
Mad magazine legend Al Jaffee retires at age 99 - pseudolus
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/06/06/al-jaffee-mad-magazine-retires/
======
nkozyra
I think jaffees humor ended up being more timeless due to being more abstract.

As a kid (mid 90s) I remember acquiring some issues from the 50s and 60s. My
impression was:

1\. The artwork was way more compelling in the 50s into the 70s. More
detailed, literally darker, somewhat more inspired by comic books.

2\. Most of the humor was absolutely foreign to me. Except jaffees stuff,
which seemed timeless.

The fold ins sometimes didn't land, but some of that was too specific to
events that didn't resonate.

I was a fan of Dave Bergs stuff for the same reason. His political humor
generally could be made current with minor tweaks.

Also can anyone explain the longevity of these Mad stalwarts?

~~~
birdyrooster
I remember growing up in the 90s reading MAD books and magazines at Goodwill
for hours on end. I would love to reread some of them and figure out what
subversive ideas were placed in my mind.

~~~
JohnBooty

       what subversive ideas were placed in my mind
    

I grew up reading Mad in the 80s and have read a lot of their earlier 60s and
70s work as well!

Funny you mention "subversive," though!

MAD Magazine has a "subversive" reputation, and that's certainly how I
_remembered_ it.

But when I go back and read those old issues, the overall worldview seems
surprisingly (to me) very middle-class, conservative, and sort of the opposite
of "subversive."

There seems to be a special kind of disdain for hippies, pot-smokers, and LGBT
figures. LGBT figures in particular are always portrayed as grotesque
caricatures.

They did not go easy on Ronald Reagan, but he's generally parodied as a
photogenic-yet-doddering old man - it's not his arch-Republican ideals that
were pilloried.

White, male, middle-class, middle-aged Americans receive a more gentle sort of
parody which of course tracks with the makeup of their staff.

I still enjoy reading those old issues. I'm not _criticizing_ it per se here;
I'm just kind of amused by the disconnect between how subversive is felt to me
while growing up and how conservative it reads to me now.

(I'm not too familiar with MAD from the 1990s onward. Not sure how things
changed, if at all...)

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ilamont
That's amazing. I grew up reading Mad, and his name along with artists Sergio
Aragones, Antonio Prohia, Don Martin, and Dave Berg became very familiar. It
was a great introduction to satire and humor from about ages 8 to 13.

Besides the humor, one of the other things that set _Mad_ apart from most
other magazines was there were no ads. The business was sustained by newsstand
sales and subscriptions by loyal readers.

~~~
DrScump
MAD had great ads... for its own subscriptions.

When I was a kid (and subscriber!), their ads had a common theme "Why kill
yourself... because you missed the last issue of MAD at the newsstand?"
combined with a cartoon of a new inventive method of suicide being attempted
by the forlorn reader.

~~~
simonblack
I remember one particularly. It showed a man in a German WW2 helmet saying
"Nein! And zat's what der dumpkopfs did, zey sent me nine" (issues of MAD)"
for the price of eight!"

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pseudolus
There's a short Wikipedia write-up on the Mad "Fold-in" that Al Jaffee is
renown for [0]. A few are also floating around the web [1].

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Fold-
in](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Fold-in)

[1] [https://13thdimension.com/13-mad-fold-ins-an-al-jaffee-
celeb...](https://13thdimension.com/13-mad-fold-ins-an-al-jaffee-celebration/)

~~~
zvr
Al actually publishes a number of them via his twitter account:
[https://twitter.com/og_aljaffee](https://twitter.com/og_aljaffee)

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WheelsAtLarge
This story is so inspiring in the sense that Mr. Jaffee has been able to work
at what he loves for most of his life. He could have retired ages ago yet he
continued.

My hope is that we all find the job we love and are able to retire, at least,
until our 99th birthday.

HURRAY FOR HIM!

------
eggy
I always read Mad back in the 70s up until the early 80s growing up in
Brooklyn. I went to grade school with Christopher Woodbridge the son of George
Woodbridge(another Mad artist)[1]. I loved the irreverent, silly artwork and
writing. My best friend and I would draw our own versions of Mad-type comics.
There just wasn't anything like Mad. We would buy Cracked magazine if we
couldn't find the latest Mad, but it was such an obvious copy of Mad, that we
always held it against Cracked, although, it was fun too! Happy Retirement Al,
and thanks for entertaining me for many years growing up in a not-so-cheerful
neighborhood!

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Woodbridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Woodbridge)

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jonathanjaeger
I was a Mad Magazine collector as a kid and my dad still subscribes to this
day to keep the tradition going. I have fond memories of going to their NYC
headquarters as a kid and having various comics/editors sign my Mad merch.

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drfuchs
The article mentions the "staff’s storied annual trips to far-flung vacation
spots" that were paid for by the magazine. I recall years ago hearing an
interview in which one of them told the story that one year they vacationed in
the Dominican Republic(?), where they had a single subscriber in the whole
country. So, the entire crew showed up at his house to deliver that month's
issue.

~~~
milquetoastaf
It was Haiti. [https://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2012/12/13/totally-mad-
exce...](https://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2012/12/13/totally-mad-excerpt-what-
were-the-mad-trips)

~~~
lifeisstillgood
wow ...

>>> Especially if the trips were stag.

“I never met two wives who could get along with each other,” Gaines said at
the time. “Bringing wives on the trips would divide the convivial MAD group
into cliques. The wives would spend so much on clothing trying to outdo each
other that it would cost the boys a fortune, and I can’t see any point to
that.”

~~~
lostlogin
It reads like something from Madmen, but came first.

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voicedYoda
When i was a child, MAD had a fake credit card on the back. My dad's office
had a laminator. We cut out the fake cards, laminated them, then when we'd go
out for a meal, he'd "let me pay"with my American Impress card... So many
laughs were had with such a juvenile gimmick...i miss those days!

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jwilber
I used to get Mad magazine as a kid in the 90s.

Definitely enjoyed them as a kid, but never realized how cool they were (or
considered how much they may have shaped my sense of humor - always attributed
that to shows like Chapelle’s show around that time).

Anyways, thanks Mom.

Their longtime artist Mort Drucker passed earlier this year at the age of 91.
Humor really does help with health, huh?
[https://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2020/04/09/rip-mort-
drucker...](https://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2020/04/09/rip-mort-
drucker-1929-2020)

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082349872349872
Ran into a website with creative UPC symbols recently and couldn't help but
think of how the Mad staff has been having fun with them since introduction.

