Batavick: Humor timeless and still so relevant, ‘Mad’ magazine will be missed

I didn’t see this particular passing in the “Carroll County Times” obituaries. Nevertheless, the news of the death hit me like a punch in the solar plexus. After a long, vibrant life of 67 years, “Mad” magazine is ceasing publication. The periodical will disappear from newsstands and drug store racks, though owner Warner Bros.' DC division will still do end-of-year specials composed of some new material and lots of recycled content. DC plans to sell the new product in comic shops and via subscription.

The satirical magazine with its iconic, gap-toothed cover boy, Alfred E. Neuman was a big part of my youth and had a significant impact on my quirky sense of humor. I rank 1950s-60s comedian Ernie Kovacs a tick below on the laugh-o’- meter. He had the same warped and subversive way of looking at the world as did “Mad” and imaginatively portrayed his unique vision on my parent’s grainy, black and white set during TV’s early years.

I still have a stash of “Mads” dating from 1960 to 1968; pretty much spanning my high school and college years. I bought my first copy when the magazine was only 5 years old. The front cover art ranges from Fidel Castro with an exploding cigar to a spoof of the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde,” titled “Balmy and Clod.”

There’s a story behind my collection. After my brother and I had gone off to college and then married, my mom gave the family attic a good cleaning. In the fashion of many mothers of the time, she tossed my brother’s baseball card collection (Oh, where have you gone, Hank Aaron’s rookie card?), our cookie tin of marbles with some beautiful cat’s eyes, and an assortment of what would now be vintage cap pistols, complete with cowboy holsters.

For some unfathomable reason, mom saved a box of my “Mad” magazines — 55 of them, in fact. (Thanks, mom!) This included one that had a huge, pink “SEX” emblazoned on the cover. Surrounding the then-virtually taboo word was very small print advising, “In order to sell products these days, Madison Avenue, Hollywood, Television, other publishers… Everybody exploits SEX (this one word was in 216 point type!), but we’d never stoop that low.” I find the cover still funny more than 50 years later.

The proof of “Mad’s” timeless humor was established the day I gave my then 14-year-old grandson a stack of magazines to read. I sat, watched, and marveled at his snickers and smiles as he perused fake ads and spoofs of TV and movies. He appeared to find the cartooning, captions, and dialogue fresh and imaginative, even though the pop culture references were two generations before him.

As with the “SEX” cover, “Mad” did a lot of innovative, typographical gags, from tiny cartoons in the margins, to optical illusions, to having two front covers (one congratulating Nixon and, on the back/front cover, one cheering Kennedy — each regarding his respective election as president). The covers included the competing claims, “We were with you all the way, Dick/Jack!”

The inside back page often revealed a hidden image if you folded the right part over to the page’s midpoint. A March ’65 drawing turned a large console TV filled with images from fall programs into a garbage can to answer the question, “What brilliant new ideas has the current TV season produced?” Is that relevant today, or what?

“Mad’s” demise can be chalked up to corporate expediency and the general decline in magazine readership. (“Oh, where have you gone “Money,” “Redbook,” “Glamour,” etc.?) J’accuse the Internet, “Comedy Central,” late night TV, and a host of other sources of topical humor.

I will admit that “Mad’s” deft deboning of politics and social mores made me a very cynical kid. Later, Vietnam, Watergate, and the evil exploits of Dick Cheney further put me over-the-top, but that’s another story. Besides the irreverent gags, dark humor, and New York-styled wit (see the “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions” feature), I valued the magazine as a dependable mentor on how to sniff out phonies, bullies, and grifters. This is an essential defensive weapon today, especially when objective truth is constantly under attack.

Hail and farewell, “Mad”! You will be missed. I know I haven’t bought your magazine in eons, but then life and its many years have intervened, haven’t they?

In closing, I have a simple answer to mascot Alfred E. Neuman’s frequently posed question “What, me worry?” Yeah, you should. We need to talk.

Frank Batavick writes from Westminster. His column appears every other Friday. Email him at fjbatavick@gmail.com.