Thread by @mattcohen2

THREAD: When one of my MAD Magazine articles (“The Ghastlygun Tinies”) went viral, some people were surprise that MAD published a satire (as opposed to parodies & puns.) But MAD had always done that.

Here are some of my favorite examples of when MAD “pulled no punches.” (1/X)

"The Militarization Of Officer Joe" was written in 2014 by Desmond Devlin and painted by Richard Williams in response the Ferguson protests. It stands on it's own, but it's even more powerful when you contrast it with the 1958 Norman Rockwell painting that it references. (2/X)

Following the presidential election in 1960, MAD Magazine was one of the first magazines to report that Kennedy won. How's they do it? The issue actually had Nixon on the front cover and Kennedy on the back. Newsstands were told to turn the appropriate side face up... (3/X)

...It was a brilliant stunt, but it was also a sly look at anybody whose political loyalties sway in the wind. Cover by Bob Clarke.

Jumping forward to 2002, this Star Wars parody by Arie Kaplan and Scott Sonneborn with art by Scott Bricher came out before the war began. (4/X)

In this parody, “NRA” stands for "Nature’s Revenge Association." In 1992, the NRA still had a reputation for representing hunters, so this MAD piece by Joe Raiola, Charlie Kadau, and Peter Sun imagined what hunting would be like if the deer leveled the playing field... (5/X)

This unforgettable Vietnam era piece written by Max Brandel and illustrated by Jack Thurston. (It speaks for itself, but if you stick around to the end of this NPR story, Bill Morrison sites it as an influence: npr.org/2018/10/13/657…) (6/X)

This 2004 ad parody by Don Vaughan may feature George Bush, but it's not really about Bush. It's about a certain style of political attack ad. It's about the dangerous strategy of saying that your political opponent isn't merely inferior to yourself, but that they're evil. (7/X)

One of the benefits of using Alfred E. Neuman on every cover was that it allowed MAD to suggest in 1969 that the only difference between "Make Love Not War" and "My Country Right Or Wrong" was time. (Written by Max Brandel with art by Norman Mingo.) (8/X)

Let's take a closer look at the rebooted version of MAD (or MAD:TNG as I like to call it.) Zoom in and read this Stan Sinberg piece from issue #6, 2019. (9/X)

https://twitter.com/N1cacci/status/1094317684865540097

Those are just a few of examples. If I missed one of your favorites, sharing it here.

If you're looking for other ways to celebrate your love of MAD, you can always hire @dantelfer. Or you can hire me. Or hire any of the Usual Gang Of Idiots. We're all great memorabilia. (10/10)