The Mad Magazine Game

''Mad'' (stylized as ''MAD'') is an American humor magazine first published in 1952. It was founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines, launched as a comic book series before it became a magazine. It was widely imitated and influential, affecting satirical media, as well as the cultural landscape of the 20th century, with editor Al Feldstein increasing readership to more than two million during its 1973–74 circulation peak.

The magazine, which was the last surviving title from the EC Comics line, publishes satire on all aspects of life and popular culture, politics, entertainment, and public figures. Its format included TV and movie parodies, and satire articles about everyday occurrences that are changed to seem humorous. ''Mad''s mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, was often on the cover, with his face replacing that of a celebrity or character who was being lampooned.

From 1952 to 2018, ''Mad'' published 550 regular magazine issues, as well as scores of reprint "Specials", original-material paperbacks, reprint compilation books and other print projects. After AT&T acquired Time Warner in June 2018, ''Mad'' ended newsstand distribution, continuing in comic-book stores and via subscription. The magazine has reduced its new content in standard issues (save for end-of-year specials), with the regular magazine almost entirely utilising curated reprints with new covers, although minimal amounts of new content appear in each issue.

History

''Mad'' began as a comic book published by EC, debuting in August 1952 ( cover date October–November). The ''Mad'' office was initially located in lower Manhattan at 225 Lafayette Street, while in the early 1960s it moved to 485 Madison Avenue, the location listed in the magazine as "485 MADison Avenue".

The first issue was written almost entirely by Harvey Kurtzman, and featured illustrations by him, Wally Wood, Will Elder, Jack Davis, and John Severin. Wood, Elder, and Davis were to be the three main illustrators throughout the 23-issue run of the comic book.

To retain Kurtzman as its editor, the comic book converted to magazine format as of issue No. 24, in 1955. The switchover induced Kurtzman to remain for one more year, but the move had removed ''Mad'' from the strictures of the Comics Code Authority. William Gaines related in 1992 that ''Mad'' "was not changed nto a magazineto avoid the Code" but "as a result of this hange of formatit ''did'' avoid the Code." Gaines claimed that Kurtzman had at the time received "a very lucrative offer from...'' Pageant'' magazine," and seeing as he, Kurtzman, "had, prior to that time, evinced an interest in changing ''Mad'' into a magazine," Gaines, "not know nganything about publishing magazines," countered that offer by allowing Kurtzman to make the change. Gaines further stated that "if Harvey urtzmanhad not gotten that offer from ''Pageant'', ''Mad'' probably would not have changed format."

After Kurtzman's departure in 1956, new editor Al Feldstein swiftly brought aboard contributors such as Don Martin, Frank Jacobs, and Mort Drucker, and later Antonio Prohías, Dave Berg, and Sergio Aragonés. The magazine's circulation more than quadrupled during Feldstein's tenure, peaking at 2,132,655 in 1974; it later declined to a third of this figure by the end of his time as editor.

In its earliest incarnation, new issues of the magazine appeared erratically, between four and nine times a year. By the end of 1958, ''Mad'' had settled on an unusual eight-times-a-year schedule, which lasted almost four decades. Issues would go on sale 7 to 9 weeks before the start of the month listed on the cover. Gaines felt the atypical timing was necessary to maintain the magazine's level of quality. Beginning in 1994, ''Mad'' then began incrementally producing additional issues per year, until it reached a monthly schedule with issue No. 353 (Jan. 1997). With its 500th issue (June 2009), amid company-wide cutbacks at Time Warner, the magazine temporarily regressed to a quarterly publication before settling to six issues per year in 2010.

Gaines sold his company in 1961 to Premier Industries, a maker of venetian blinds. A few years later, Premier sold ''Mad'' to Independent News, a division of National Periodical Publications, the publisher of DC Comics. In the summer of 1967, Kinney National Company purchased National Periodicals Publications. Kinney bought Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in early 1969. As a result of the car parking scandal, Kinney Services spun off of its non-entertainment assets to form National Kinney Corporation in August 1971, and it reincorporated as Warner Communications, Inc. on February 10, 1972. In 1977, National Periodical Publications was renamed DC Comics.

Feldstein retired in 1985, and was replaced by the senior team of Nick Meglin and John Ficarra, who co-edited ''Mad'' for the next two decades. Long-time production artist Lenny "The Beard" Brenner was promoted to art director and Joe Raiola and Charlie Kadau joined the staff as junior editors. Following Gaines's death in 1992, ''Mad'' became more ingrained within the Time Warner (now WarnerMedia) corporate structure. Eventually, the magazine was obliged to abandon its long-time home at 485 Madison Avenue and in the mid-1990s it moved into DC Comics' offices at the same time that DC relocated to 1700 Broadway. In issue No. 403 of March 2001, the magazine broke its long-standing taboo and began running paid advertising. The outside revenue allowed the introduction of color printing and improved paper stock. After Meglin retired in 2004, the team of Ficarra (as executive editor) Raiola and Kadau (as senior editors), and Sam Viviano, who had taken over as art director in 1999, would helm ''Mad'' for the next 14 years.

Throughout the years, ''Mad'' remained a unique mix of adolescent silliness and political humor. In November 2017, ''Rolling Stone'' wrote that "operating under the cover of barf jokes, ''Mad'' has become America’s best political satire magazine." Nevertheless, ''Mad'' ended its 65-year run in New York City at the end of 2017 with issue No. 550 (cover-dated April 2018), in preparation for the relocation of its offices to DC Entertainment's headquarters in Burbank, California. None of ''Mad''s veteran New York staff made the move, resulting in a change in editorial leadership, tone, and art direction. More than a hundred new names made their ''Mad'' debuts, while fewer than ten of ''Mads recurring artists and writers remained regular contributors. The first California issue of ''Mad'' was renumbered as "#1." Bill Morrison was named in June 2017 to succeed Ficarra in January 2018.

AT&T acquired Time Warner in June 2018. Morrison exited ''Mad'' by March 2019, during a time of layoffs and restructuring at DC Entertainment. After issue No. 10 (Dec. 2019) of the new Burbank edition, ''Mad'' began to consist almost entirely of curated reprints with new covers, with the exception of year-end specials and minimal amounts of new content. Distribution to newsstands stopped, with the magazine becoming available only through comic-book shops and by subscription.

Influence

Though there are antecedents to ''Mad''s style of humor in print, radio and film, ''Mad'' became a signature example of it. Throughout the 1950s, ''Mad'' featured groundbreaking parodies combining a sentimental fondness for the familiar staples of American culture—such as Archie and Superman—with a keen joy in exposing the fakery behind the image. Its approach was described by Dave Kehr in ''The New York Times'': " Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding on the radio, Ernie Kovacs on television, Stan Freberg on records, Harvey Kurtzman in the early issues of ''Mad'': all of those pioneering humorists and many others realized that the real world mattered less to people than the sea of sounds and images that the ever more powerful mass media were pumping into American lives." Bob and Ray, Kovacs and Freberg all became contributors to ''Mad''.

In 1977, Tony Hiss and Jeff Lewis wrote in ''The New York Times'' about the then-25-year-old publication's initial effect:

''Mad'' is often credited with filling a vital gap in political satire from the 1950s to 1970s, when Cold War paranoia and a general culture of censorship prevailed in the United States, especially in literature for teens. Activist Tom Hayden said, "My own radical journey began with ''Mad Magazine''." The rise of such factors as cable television and the Internet has diminished the influence and impact of ''Mad'', although it remains a widely distributed magazine. In a way, ''Mad''s power has been undone by its own success: what was subversive in the 1950s and 1960s is now commonplace. However, its impact on three generations of humorists is incalculable, as can be seen in the frequent references to ''Mad'' on the animated series ''The Simpsons''. ''The Simpsons'' producer Bill Oakley said, "''The Simpsons'' has transplanted ''Mad'' magazine. Basically everyone who was young between 1955 and 1975 read ''Mad'', and that's where your sense of humor came from. And we knew all these people, you know, Dave Berg and Don Martin—all heroes, and unfortunately, now all dead." In 2009, ''The New York Times'' wrote, "''Mad'' once defined American satire; now it heckles from the margins as all of culture competes for trickster status." Longtime contributor Al Jaffee described the dilemma to an interviewer in 2010: "When ''Mad'' first came out, in 1952, it was the only game in town. Now, you've got graduates from ''Mad'' who are doing ''The Today Show'' or ''Stephen Colbert'' or ''Saturday Night Live''. All of these people grew up on ''Mad''. Now ''Mad'' has to top them. So ''Mad'' is almost in a competition with itself."

''Mad''s satiric net was cast wide. The magazine often featured parodies of ongoing American culture, including advertising campaigns, the nuclear family, the media, big business, education and publishing. In the 1960s and beyond, it satirized such burgeoning topics as the sexual revolution, hippies, the generation gap, psychoanalysis, gun politics, pollution, the Vietnam War and recreational drug use. The magazine took a generally negative tone towards counterculture drugs such as cannabis and LSD, but it also savaged mainstream drugs such as tobacco and alcohol. ''Mad'' always satirized Democrats as mercilessly as it did Republicans. In 2007, Al Feldstein recalled, "We even used to rake the hippies over the coals. They were protesting the Vietnam War, but we took aspects of their culture and had fun with it. ''Mad'' was wide open. Bill loved it, and he was a capitalist Republican. I loved it, and I was a liberal Democrat. That went for the writers, too; they all had their own political leanings, and everybody had a voice. But the voices were mostly critical. It was social commentary, after all." ''Mad'' also ran a good deal of less topical or contentious material on such varied subjects as fairy tales, nursery rhymes, greeting cards, sports, small talk, poetry, marriage, comic strips, awards shows, cars and many other areas of general interest.''Absolutely Mad'', Graphic Imaging Technology, 2006.

In 2007, the ''Los Angeles Times'' Robert Boyd wrote, "All I really need to know I learned from ''Mad'' magazine", going on to assert:

In 1988, Geoffrey O'Brien wrote about the impact ''Mad'' had upon the younger generation of the 1950s:

In 1994, Brian Siano in ''The Humanist'' discussed the effect of ''Mad'' on that segment of people already disaffected from society:

Pulitzer Prize-winning art comics maven Art Spiegelman said, "The message ''Mad'' had in general is, 'The media is lying to you, and we are part of the media.' It was basically ... 'Think for yourselves, kids. William Gaines offered his own view: when asked to cite ''Mad''s philosophy, his boisterous answer was, "We must never stop reminding the reader what little value they get for their money!"

Comics historian Tom Spurgeon picked ''Mad'' as the medium's top series of all time, writing, "At the height of its influence, ''Mad'' was ''The Simpsons'', ''The Daily Show'' and ''The Onion'' combined." Graydon Carter chose it as the sixth-best magazine of any sort ever, describing ''Mad''s mission as being "ever ready to pounce on the illogical, hypocritical, self-serious and ludicrous" before concluding, "Nowadays, it's part of the oxygen we breathe." Joyce Carol Oates called it "wonderfully inventive, irresistibly irreverent and intermittently ingenious."

Artist Dave Gibbons said, "When you think of the people who grew up in the '50s and '60s, the letters M-A-D were probably as influential as L-S-D, in that it kind of expanded people's consciousness and showed them an alternative view of society and consumer culture—mocked it, satirized it." Gibbons also noted that ''Mad'' was an overt influence on ''Watchmen'', the acclaimed 12-issue comic book series created by writer Alan Moore and himself:

In a 1985 ''Tonight Show'' appearance, when Johnny Carson asked Michael J. Fox, "When did you really know you'd made it in show business?", Fox replied, "When Mort Drucker drew my head." In 2019, Terence Winter, writer and producer of ''The Sopranos'', told ''Variety'' "When we got into ''Mad'' Magazine, that was the highlight for me. That said everything."

Monty Python's Terry Gilliam wrote, "''Mad'' became the Bible for me and my whole generation." Underground cartoonist Bill Griffith said of his youth, "''Mad'' was a life raft in a place like Levittown, where all around you were the things that ''Mad'' was skewering and making fun of."

Robert Crumb remarked, "Artists are always trying to equal the work that impressed them in their childhood and youth. I still feel extremely inadequate when I look at the old ''Mad'' comics."

When Weird Al Yankovic was asked whether ''Mad'' had had any influence in putting him on a road to a career in parody, the musician replied, " t wasmore like going off a cliff." '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'' writer-actor Frank Conniff wrote, "Without ''Mad'' Magazine, MST3K would have been slightly different, like for instance, it wouldn't have existed." Comedian Jerry Seinfeld talked about the magazine's impact on him, saying, "You start reading it, and you're going, 'These people don't respect ''anything''.' And that just exploded my head. It was like, you don't have to buy it. You can say 'This is stupid. This is stupid.

Critic Roger Ebert wrote:

Rock singer Patti Smith said more succinctly, "After ''Mad'', drugs were nothing."

Recurring features

''Mad'' is known for many regular and semi-regular recurring features in its pages, including " Spy vs. Spy", the " Mad Fold-in", "The Lighter Side of ..." and its television and movie parodies. The magazine has also included recurring gags and references, both visual (e.g. the ''Mad'' Zeppelin, or Arthur the potted plant) and linguistic (unusual words such as axolotl, furshlugginer, potrzebie and veeblefetzer).

Alfred E. Neuman

The image most closely associated with the magazine is that of Alfred E. Neuman, the boy with misaligned eyes, a gap-toothed smile, and the perennial motto "What, me worry?" The original image was a popular humorous graphic for many decades before ''Mad'' adopted it, but the face is now primarily associated with ''Mad''.

''Mad'' initially used the boy's face in November 1954. His first iconic full-cover appearance was as a write-in candidate for President on issue No. 30 (December 1956), in which he was identified by name and sported his "What, me worry?" motto. He has since appeared in a slew of guises and comic situations. According to ''Mad'' writer Frank Jacobs, a letter was once successfully delivered to the magazine through the U.S. mail bearing only Neuman's face, without any address or other identifying information.

Legal disputes

The magazine has been involved in various legal actions over the decades, some of which have reached the United States Supreme Court. The most far-reaching was '' Irving Berlin et al. v. E.C. Publications, Inc.'' In 1961, a group of music publishers representing songwriters such as Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, and Cole Porter filed a $25 million lawsuit against ''Mad'' for copyright infringement following "Sing Along With ''Mad''", a collection of parody lyrics which the magazine said could be "sung to the tune of" many popular songs. The publishing group hoped to establish a legal precedent that only a song's composers retained the right to parody that song. Judge Charles Metzner of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled largely in favor of ''Mad'' in 1963, affirming its right to print 23 of the 25 song parodies under dispute. However, in the case of two parodies, "Always" (sung to the tune of " Always") and "There's No Business Like No Business" (sung to the tune of "There's No Business Like Show Business"), Judge Metzner decided that the issue of copyright infringement was closer, requiring a trial because in each case the parodies relied on the same verbal hooks ("always" and "business") as the originals. The music publishers appealed the ruling, but the U.S. Court of Appeals not only upheld the pro-''Mad'' decision in regard to the 23 songs, it adopted an approach that was broad enough to strip the publishers of their limited victory regarding the remaining two songs. Writing a unanimous opinion for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Circuit Judge Irving Kaufman observed, "We doubt that even so eminent a composer as plaintiff Irving Berlin should be permitted to claim a property interest in iambic pentameter." Retrieved on November 20, 2020. via —George Washington University Music Copyright Infringement Resource
Archived
from the original on August 15, 2020. The publishers again appealed, but the Supreme Court refused to hear it, allowing the decision to stand. Library of Congress Card No 72-91781

This precedent-setting 1964 ruling established the rights of parodists and satirists to mimic the meter of popular songs. However, the "Sing Along With ''Mad''" songbook was not the magazine's first venture into musical parody. In 1960, ''Mad'' had published "My Fair Ad-Man", a full advertising-based spoof of the hit Broadway musical ''My Fair Lady''. In 1959, "If Gilbert & Sullivan wrote '' Dick Tracy''" was one of the speculative pairings in "If Famous Authors Wrote the Comics".

In 1966, a series of copyright infringement lawsuits against the magazine regarding ownership of the Alfred E. Neuman image eventually reached the appellate level. Although Harry Stuff had copyrighted the image in 1914, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that, by allowing many copies of the image to circulate without any copyright notice, the owner of the copyright had allowed the image to pass into the public domain, thus establishing the right of ''Mad''—or anyone else—to use the image. In addition, ''Mad'' established that Stuff was not himself the creator of the image, by producing numerous other examples dating back to the late 19th century. This decision was also allowed to stand.Reidelbach, Maria. ''Completely Mad'', New York: Little Brown, 1991.

Other legal disputes were settled more easily. Following the magazine's parody of the film ''The Empire Strikes Back'', a letter from George Lucas's lawyers arrived in ''Mads offices demanding that the issue be recalled for infringement on copyrighted figures. The letter further demanded that the printing plates be destroyed, and that Lucasfilm must receive all revenue from the issue plus additional punitive damages. Unbeknownst to Lucas' lawyers, ''Mad'' had received a letter weeks earlier from Lucas himself, expressing delight over the parody and calling artist Mort Drucker and writer Dick DeBartolo "the Leonardo da Vinci and George Bernard Shaw of comic satire." Publisher Bill Gaines made a copy of Lucas' letter, added the handwritten notation "Gee, your boss George liked it!" across the top, and mailed it to the lawyers. Said DeBartolo, "We never heard from them again."

''Mad'' was one of several parties that filed '' amicus curiae'' briefs with the Supreme Court in support of 2 Live Crew and its disputed song parody, during the 1993 ''Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.'' case.

Advertising

''Mad'' was long noted for its absence of advertising, enabling it to satirize materialist culture without fear of reprisal. For decades, it was the most successful American magazine to publish ad-free, beginning with issue No. 33 (April 1957) and continuing through issue No. 402 (February 2001).

As a comic book, ''Mad'' had run the same advertisements as the rest of EC's line. The magazine later made a deal with Moxie soda that involved inserting the Moxie logo into various articles. ''Mad'' ran a limited number of ads in its first two years as a magazine, helpfully labeled "real advertisement" to differentiate the real from the parodies. The last authentic ad published under the original ''Mad'' regime was for Famous Artists School; two issues later, the inside front cover of issue No. 34 had a parody of the same ad. After this transitional period, the only promotions to appear in ''Mad'' for decades were house ads for ''Mads own books and specials, subscriptions, and promotional items such as ceramic busts, T-shirts, or a line of ''Mad'' jewelry. This rule was bent only a few times to promote outside products directly related to the magazine, such as ''The Mad Magazine Game'', a series of video games based on '' Spy vs. Spy'', and the notorious ''Up the Academy'' movie (which the magazine later disowned). ''Mad'' explicitly promised that it would never make its mailing list available.

Both Kurtzman and Feldstein wanted the magazine to solicit advertising, feeling this could be accomplished without compromising ''Mads content or editorial independence. Kurtzman remembered ''Ballyhoo'', a boisterous 1930s humor publication that made an editorial point of mocking its own sponsors. Feldstein went so far as to propose an in-house ''Mad'' ad agency, and produced a "dummy" copy of what an issue with ads could look like. But Bill Gaines was intractable, telling the television news magazine '' 60 Minutes'', "We long ago decided we couldn't take money from Pepsi-Cola and make fun of Coca-Cola." Gaines' motivation in eschewing ad dollars was less philosophical than practical:

Contributors and criticism

''Mad'' has provided an ongoing showcase for many long-running satirical writers and artists and has fostered an unusual group loyalty. Although several of the contributors earn far more than their ''Mad'' pay in fields such as television and advertising, they have steadily continued to provide material for the publication. Among the notable artists were the aforementioned Davis, Elder and Wood, as well as Sergio Aragonés, Mort Drucker, Don Martin, Dave Berg, George Woodbridge, Harry North and Paul Coker. Writers such as Dick DeBartolo, Stan Hart, Frank Jacobs, Tom Koch, and Arnie Kogen appeared regularly in the magazine's pages. In several cases, only infirmity or death has ended a contributor's run at ''Mad.''

Within the industry, ''Mad'' was known for the uncommonly prompt manner in which its contributors were paid. Publisher Gaines would typically write a personal check and give it to the artist upon receipt of the finished product. Wally Wood said, "I got spoiled ... Other publishers don't do that. I started to get upset if I had to wait a whole week for my check." Another lure for contributors was the annual "Mad Trip", an all-expenses-paid tradition that began in 1960. The editorial staff was automatically invited, along with freelancers who had qualified for an invitation by selling a set number of articles or pages during the previous year. Gaines was strict about enforcing this quota, and one year, longtime writer and frequent traveller Arnie Kogen was bumped off the list. Later that year, Gaines' mother died, and Kogen was asked if he would be attending the funeral. "I can't," said Kogen, "I don't have enough pages." Over the years, the ''Mad'' crew traveled to such locales as France, Kenya, Russia, Hong Kong, England, Amsterdam, Tahiti, Morocco, Italy, Greece, and Germany. The tradition ended with Gaines' death, and a 1993 trip to Monte Carlo.

Although ''Mad'' was an exclusively freelance publication, it achieved remarkable stability, with numerous contributors remaining prominent for decades. Critics of the magazine felt that this lack of turnover eventually led to a formulaic sameness, although there is little agreement on when the magazine peaked or plunged.

Proclaiming the precise moment that purportedly triggered the magazine's irreversible decline is a common pastime. Among the most frequently cited "downward turning points" are: creator-editor Harvey Kurtzman's departure in 1957; the magazine's mainstream success; adoption of recurring features starting in the early 1960s; the magazine's absorption into a more corporate structure in 1968 (or later, the mid-1990s); founder Gaines' death in 1992; the magazine's publicized "edgy revamp" in 1997; the arrival of paid advertising in 2001; or the magazine's 2018 move to California. ''Mad'' has been criticized for its over-reliance on a core group of aging regulars throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and then criticized again for an alleged downturn as those same creators began to leave, die, retire, or contribute less frequently.

It has been proposed that ''Mad'' is more susceptible to this criticism than many media because a sizable percentage of its readership turns over regularly as it ages, as ''Mad'' focuses greatly on current events and a changing popular culture. In 2010, Sergio Aragones said, "''Mad'' is written by people who never thought 'Okay, I'm going to write for kids,' or 'I'm going to write for adults.' ... And many people say 'I used to read ''Mad'', but ''Mad'' has changed a lot.' Excuse me— you grew up! You have new interests. ... The change doesn't come from the magazine, it comes from the people who grow or don't grow." ''Mad'' poked fun at the tendency of readers to accuse the magazine of declining in quality at various points in its history in its "Untold History of ''Mad'' Magazine", a self-referential faux history in the 400th issue which joked: "The second issue of ''Mad'' goes on sale on December 9, 1952. On December 11, the first-ever letter complaining that ''Mad'' 'just isn't as funny and original like it used to be' arrives." The magazine's art director, Sam Viviano, suggested in 2002 that historically, ''Mad'' was at its best "whenever you first started reading it." According to former ''Mad'' Senior Editor Joe Raiola, "''Mad'' is the only place in America where if you mature, you get fired."

Among the loudest of those who insist the magazine is no longer funny are supporters of Harvey Kurtzman, who had the good critical fortune to leave ''Mad'' after just 28 issues, before his own formulaic tendencies might have become obtrusive. This also meant Kurtzman suffered the bad creative and financial timing of departing before the magazine became a runaway success.

However, just how much of that success was due to the original Kurtzman template that he left for his successor, and how much should be credited to the Al Feldstein system and the depth of the post-Kurtzman talent pool, can be argued without resolution. In 2009, an interviewer proposed to Al Jaffee, "There's a group of ''Mad'' aficionados who feel that if Harvey Kurtzman had stayed at ''Mad'', the magazine would not only have been different, but better." Jaffee, a Kurtzman enthusiast, replied, "And then there's a large group who feel that if Harvey had stayed with ''Mad'', he would have upgraded it to the point that only fifteen people would buy it." During Kurtzman's final two-plus years at EC, ''Mad'' appeared erratically (ten issues appeared in 1954, followed by eight issues in 1955 and four issues in 1956). Feldstein was less well regarded creatively, but kept the magazine on a regular schedule, leading to decades of success. (Kurtzman and Will Elder returned to ''Mad'' for a short time in the mid-1980s as an illustrating team.)

The magazine's sales peak came with issue No. 161 (September 1973), which sold 2.4 million copies in 1973. That period coincided with several other magazines' sales peaks, including ''TV Guide'' and ''Playboy''. ''Mad''s circulation dropped below one million for the first time in 1983.

Many of the magazine's mainstays began retiring or dying by the 1980s. Newer contributors who appeared in the years that followed include Joe Raiola, Charlie Kadau, Tony Barbieri, Scott Bricher, Tom Bunk, John Caldwell, Desmond Devlin, Drew Friedman, Barry Liebmann, Kevin Pope, Scott Maiko, Hermann Mejia, Tom Richmond, Andrew J. Schwartzberg, Mike Snider, Greg Theakston, Nadina Simon, Rick Tulka, and Bill Wray.

On April 1, 1997, the magazine publicized an alleged "revamp", ostensibly designed to reach an older, more sophisticated readership. However, '' Salon''s David Futrelle opined that such content was very much a part of ''Mad''s past:

''Mad'' editor John Ficarra acknowledged that changes in culture made the task of creating fresh satire more difficult, telling an interviewer, "The editorial mission statement has always been the same: 'Everyone is lying to you, including magazines. Think for yourself. Question authority.' But it's gotten harder, as they've gotten better at lying and getting in on the joke."

''Mad'' contributor Tom Richmond has responded to critics who say the magazine's decision to accept advertising would make late publisher William Gaines "turn over in his grave", pointing out this is impossible because Gaines was cremated.

Contributors

''Mad'' is known for the stability and longevity of its talent roster, billed as "The Usual Gang of Idiots", with several creators enjoying 30-, 40- and even 50-year careers in the magazine's pages.

According to the "Mad Magazine Contributor Appearances" website, more than 960 contributors have received bylines in at least one issue of ''Mad'', but only 41 of those have contributed to 100 issues or more. Writer-artist Al Jaffee has appeared in the most issues; No. 550 (April 2018) was the 500th issue with new work by Jaffee. The other three contributors to have appeared in more than 400 issues of ''Mad'' are Sergio Aragonés, Dick DeBartolo, and Mort Drucker; Dave Berg, Paul Coker, and Frank Jacobs have each topped the 300 mark.

Jaffee, Aragonés, Berg, Don Edwing and Don Martin are the five writer-artists to have appeared in the largest total of issues; DeBartolo, Jacobs, Desmond Devlin, Stan Hart, and Tom Koch are the five most frequent writers, and Drucker, Coker, Bob Clarke, Angelo Torres and George Woodbridge are the five top illustrators on the list. (The list calculates appearances by issue only, not by individual articles or overall page count; e.g. although Jacobs wrote three separate articles that appeared in issue No. 172, his total is reckoned to have increased by one.)

Each of the following contributors has created over 100 articles for the magazine:

Writers:

* Tim Carvell
* Dick DeBartolo
* Desmond Devlin
* Stan Hart
* Frank Jacobs
* Charlie Kadau
* Tom Koch
* Arnie Kogen
* Jeff Kruse
* Scott Maiko
* Nick Meglin
* Joe Raiola
* Larry Siegel
* Lou Silverstone
* Mike Snider

Writer-Artists:

* Sergio Aragonés
* Dave Berg
* John Caldwell
* Duck Edwing
* Al Jaffee
* Peter Kuper
* Don Martin
* Luke McGarry
* Teresa Burns Parkhurst
* Paul Peter Porges
* Antonio Prohías
* Basil Wolverton