No Laughing Matter: Iconic Satire Magazine -- Mad -- Is Shutting After 67 Years
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) -- Iconic parody and humor Mad Magazine is shutting down after 67 years.
The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone CNN have all reported that the magazine will cease to publish new material later this year.
Mad, known for mocking movies, presidents, pop culture and everything else, enjoyed immense popularity in the 1960s and 70s.
The magazine will continue to print issues but featuring all classic material. They will publish using this format until all subscriber deals are met.
If you don't know Mad, their parody of "Game of Thrones" has their cover subject/mascot Alfred E. Neuman, with the famous gap in his teeth, sitting on a toilet. The cover line, "We Plunge Into Game Of Thrones."
Neuman was known for the catch phrase, "What? Me worry?" also printed as "What, me worry?" He first appeared in the magazine in 1954, Starting in December 1956 he appeared on literally every cover -- big or small.
At times embarrassingly silly, and others awkwardly poignant, Mad always made audiences think. It is no surprise that some of its best circulations came when the country needed laughs most -- through assassinations, political upheaval, war, Watergate.
Weird Al Yankovic may have beaten every other comic to social media to express his sadness over the magazine ending. He credited it with making him, well, weird.
The editors called themselves, simply, "The Usual Bunch Of Idiots." But many of those idiots over time went on to write for TV and movie as well as publish humor books. Having worked or contributed to Mad gave a humor writer and illustrator instant cred. While they might not be household names, they were large in the comedy world, notably Al Jaffee, Mort Drucker, Dave Berg, Dick DeBartolo, Don Martin and Sergio Aragones, to name a few.
The magazine was founded in 1952 by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines. Mad started as a comic book before becoming the iconic mag in 1955.
The magazine's latest cover was tweeted just two weeks ago.
Through the decades the magazine's size, paper quality, tone and reach all changed but there were also constants and fan favorites like "Spy vs. Spy," "The Lighter Side" and the "Mad Fold-In" -- where folding in the back cover would reveal a surprise visual.
In its heyday, many tried to copy Mad but the attempts were mostly flashes in the pan -- the most notable competition was "Cracked" but there was also "Nuts!," "Get Lost," "Sick" and "Riot."
In 1995, Fox introduced the sketch comedy show "Mad TV" but to say it was only loosely based on the magazine would be an understatement. In the first few seasons of the hit show (more "SNL" than Mad Magazine) some of the mag's cartoons did make semi-frequent appearances.
