The Endangered Mad

Rating:
Summary: Buy this book to help make the Endangered MAD extinct
Review: "Endangered MAD" is the sixty-five paper back collection put out by the usual gang of idiots at the magazine that weaned the youth of America on a steady diet of low caliber satirical humor. This one really seems like an oversized issue of "MAD" Magazine, following the standard format of beginning with a movie satire, in this case the Dino De Laurentiis remake of "King King," now rechristened as "King Korn" (Written by Dick De Bartolo and Drawn by Harry North), and ends with a take off of "One Day at a Time," now "One Dame at a Time," with Larry Siegel doing the scripting and Angelo Torres the artwork. As you can tell just from those bookends, we are talking about the 1970s as the focal point for this collection of humor.

Of course, you do not care about this because all you want to know is whether or not your favorites from the aforementioned usual gang of idiots are to be found within the pages of "The Endangered MAD." Don Martin does a nice coda to "King Korn" with "One Nigh on Skull Island" and a couple of other pieces, Dave Berg does "The Lighter Side of...Consumers" and then "Health Nuts," and artist Jack Davis teams up with writer Tom Koch to provide "A Little Kid's Guide to Understanding the News" that helps define things like the difference between a recession and a depression. Also particularly appropriate for this election year is a look back at "MAD's Election-Year Mother Goose," courtesy of writer Frank Jacobs and artist Paul Coker, Jr., of which "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" is probably the most on target; they also do a choice bit on "More American Jokes They're Telling in Poland." Sergio Aragones takes "A Mad Look at Movie Making," and of the two efforts from writer Frank Jacobs and artist Al Jafee the better is "The Neuman Book of World Records...that led to lesser-known follow-up world records."

Actually the movie and television parodies, which are usually the chief attraction in your average issue of "MAD" magazine, are the weakest part of this collection. But then everything in between is pretty good so on balance this has to be an above average "MAD" collection. Yes, for some of these pieces you have to read the book sideways, but that is a small price to pay for low-grade humor like this. Besides, you have to get a kick out of the final panel of as "King Korn" when the character based on Jessica Lange declares she never wants anything to do with Show Business again and the character based on Jeff Bridges assures her, "Honey...after your performance in this movie...I don't think you have to worry!" Do you think that after she won her Oscar that local girl Jessica Lange (hometown Cloquet, Minnesota) ever took out an old issue of her first appearance in "MAD" Magazine and had a good laugh? I sure like to think so.

Rating:
Summary: Buy this book to help make the Endangered MAD extinct
Review: "Endangered MAD" is the sixty-five paper back collection put out by the usual gang of idiots at the magazine that weaned the youth of America on a steady diet of low caliber satirical humor. This one really seems like an oversized issue of "MAD" Magazine, following the standard format of beginning with a movie satire, in this case the Dino De Laurentiis remake of "King King," now rechristened as "King Korn" (Written by Dick De Bartolo and Drawn by Harry North), and ends with a take off of "One Day at a Time," now "One Dame at a Time," with Larry Siegel doing the scripting and Angelo Torres the artwork. As you can tell just from those bookends, we are talking about the 1970s as the focal point for this collection of humor.

Of course, you do not care about this because all you want to know is whether or not your favorites from the aforementioned usual gang of idiots are to be found within the pages of "The Endangered MAD." Don Martin does a nice coda to "King Korn" with "One Nigh on Skull Island" and a couple of other pieces, Dave Berg does "The Lighter Side of...Consumers" and then "Health Nuts," and artist Jack Davis teams up with writer Tom Koch to provide "A Little Kid's Guide to Understanding the News" that helps define things like the difference between a recession and a depression. Also particularly appropriate for this election year is a look back at "MAD's Election-Year Mother Goose," courtesy of writer Frank Jacobs and artist Paul Coker, Jr., of which "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" is probably the most on target; they also do a choice bit on "More American Jokes They're Telling in Poland." Sergio Aragones takes "A Mad Look at Movie Making," and of the two efforts from writer Frank Jacobs and artist Al Jafee the better is "The Neuman Book of World Records...that led to lesser-known follow-up world records."

Actually the movie and television parodies, which are usually the chief attraction in your average issue of "MAD" magazine, are the weakest part of this collection. But then everything in between is pretty good so on balance this has to be an above average "MAD" collection. Yes, for some of these pieces you have to read the book sideways, but that is a small price to pay for low-grade humor like this. Besides, you have to get a kick out of the final panel of as "King Korn" when the character based on Jessica Lange declares she never wants anything to do with Show Business again and the character based on Jeff Bridges assures her, "Honey...after your performance in this movie...I don't think you have to worry!" Do you think that after she won her Oscar that local girl Jessica Lange (hometown Cloquet, Minnesota) ever took out an old issue of her first appearance in "MAD" Magazine and had a good laugh? I sure like to think so.