cover?
I remember every paperback counter had tons of those, and kids would keep busy on long vacation drives reading 'em. People held onto them for a long tiine, as my cousin had many old ones read a million times lying around.
Actually, I used to go to the store just to read the mad paperbacks, in the days when they didn't run you out for reading books.....
Posted by Scott | July 18, 2007 10:27 PM
Posted on July 18, 2007 22:27
All my old MAD magazines still have that many time folded creases on the back page. Sometimes with Spy vs Spy on the other side!
Posted by Rivers End | May 29, 2009 11:31 PM
Posted on May 29, 2009 23:31
I notice that many do not get the Simpsons, perhaps cause like MAD, hey love parody and satire. Some people have trouble with such concepts. But I love the concepts.
Posted by Scott Irv | May 30, 2009 10:28 PM
Posted on May 30, 2009 22:28