Last month Mad Magazine announced it would cease publication after 67 years. No surprise: humor is dead. Here’s a piece from the olden days, when Mad sought fit to spoof the advertising men of Madison Avenue.
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Is comedy dead? Apparently, the President is a comic. Today his attempt at getting a laugh was – after the Dow took a 2.4% hit – tweeting, “The Dow is down 573 points perhaps on the news that Representative Seth Moulton, whoever that may be, has dropped out of the 2020 Presidential Race!”
I’m still laughing… damn near spit my Dark & Stormy out laughing so hard. Afterall, now more than ever, as Alfred E. Neuman once proclaimed, it’s a mad mad world.
Cheers, BC
Or this “Mad” classic:
The Spaniel
Once upon a midnight cautious, while I pondered weak and nauseous,
Over some advertising copy I had wrote for Macy’s Store,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a yapping,
As of someone loudly yapping, yapping at my office door.
“‘Tis some client there,” I muttered, “yapping at my office door –
Only this and nothing more.”
Then I felt my terror worsen, for my guest was not a person!
In there stepped a cocker spaniel; naturally I jumped in fear.
Tried to climb an oaken panel, ripping there my new grey flannel;
But the spaniel merely stood there, speaking out with voice so clear –
Speaking out like Jack Lescoulie, in a voice both loud and clear –
Quoth the spaniel- “Drink Blatz Beer!”
How I marveled this ungainly dog who did commercials plainly;
How he spoke the message clearly; selling points he underscored.
For I could not help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet could mouth a slogan without sounding slightly bored –
Quoth the spaniel: “Buy a Ford!”
Thus this dog with voice like Murrow made my heavy brow unfurrow;
Thoughts of fortunes I could make now made me shake down to my knees.
But the spaniel set me grieving then by turning tail and leaving.
Naturally, I begged him tarry, crying out, “Stay with me, please!”
Quoth the spaniel, “Eat Kraft Cheese!”
Anyone who found that amusing may care to take a look at Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris – really, it mirrors all of that pretty much perfectly. Nothing changes it seems….
While still in college, I managed to sell three scripts to Mad Magazine. I’ll always remember the kindness of the editorial staff, who gave me much-needed guidance and encouraged me to continue writing. RIP,Mad.
Edwin E. Newman RIP. “What! Me worry?”
Err.. Alfred. I must be getting old.
That’s Alfred E. Neuman 😉
Bill Gabbard, thank you for “The Spaniel.” I’ve been looking for it on the Web.
Don’t forget “My Fair Ad-Man”: “You’ll have to ‘Yes, yes, yes’ all night!”
The part of the “reader” that I remember best is the “jolly client.” One kindred Soul of his must have given “The Little Mermaid” a happy ending.
Rereading “The Spaniel,” Bill Gabbard, I noticed also that a line was left out, a line I remembered even when I’d forgotten half the poem: “Most announcers, being human, can’t help sounding slightly bored.”
But RIP, Mad, all of the usual gang of idiots who have passed on, and thanks again to those who haven’t yet. Thanks for the memories.