History Magazine / MAD

* BadassMustache: Dick [=DeBartolo=] and [=~Sergio Aragonés~=].

* DependingOnTheArtist: Most artists who drew front covers stuck close to Kelly Freas's design of Alfred E. Neuman. [=~Sergio Aragonés~=]'s [[http://madcoversite.com/quiz_aragones.html two covers]] were closer to his loose, sketchy style, and John Caldwell's [[http://madcoversite.com/mad295id.jpg cover]] was closer to his squiggly style. (He drew a second cover in 2001, but it was changed at the last second because his original cover art was deemed possibly offensive after 9/11.) Averted in the past eight years, where Mark Fredrickson has done almost all of the covers. One of Aragonés's covers was lampshaded in Frank Jacobs's compilation of ''Mad'' covers, saying that it, after Jacobs pointed out that it was one of the only Alfreds not to follow Freas's style, Aragonés remarked that it was "the closest [he] could do."

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: The main premise of [=~Sergio Aragonés~=]' "Drawn Out Dramas" in the margins. Many of the parody artists tend to do this as well.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Although the magazine had become more vulgar in the 1990s, it has usually refrained from using "fuck" and "shit." [[http://www.madcoversite.com/mad326printid.jpg Usually.]] (The F-bomb is to the left of the cardboard box.) Artist Al Jaffee snuck the word "shit" into an article entitled "Who's Who at a Comics Convention," and [=~Sergio Aragonés~=] drew barely-visible uncensored penises in the graphics accompanying a Frank Jacobs-penned parody of "We Are the World."

* NoDialogueEpisode: [=~Sergio Aragonés~=]' ''A Mad Look At...'' almost never uses dialogue; if a character needs to speak, it's usually represented through pantomiming or icons in a speech balloon, or very rarely, a "gesundheit."

-->''"What, me worry?"''

* BadassBeard: William Gaines, Sergio Aragones and Al Jaffee. Jaffee's signature is a caricature of himself, with "Al Jaffee" in place of the hair.
* BadassMustache: Dick [=DeBartolo=].

* DependingOnTheArtist: Most artists who drew front covers stuck close to Kelly Freas's design of Alfred E. Neuman. Sergio Aragonés's [[http://madcoversite.com/quiz_aragones.html two covers]] were closer to his loose, sketchy style, and John Caldwell's [[http://madcoversite.com/mad295id.jpg cover]] was closer to his squiggly style. (He drew a second cover in 2001, but it was changed at the last second because his original cover art was deemed possibly offensive after 9/11.) Averted in the past eight years, where Mark Fredrickson has done almost all of the covers. One of Aragonés's covers was lampshaded in Frank Jacobs's compilation of ''Mad'' covers, saying that it, after Jacobs pointed out that it was one of the only Alfreds not to follow Freas's style, Aragonés remarked that it was "the closest [he] could do."

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: The main premise of Sergio Aragonés' "Drawn Out Dramas" in the margins. Many of the parody artists tend to do this as well

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Although the magazine had become more vulgar in the 1990s, it has usually refrained from using "fuck" and "shit." [[http://www.madcoversite.com/mad326printid.jpg Usually.]] (The F-bomb is to the left of the cardboard box.) Artist Al Jaffee snuck the word "shit" into an article entitled "Who's Who at a Comics Convention," and Sergio Aragones drew barely-visible uncensored penises in the graphics accompanying a Frank Jacobs-penned parody of "We Are the World."

* NoDialogueEpisode: Sergio Aragones' ''A Mad Look At...'' almost never uses dialogue; if a character needs to speak, it's usually represented through pantomiming or icons in a speech balloon, or very rarely, a "gesundheit."

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-->''"'The Lighter Side of Hippies?' (''Laughs'') They don't care whose toes they step on!"''
-->-- '''[[TheSimpsons Bart Simpson]]''' on ''Mad''

-->''"'… If I had to pick one single comic book that was the best comic book ever it would be Kurtzman’s Mad."''
-->-{{Alan Moore}}

** A parody of Archie had Betty hurl herself at Archie. As she did so, several syringes and bottles of pills spill from her handbag, and this was a strip from the fifties!

** A parody of Archie had a syringe fall out of his back pocket in one panel, and this was strip from the fifties!

* TheOtherDarrin: After Antonio Prohías left the mag, George Woodbridge took over drawing ''Spy vs. Spy'' for one issue. Bob Clarke took over the art for a while, followed by David Manak; both artists worked with Duck Edwing as the main gag writer. (Manak and Edwing also handled a very short-lived SundayStrip adaptation in 2002.) Peter Kuper has drawn the feature since 1997, and does about 90% of its writing.

** Also present in the ''StarWars'' parodies. The ''A New Hope'' parody was written by Dick [=DeBartolo=] with Harry North as the artist; the other four had [=DeBartolo=] writing and Mort Drucker drawing. Inexplicably, the last one switched to David Shayne for the writing and Hermann Mejia for the art.

** The table of contents lists the articles in the magazine as being from various departments whose titles are [[PunnyName various plays on words]]. The one constant through the entire run is the letters section, which is listed as being from the "Letters & Tomatoes Dept.".
** In the classic parody of ''G.I. Joe'' comics, women would sit on the hero's lap and say, "Hey, Joe! You got chewing gum?"

* AdaptationDecay: The failed film ''Up the Academy''; the FOX sketch show ''{{MADtv}}'', which abandoned its few magazine tie-ins (it aired Spy vs. Spy cartoons and some animated shorts created by Don Martin) after the third season. It should be noted that a sketch show inspired by MAD magazine (or rather, an unsold pilot to said sketch show) existed before FOX even thought of ''{{MADtv}}''. It was created in the 1970s and included a parody of ''The Godfather'' (''The Odd Father'') and a parody of the TV show Columbo (''Clodumbo'').

* AuthorTract: ''Mad'' has had quite a long-running relationship with ''TheSimpsons'', prompting the former to regularly launch [[TakeThat take thats]] against ''FamilyGuy'' for perceived plagiarism ([[HypocriticalHumor though Groening is in no position to do that, considering that MAD magazine had a comic article about "The Simpsons" in the early 1990s that showed an animator creating Homer Simpson from a drawing of Fred Flintstone and considering how much ''The Simpsons'' borrows from "The Flintstones" and the short-lived primetime animated series]] ''WaitTilYourFatherGetsHome'') and causing the latter to regularly feature ''Mad'' (with one notable episode having it be integral to the plot).

* AuthorTract: ''Mad'' has had quite a long-running relationship with ''TheSimpsons'', prompting the former to regularly launch [[TakeThat take thats]] against ''FamilyGuy'' for perceived plagiarism ([[HypocriticalHumor though Groening is in no position to do that, considering that MAD magazine had a comic article about "The Simpsons" in the early 1990s that showed an animator creating Homer Simpson from a drawing of Fred Flintstone and considering how much ''The Simpsons'' borrows from "The Flintstones" and the short-lived primetime animated series "Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home"]]) and causing the latter to regularly feature ''Mad'' (with one notable episode having it be integral to the plot).

** Similarly, an animated adaptation will air on CartoonNetwork starting in September 2010.

** The magazine has done this a lot over the years, and they sometimes take their own affected self-deprecation to the extreme: In an article on how to make a food poisoning victim throw up, reading ''Mad'' magazine to him is described as the very last resort, because it's so effective that he'll drown the house with puke.

Currently in its fifth decade, ''Mad'', now published by DCComics, lacks the circulation and cultural impact (and [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks some would say quality]]) it had at its peak. All the same, entertainment figures and critics ranging from Matt Groening to Roger Ebert to Patti Smith have cited ''Mad'' as a major influence.