a sign of the times

[egypturnash]

MAD is parodying the Onion: The Bunion (link from bOingbOing)

Either the Onion is now old and dated, MAD is smarter than I remember it being, or some of both. I think it's probably some of both.

Comments

[dour.livejournal.com]

Hrm.

While I don't disagree with the point MAD is trying to make, I generally say exactly the same thing about MAD.

BTW, your bOingbOing link is all busted and junk.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks. I fixed the link.

[protocat.livejournal.com]

I had a subscription to Mad Magazine from 1990 to 2001 and have seen their quality consistantly drop, be it the actual humor, the loss of their aging artists or their balls to do more adult humor (Al Jaffee had a penchant for drawing pointy nipples, which was amusing at 12) which they've had pretty consistantly since the 70s. I had collected stuff going back as far as 1957 in small bits here and there at antique shops, yard sales, swap meets, etc. Since 2001, I've either given away or had most of them completely trashed save some of the stuff I had autographed when I visited their office years ago and met Jaffe and a few others.

The point I suppose I'm trying to make is that I was quite familiar with their progression and after I stopped reading in 2001, they pulled a drastic change. It was bad enough Spy vs. Spy went to bad Photoshop airbrush art, but when I picked up an issue a few months back, they switched to 30% color on cheap stock, and every three pages was advertising. Targested advertising for kids, like wrestling, Korn, other embarassing NuMetal acts, etc. Any sense of an 'edge' was completely filed off and the entire experience of reading that issue made me feel almost cheated and sick to my stomach.

While I admit they have a lot of valid points about the Onion, I could just *see* the bitter resentment clear as day from Mad. To me, it had nothing to do with parody and had everything to do with the fact that the older Mad audiance has been completely lost to acts like the Onion and online sites like Something Awful and they're forced to finally sell out hard to stay in print. They can't forge ahead and do something bold, as they've chosen their grave of being strictly a 'PG' to slight 'PG-13' rating, actually *lowering* their content level from the past.

Although, I will say this, as sad and as bitter Mad is now, at least they did a good job of pointing out some of what I found wrong with the Onion, despite still enjoying it over Mad now.

*whews and passes out from rant*

Good points.

[(Anonymous)]

Similarly, my opinion is that neither is worth reading. MAD, for the reasons you gave, and Th'Onion for the reasons MAD gave. I hate it when people link to onion headlines with phrases like "ROTFLMAPIMPOPSAPFMPLMF!!!!!" because it's just never funny : /

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

Not sure, but I think the reason they changed so abruptly is that Gaines, the main guy who'd been doing the magazine, died recently. Then whoever was left decided it needed to be 'Spy' for the candy-rack crowd, and apparently failed.

They used to go more for social commentary, rather than just mocking trends. I mean, they always mocked what was current, but there used to be somewhat of a political and social consciousness to Mad, too. But basically all the main artists died off, and were replaced with empty heads. I suspect there's also a lot of this thing where the newer artists and writers don't really get what Mad was about, so they do their own superficial version of it.

[protocat.livejournal.com]

Gaines died in 1992. It was right before my visit to their offices, so there was a gloomy sort of dark humor on the 13th floor of the building. I spoke to his wife a bit and she gave me M&Ms and some free stuff. I thought it might have occured sooner, but it actually took them ten years to completely run themselves into the ground to a level beneath even 'Cracked'.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

That long ago, hmmm? I stopped reading Mad about the time I discovered masturbation. :)

Cracked was decent for a long time... I mean, they seemed to lure Don Martin away for a while. Admittedly their best material had mostly to do with 'The Dukes of Hazzard.'

Now, 'Crazy' was pretty awful. That wasn't even worth looking at.

[supersocks.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking yesterday that the Onion had lost some of its bite. Really, how many ironic articles about disheveled student housing can you read? :) But Mad, for all the issues I've read, never really had bite to begin with. It wants to be sharp satire, but it's aimed at kids too young to get it.