Calibrating My Humor Meter

At times like these I need to make sure my sense of humor is still working. It’s all I got.

I’m often asked about my influences in both my writing and filmmaking, so I thought I’d write a few pieces about my early influences and work my way towards the present. Of course I have to start with MAD Magazine.

MAD Magazine was subversive.

I don’t recall how old I was when I discovered MAD, but once I did, everything changed. I’m sure I didn’t understand a lot of what was in there at first, but I wanted to be in on the joke. Mad Magazine made me want to read more so that I’d have a better understanding of what they were poking fun at.

Sure, I read comics and even subscribed to some through my college years but it was MAD that calibrated my life long humor meter.

Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions

Q: Did you catch that fish?
A: No, I talked him into giving himself up.
A: No, I was sitting here minding my own business when the crazy thing jumped into my pail.
A: No, it's a plastic model to get people like you to start fascinating conversations.

MAD introduced me to satire. Of course my mother hated it and thought it was a waste of money, but every issue was filled with such joy for me. I could read a single issue over and over for hours always finding something new in the backgrounds or the margins.

What stood out to me were the TV and Movie parodies. They were making fun of everything! And doing it in a smart way.

Favorite Movie Parodies

The Guns Of Minestrone, The Agony and The Agony, The Sound Of Money, Blue Eyed Kook, Midnight Wowboy, Antenna On The Roof, Sleazy Riders, and so many others

Favorite Television Parodies

Dr. Killjoy, The Rifle, Man!, Loused Up In Space, Voyage To See What’s On The Bottom, How-Are-Ya-Five-O, Then Came Bombsome, ...

I can still remember lines and plot details from so many of these parodies.

Blue Eyed Kook (with an amazing caricature of Paul Newman)

Dragline - “I say my friend Kook can eat 50 eggs.”

Kook - “And I think your friend Kook is a blowhard and a phony.”

Dragline -“Wait a minute, you’re Kook!”

Kook - “I know, I/m just feeling argumentative today.”

Then Came Bombsome

Bombsome, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, sits on his motorcycle at a stop light with his sleeping bag rolled up on the handlebars. A nerdy family looking guy in a station wagon is next to him.

Nerdy Guy – “Going on a trip?”

Bombsome – “No. This is a regular cigarette I’m smoking.”

Regular pieces included, A Mad Look At …., Scenes We’d Like To See, Spy vs. Spy, The Lighter Side of …., Fold-ins, and tons of tiny cartoon drawings in the margins.

The artwork was always incredible. The artists were writing and drawing every day things and putting their own spin on it. They were saying, “Look at this crap. You’re being manipulated. Think for yourself!” And these artists were supposedly ADULTS! It made me wonder if I really did need to grow up and actually act like an adult. I didn’t, and still don’t. Thank you MAD.

Song Parodies

And who could forget their song parodies. Like this song parody of The Air Force Song "Wild blue yonder"

Off we go into the lunchroom yonder

Pushing girls out of the way

onward boys, start moving down the counter

Grab your grub, fill up your tray (clankity clank)

Try the beans, they were prepared last Friday

And the meat's tough as a mule

The soup is cold the bread's got mold YECH

Anything beats our lunchroom at school

My 10 year old brain loved this. My 68 year old brain still remembers all of the words…

MAD never resorted to name calling. (It seems like we have digressed as far as name calling these days.) They made fun of everything in a way that made me see the absurdity, laugh, and question everything I was being told.

MAD taught a generation to think about humor and the world around us in a different way. They didn’t take sides. They taught us to laugh at everything, and laugh at ourselves as well. They made light of our fears but they never talked down to us.

I still love quoting Alfred E. Newman.

Crime does not pay … as well as politics

Elections are when people find out what politician stand for, and politicians find out what people will fall for.

America is still a land of promise, especially during a political campaign.

Blood is thicker than water … but it makes lousy lemonade.

and

If at first, you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you.

Obituaries for Cartoon Characters

The Obituaries for Cartoon Characters was another good one. (let’s see what I can remember…)

Dick Tracy Dies of Lead Poisoning

Prince Valiant Dies at 1467 of Natural Causes

Scrooge McDuck Dies in Bizarre Hunting Accident.

In a box somewhere in storage I still have my Alfred E. Newman for President poster from 1964. It’s in the same box as my giant Buster Keaton poster, (I’ll write about Keaton another time).

Obviously I could go on and on. I’m sure many of you reading this can as well. Whenever a new issue would come out you would read, memorize, and talk about it with your friends.

I believe my sense of humor (as warped as it may be) was shaped by Mad, so blame it all on MAD Magazine.

MAD Magazine was rebellion.

What do you remember from MAD Magazine?

Thanks for reading. Have a great week.

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