Like many great innovators MAD Magazine spawned some imitators. Cracked Magazine and Crazy Magazine were two of these MAD wannabes and each have come and gone. Though I'd sometimes buy and enjoy their issues – depending who was on the cover – my vote was always with MAD. (To read about how I got Tom Wopat's autograph on this issue of Cracked (to the right), click here.)
Cracked and Crazy blatantly aped just about everything MAD put in print...from it's subject matter...to it's artwork...and even the use of a mascot character. Like MAD'sAlfred E. Neuman, Cracked featured a dumb, wide-jowled mascot janitor named Sylvester P. Smythe on its covers, while Crazy had a short, bug-eyed mascot with a large black hat and cape named Irving Nebbish, who was later replaced with the belligerent Obnoxio the Clown in 1980.
Like I said on the first day of "MAD Magazine Week", MAD has been tamed over the years, but it's stood the test of time.
With the success of fellow comedy magazines' National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), MAD Magazine attempted to also cash in with their movie, MAD Magazine Presents Up the Academy (1980). The plot involved the outrageous antics of a group of misfits at a military school. Directed by the independent-minded Robert Downey Sr. (director of Putney Swope), the film features Ralph Macchio in his film debut as one of the troubled teens, Ron Leibman as the mean Major Vaughn Liceman, Barbara Bach as the sexy gun-toting armaments specialist, Tom Poston as the un-PC flamboyant instructor who loves bed checks, and Antonio Fargas as the coach. The movie even starred Alfred E. Neuman in the beginning and the end!
Unfortunately, the movie did not live up to expectations and it was disowned by both the staff of MAD Magazine and actor Ron Leibman, who had his name removed from the credits – although he was the best thing about the movie. MAD's publisher, William Gaines, paid Warner Bros. $30,000 to remove all references to MAD from the film when it was released on home video. However, the film developed a small cult following and following Time Warner's purchase of MAD, all references to the magazine were reinstated on cable television. In 2006, the original version of the film was issued on DVD.
Here's the trailer for MAD Magazine Presents Up the Academy...
In the tradition of MAD making fun of movies, the magazine spoofed their own film with "MAD Magazine Resents Throw Up The Academy" (MAD #218 - October 1980). The parody mainly concerned Ron Leibman's name being removed, and the teenage troublemakers being punished by having to star in the film. Unlike most MAD movie parodies which are often several pages in length, this one was only two, the reason being with a fake note attached saying that the entire staff of MAD has quit over their shame and the article is hereby discontinued. Here's the parody...
The one thing I can't help but notice when I watch Up the Academy is that it has wall-to-wall music in just about every scene...and this was pre-MTV. I guess they felt the scenes were too boring and needed to liven them up. For the most part the soundtrack consists of new wave punk tunes. Here it is...
[DOWNLOAD] MAD Magazine Presents Up the Academy (1980) 01- Kicking Up A Fuss (Main Title Theme) -- Blow-Up 02- X Offender -- Blondie 03- Roadrunner -- Johnathan Richman and the Modern Lovers 04- We Gotta Get Out Of Here -- Ian Hunter 05- Coquette -- Cheeks 06- Boney Moronie -- Cheeks 07- We Live For Love -- Pat Benatar 08- Bad Reputation -- Sammy Hagar 09- Midnight Rendezvous -- The Babys 10- Beat The Devil -- Blow-Up
Through the years MAD Magazine has dabbled in the music industry with it's own brand of silly tunes. Here's a bunch...
[DOWNLOAD] MAD Magazine - "Twists" Rock 'N' Roll (1962) 01- (Throwing the) High School Basketball Game 02- (She Got A) Nose Job 03- Please Betty Jane (Shave Your Legs) 04- Somebody Elses Dandruff 05- Blind Date 06- Agnes (The Teenage Russian Spy) 07- Let's Do the Pretzel 08- I'll Always Remember Being You 09- When My Pimples Turned To Dimples 10- Shes A Serious Teenager In Love 11- (All I Have Left Is) My Johny's Hubcap 12- Written On the Boys Bathroom Wall
[DOWNLOAD] MAD Magazine - Fink Along With MAD (1963) 01- Let's Do The Fink - Mike Russo 02- I'll Never Make Fun Of Her Moustache Again -- The Dellwoods 03- The Biggest Mouth In Town -- Jeanne Hayes 04- Her Dad's Got Money Cha-Cha-Cha -- Mike Russo 05- I Accidentally Messed Up His Hair -- Jeanne Hayes 06- It's A Gas -- Alfred E. Neuman 07- Don't Put Onions On Your Hamburger -- The Dellwoods 08- Loving A Siamese Twin -- Jeanne Hayes 09- She Lets Me Watch Her Mom And Pop Fight -- Mike Russo 10- When The Braces On Our Teeth Lock -- The Dellwoods 11- Contact Lenses -- Jeanne Hayes 12- The Neighborhood Draft Board -- The Dellwoods
MAD Magazine also occasionally had "Special" issues which came with a flexi-disc! Here's one called "It's A Super-Spectacular Day" from MAD Super Special (1980). It's eight tracks of the same song but each has a different ending.
[DOWNLOAD] The Mad Mystery Sound - It's A Super-Spectacular Day (1979) 01- It's A Super-Spectacular Day (Ending 1) 02- It's A Super-Spectacular Day (Ending 2) 03- It's A Super-Spectacular Day (Ending 3) 04- It's A Super-Spectacular Day (Ending 4) 05- It's A Super-Spectacular Day (Ending 5) 06- It's A Super-Spectacular Day (Ending 6) 07- It's A Super-Spectacular Day (Ending 7) 08- It's A Super-Spectacular Day (Ending 8)
Here's another flexi-disc. It's MAD Disco. Seems like everybody caught disco fever after Saturday Night Fever hit...although MAD was a little late to the game in this case. Saturday Night Fever was released in '77...this issue is from 1980! (For more on the Saturday Night Fever phenomenon check out a past post here.)
* None of these rips are my own. I've downloaded these albums from various sites through the years and I unfortunately don't remember where I got them from – with the exception of the Alfred E. Neuman & His Furshluggier Five single, which was downloaded from cheezefactory.blogspot.com.
The best thing about MAD Magazine has always been it's artists. I can easily rave about the works of Al Jaffee or Don Martin but today I'd like to highlight the little talked about Sergio Aragonés – little probably because his "marginal" cartoons are so...little.
Aragonés became famous for his wordless "drawn-out dramas" or "marginals" which were inserted into the margins and between panels of the magazine. The drawings are both horizontal and vertical, and occasionally extend around corners. Prior to Aragonés' arrival at MAD, the magazine had sometimes filled its margins with text jokes under the catch-all heading "Marginal Thinking." According to Aragonés the staff of MAD enjoyed his marginals, but expected him to only last one or two issues. They did not expect him to be able to maintain the steady stream of small cartoons needed for each issue. However, Aragonés has provided marginals for every issue of Mad since 1963 except one (his contributions to that issue were lost by the Post Office).
When I was a kid I wasn't really into super-hero comics, my comic of choice was MAD Magazine. I was born in '71 so I would've missed out on MAD from the 60's and early 70's – what I consider their heyday – if it wasn't for my cousins who were 10 to 15 years older than me. Every time we visited I'd ask permission to go down to their basement to study the piles of back issues. They even let me have a few.
Back then MAD was a lot more raunchy than it is today. Just check out the above issue from April 1974 (with the finger) – they can't get away with a cover like that today. Back then MAD also made light of drug use and, if your pre-pubescent eyes were sharp, you'd sometimes stumble upon some nudity...in cartoon form.
The issue I read over and over again was actually a mini-issue that came inside MAD Special Number 15 from 1974. It was a nostalgic mini-issue of MAD comics from the 50's – the third in a series. Here's a PDF of the complete Nostalgic MAD mini-comic...
Speaking of advertising and Mad Men in my last post. To promote the new season of AMC'sMad Men, they put together a nifty little site that let's you "Mad Men" yourself. It's fun! I did one depicting all my colleagues (pictured above). I'm the one standing on the steps...with hair.
If you follow this blog you've probably read about my exploits as an advertising creative from time to time. Advertising is sometimes seen as an evil industry but Hollywood tends to use the advertising profession as an interesting backdrop for it's movies. I always get a kick out of how wrong they get it, though. They often blur the lines between job titles and responsibilities...usually making one character do it all.
Below are my Top 10 films with advertising themes...
1-LOVER COME BACK (1961) Jerry Webster (Rock Hudson) and Carol Templeton (Doris Day) work for different agencies in the advertising business, and both have different methods of pleasing their clients. Annoyed by Jerry's methods of using alcohol and women to ensure contracts for his agency, Carol tries to get him thrown out of his profession. To avoid this Jerry bribes the girl who'd testify against him, by starring her in a TV commercial for a product named VIP that he's just made up. By accident these commercials are broadcasted and to keep his job, Jerry has to come up with VIP for which he enlists the help of Doctor Linus Tyler. Carol goes to see the Doctor to try and steal the VIP account, but because she and Jerry have never met, she mistakes Jerry for the Doctor. Jerry then takes advantage of this situation and eventually the two fall in love. Here's the opening scenes introducing our characters characteristics...
2-WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? (1957) In this spoof of the TV advertising industry, Rockwell Hunter (Tony Randall) is the low man on the totem pole at the advertising company where he works. That is, until he finds the perfect spokesmodel for Stay-Put lipstick, the famous actress with the oh-so-kissable lips, Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield). Unfortunately, in exchange, Rock has to act publicly as Rita's "Loverboy", and Rock's fiancé Jenny isn't too happy about that. Here's the opening scenes in which Tony Randall breaks the fourth wall – I love when movies do that – and the introduction of Rockwell and his job...
3-NOTHING IN COMMON (1986) David Basner (Tom Hanks) is a successful advertising executive who has it all: money, happiness, and women who want him. Then one day his world falls apart when his mother leaves his father (Jackie Gleason). Now, he must balance his life between his mother, who is happy with her newfound independence, and his father, a recently laid off salesman who is hard-headed, stubborn, and hides a lot from David. This makes David reevaluate his life and jeopardizes his career. Tom Hanks does a great job at being funny while also showcasing his acting abilities in this Gary Marshall film. Here's a scene where David and his team pitch a spot for an airline...
4-KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979) Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) is a career man for whom his work comes before his family. His wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) cannot take this anymore, so she decides to leave him. Ted is now faced with the tasks of housekeeping and taking care of himself and their young son Billy while juggling his career. When he has learned to adjust his life to these new responsibilities, Joanna resurfaces and wants Billy back. Ted however refuses to give him up, so they go to court to fight for the custody of their son. In this scene, after losing his job, Ted forces an interview the day before the Christmas break...and lands it...
5-CRAZY PEOPLE (1990) Emory (Dudley Moore) works in advertising, and is beginning to crack up. His latest idea is honesty...truth in advertising. This doesn't go down too well with the boss, so Emory is sent to a psychiatric hospital to "recover". Meanwhile, back at the office, Emory's work is accidentally sent to the printers and his ads are a huge success. But now Emory has fallen for fellow patient Kathy (Daryl Hannah) and doesn't want to leave. So he and the other mental patients begin to run an advertising agency from the institution. Here's the scene where Emory unveils his new way of thinking...
6-MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE (1948) Cary Grant stars as an advertising executive who dreams of getting out of the city and building a perfect home in the country, only to find the transition fraught with problems. Though mostly about building his dream house, this movie has a fair share of Mr. Blandings at his job in advertising. One thing I find funny is that Blandings has about six months to a year to come of with a slogan for WHAM Ham. Maybe the advertising world was like that back then – probably not – but today we're lucky if we get two weeks to do it...or even two days. And in the end, he doesn't even come up with the slogan! His maid does!! See for yourself...
7-BOOMERANG (1992) Marcus (Eddie Murphy) is a successful advertising executive who woos and beds women almost at will. After a company merger he finds that his new boss, the ravishing Jacqueline (Robin Givens), is treating him in exactly the same way. The two begin having an affair and his work goes badly downhill. But then Jacqueline's more quietly attractive assistant Angela (Halle Berry), helps him through the harsh times and the two fall in love. Here's a scene where the advertising agency screens a new commercial for the Strangé perfume client. Unfortunately, Marcus was preoccupied with gettin' it on that he hasn't even seen the finished product...
8-B.S. I LOVE YOU (1971) Paul Bongard (Peter Kastner) is a young advertising producer who sleeps his way up the corporate ladder by having an affair with his new boss Jane (Joanna Barnes). He's also, unknowingly, having an affair with his bosses teenage daughter Michele (Joanna Cameron) – definitely influenced by The Graduate. Plus, he has a fiancé in Connecticut. In this scene Paul arrives to work at his old agency to find that he's being pushed out for bungling a soda pop commercial...
9-THINK DIRTY (1970) Teddy (Marty Feldman) works for a large advertising agency. Given the seemingly impossible task of selling frozen porridge, he decides to produce commercials which make the product seem sexy. This leads him into confrontation with the "Keep Television Clean" movement, of which his wife is a senior member. Further problems ensue when the family take on Swedish nanny Inga Giltenburg (Julie Ege). Here's a scene in which you see Teddy always has advertising on his mind...
10-PUTNEY SWOPE (1969) Dark satire in which the token black man on the executive board of an advertising firm is accidentally put in charge. Renaming the business "Truth and Soul, Inc.", he replaces the tight regime of monied white ad men with his militant brothers. Soon afterwards, however, the power that comes with its position takes its toll on Putney. Here's how Putney winds up in charge...
I know this is a Top "10" List but I have to add one more. The reason it's at #10.5 is because it has very little to do with advertising, but it's Elvis!...
10.5-LIVE A LITTLE, LOVE A LITTLE (1968) Greg Nolan (Elvis Presely) is a newspaper photographer who lives a fun and carefree life. That is, until he meets a headcase named Bernice (Michele Carey), who assumes different names and personalities whenever the mood hits her. She manages to lose his job and apartment after drugging him. However, she manages to find him another apartment, and he wants to pay her back. So he gets two photographer jobs: one at a Playboy-like magazine and the other at an advertising agency. He now has to manage balancing the two jobs along with dealing with Bernice and her odd ways. Here's how he lands two jobs with "the truth"...
When it comes to advertising's portrayal on television...besides reruns of Bewitched, I strongly recommend Mad Men – set in the 60's when advertising was cool and respected. Season 3 premieres Sunday, August 16th at 10pm. Set your DVR's...you know...to fast forward through those annoying advertisements.
Last day of "MAD Magazine Week"!
Like many great innovators MAD Magazine spawned some imitators. Cracked Magazine and Crazy Magazine were two of these MAD wannabes and each have come and gone. Though I'd sometimes buy and enjoy their issues – depending who was on the cover – my vote was always with MAD. (To read about how I got Tom Wopat's autograph on this issue of Cracked (to the right), click here.)
Cracked and Crazy blatantly aped just about everything MAD put in print...from it's subject matter...to it's artwork...and even the use of a mascot character. Like MAD's Alfred E. Neuman, Cracked featured a dumb, wide-jowled mascot janitor named Sylvester P. Smythe on its covers, while Crazy had a short, bug-eyed mascot with a large black hat and cape named Irving Nebbish, who was later replaced with the belligerent Obnoxio the Clown in 1980. 
