Read in the pages of Mad Magazine probably 45 years ago. I can still hum this though I’ve long forgotten the tune it’s set to.
Comet!
It makes your mouth so clean
Comet!
It tastes like gasoline
Comet!
It makes you vomit
So buy some Comet
and vomit
Today!
What a loss. :(
Few here will remember the earliest days of MAD when it was still published by ED Comics, and featured the work of the great Wally Wood.
As a kid I rarely bought comic books, but almost every month I bought Mad magazine.
Wikipedia says 1974 was peak circulation year for MAD and I was 13 then. My mother would buy me the latest issue at the grocery store so every month I would anticipate its arrival. But my father would intercept it so I had to wait for him to finish it first. It gave us something to relate over, which wasn’t easy as his and my interests were so different.
And, since I was too young to see movies like Midnight Cowboy, the MAD parodies gave me some idea of what the adults were talking about.
I think that my favorite cartoons were Sergio Aragones’ though Don Martin cartoons could be so vulgar and funny. I remember one where a man and woman are siting in two armchairs facing out from the page. They are a couple of slobs. He has a beer can in one hand, she is clipping her toenails. The nails are flying through the air and bouncing off him and the can. One lands in the can. He scolds her, something like “C’mon Bernice. You have to do better than that if you are going to make it into the International Toenail Clipping finals!”
Fond memories.
I realized earlier that MAD and I are the same age. Hope this isn’t a portent of things to come…
Me too. So brutal. Fuck that game.
I’ll join the chorus here. I’m in my late 50s now, and grew up with MAD. I have a CD collection from, what, 15 years or more ago of their issues up to that point, but no hard copies any more. But it was one of the only comics or related things I’d buy (along with The Haunted Tank, Richie Rich, and The Archies). I loved the irreverent, sarcastic humor and the extras like the folding covers and the occasional record insert. To this day I still reference things from MAD, like using the word “dweeblefetzer” and referring to my two male dogs (one black, one light cream/tan) as being like Spy vs. Spy when they fight over a toy.
Sad indeed. As Arte might say, “Very interesting. But not funny.”
Don Martin changed my life.
I ran up the stairs to the 14th floor. The building used to have 15 floors. But that’s another story.
Aw man. :(
Mine too. I’d pay real money for a quality poster size print of his “Guide to Obscure Comics Sound Effects.”
*SNAP*
PLOOBADOOF
Bummer man.
I was just talking about their Jurassic Park spoof with my kids. For some reason this one stayed with me.
This would make a very good game jam project.
My youth continues to fade into the mists of history
Al Jaffee’s silliness would make me LOL when I was a kid.
Don Martin’s stuff came close.
Al Jaffee just retired at 99 earlier this month. There’s a tribute issue with his final fold-in.
https://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2020/06/11/mad-14-on-sale-616
I want to try to find that on paper, given that I don’t think the fold-in is gonna work well on my iPad…
Once you fold an iPad you can’t unfold it again.
Maybe if you drill a line of tiny holes down the middle of the iPad?
This fascinating interview with Al Jaffee was reprinted in Vulture last month. It was originally conducted in 2008, when Al was still working at MAD. (As forgeforsaken noted a few posts up, he finally retired three years ago at the age of 99.)
I’ve seen a few unconfirmed reports that Al Jaffee, 102, passed away today. (Edited to add: the NYT now confirms.) I don’t know if his passing was expected or a surprise, but I hope that his obituary can be folded in on itself to reveal a secret message: that sucks.
Edit again: best I could do:
And he was also responsible for Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions, probably my favorite segment of the magazine.
