The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: side_show on January 01, 2008, 07:27:29 pm
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From this here thread (http://touamb.com/index.php/topic,4171.0.html) the question arises: How many of us were/are fans of MAD? I'm willing to bet most Achewood readers read MAD as kids. I don't really know why I don't read it anymore. I guess I don't really have my finger on the pulse of kid culture to the point where I would "get" a lot of it like I did when I was 12?
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I haven't read it in a long time, but I enjoyed it back in the day. Sometimes I would get a copy at our nearby 7-11 newsstand. I remember my dad had an Alfred E. Neuman t-shirt that I appropriated and wore until it was threadbare.
EDIT: Now I have the Beastie Boys' "Shadrach" stuck in my head, which is a song that mentions Alfred E. Neuman.
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I read MAD for many many years, but it turned to shit after William M. Gaines died.
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a month or so ago, I saw a copy of MAD for sale, and commented "I thought that didn't exist any more?"
Does it still aim at the same age bracket? I would imagine that the audience is now mostly grown-ups who used to read it as kids.
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MAD's still pretty good... the art is a little too polished, these days, and the whole "legit ads and glossy pages" thing is a little off-putting to me but... on the flipside, they seem to be drawing their stuff from a larger less-insular talent pool these days and that's usually a good thing.
I can't say I read it monthly, as I did as a kid, but I'll pick it up two or three times a year, on whim.
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Didn't everyone read MAD as a child? It would be unAmerican or something not to.
I would have said that it didn't have that much influence on me, though, until I remembered that there's a kind of bird (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Marabou_Stork_(Leptoptilos_crumeniferus)_(0321)_-_Relic38.jpg) at the zoo that the Technical Staff and I have always called the "Spy vs Spy bird." So obviously there's some of that stuff still bopping around in my brain.
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I loved me some MAD magazine as a kid, and didn't really read Cracked until MAD fired a few writers/artists and Cracked picked them up (I'm looking at you, Duck Edwing).
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I had a subscription.
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I had a subscription.
Me too.
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I only read Mad a couple of times when I was a kid, I think I was a bit too young for it's heyday but my housemate has this box of old copies (haven't looked at the dates but judging by the references I'd say they're mostly mid 80s vintage) that sits next to our toilet and they are good for some yucks. I was surprised at how bitingly political some of their stuff was considering it was (theoretically) a kid's mag.
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I read MAD occasionally as an adolescent, but what really made it for me was my copy (appropriated from my dad) of the "MAD About The '60's" compilation, which had the advantage of being the best stuff from a decade far removed from me. Half of what I know about '60's politics now I was introduced to in the pages of that book, and I'm not nearly as ashamed about it as I should be.
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I had a subscription too. I wonder where they all went? Probably thrown out by mom.
I seem to recall it not having ads when I was a kid, and that was part of a joke, but then they buckled and started putting ads in later on when I was no longer reading it, but that this was an issue that actually hit the news due to their love of parody ads. Or maybe I imagined this? I just remember thumbing through it as an adult, seeing an ad, trying to figure out the joke, then realizing that no - it's an actual ad.
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They never had ads until after William Gaines died. Ironically, they also raised the price.
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I was Not Allowed to read MAD, which means that I found my older brother's back issues when I was about eight and sneaked (snuck?) them into my closet, along with his old Spiderman comics. (He was at college by then, so AFAIK he never missed them.) So I was reading late-seventies MADs in the mid-eighties, which I think started me on a long path of being a decade behind the times.
I remember a lot of Star Wars jokes, and a parody of "Tootsie."
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Mad was great in the 70s.
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Yes, actually it was beautiful. There was so much care and skill there. The library had MAD from about 10 years back when I was a kid, and they basically kept them until they disintegrated, so my first introduction to MAD was the late 70's early 80's stuff, even before I could really understand the content. I would just love to examine the art work - there was so much detail and artistry. I haven't looked at one in years... maybe some of the magic is still there?
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Their parody of Kramer vs Kramer remains stuck in my head. Maybe cuz Mort Drucker drew a naked women. Mmmm....naked women....
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Their parody of Kramer vs Kramer remains stuck in my head. Maybe cuz Mort Drucker drew a naked women. Mmmm....naked women....
To my pubescent self, Mort Drucker drew great naked women.
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I am glad no one here was into Cracked. My SO was into Cracked and liked it more than MAD. Infact he didn't really like MAD at all. When he told me this, after 6 years of couplehood, I felt, for a brief moment, like maybe you can never really know a person. Not really. It's disquieting. How could you like Cracked more than MAD? How is that even a thing that happens?
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I am glad no one here was into Cracked. My SO was into Cracked and liked it more than MAD. Infact he didn't really like MAD at all. When he told me this, after 6 years of couplehood, I felt, for a brief moment, like maybe you can never really know a person. Not really. It's disquieting. How could you like Cracked more than MAD? How is that even a thing that happens?
I'm in agreement 100% with this.
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It was fine to buy Cracked if there wasn't a new MAD out and you were really jonsing for that sort of thing.
And that is exactly as far as it goes.
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Hey, we got the same can score right now.
Sorry, slow news day and I want to go take a nap.
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Yeah, my can score seems to... wildly flucuate, actually.
I'm not really a big "karma points" guy on message boards, they're arbitrary and it's not like they build up to something good or something bad but... I must admit, my own Pepper count mystifies me, sometimes.
Sometimes I'll find myself down three or four when... I haven't said anything or haven't said anything even remotely offensive and... I just kinda wonder what that's all about.
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I am glad no one here was into Cracked. My SO was into Cracked and liked it more than MAD. Infact he didn't really like MAD at all. When he told me this, after 6 years of couplehood, I felt, for a brief moment, like maybe you can never really know a person. Not really. It's disquieting. How could you like Cracked more than MAD? How is that even a thing that happens?
This makes me think of when... a girl that I consider to be basically The Coolest told me she has never seen Star Wars, and said she has no interest in ever seeing it. "I mean, it's just like... a sci-fi movie."
Good lord. I wish I were lying when I said that that is what I think of when I am sad that I am not dating her.
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I have never seen star wars nor do I have any interest in watching it. I am not a sexy lady though.
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I.... just...
why. how can you say that. that is so crazy.
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It is easy to have no interest in Star Wars if you didn't fall in love with it as a kid and all you know of it was the trailers and hype for the godawful sequels. Quite easy, I imagine.
The first three, though, that was two-and-a-half great fuck*ng movies and you should really see 'em, Keith. Just go to a library or an ancient video store and rent the original VHS version of 'em, watch 'em stoned or in some other state of forced-childlikeness and they're good fuck*ng movies.
Star Wars, Empire and... parts of Jedi... really good child-like wonder fuckin' movies.
Simple storytelling? Sure. But grand simplicity like an opera or the best classical music.
You kinda have to go in having unlearned what you have learned. Cynicism kills the magic, mos def.
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Personally, I am cool with the fact that not every body likes Star Wars. I just wonder how anybody could reach adulthood without seeing it. It's just everywhere. It's a cultural touchstone, you can tell a joke referencing it, and count on every body you're with knowing what you're talking about.
It's like not knowing who ol' George Jefferson (http://www.overcompensating.com/posts/20080118.html) is. It's un-American un-human.
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yeah, for real. It's a modern myth.
King Arthur? You can get by without knowing about him.
George Washington? I mean, you can pick up the relevant details-- Cherry tree, president, general, etc.
Star Wars? Watch it, man. Brilliant.
Batman, Superman, and Star Wars.
Those are the things you need to know about.
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Yeah, dude. Even I've seen the Star Wars trilogy.
Actually, I saw some other movies recently that called themselves Star Wars movies, but...
...no, they were not.
In my universe, there are three Star Wars films and The Matrix is not a trilogy.
It's a happy place to be.
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See, I have this thing were I can only watch documentaries and the best of the best comedies. Everything else just makes me lose interest almost immediately. I tried to watch the newest batman the other day (well, I was playing dominoes at a friends at it was on) and I could not watch it at all.
I don't think it is a add thing either, I mean I can concentrate on music or books or years of achewood strips or the Big Lebowski or early Woody Allen films or like whole seasons of the wire or arrested development or seinfeld at once, just, besides that, I can't do it. Something about the movie format really turns me off I guess.
If Star Wars was like a bad ass hbo special I might be able to watch.
I have horrible eyes? maybe this has something to do with it. I don't really dig to hard on video games either, except Mario and early games. The only games I have ever beaten are the first three Marios and the original Contra.
Yeah, so to make this more focused, I have very, very little knowledge of Batman, Superman or Star Wars. I know shit tons about the Ottoman Empire though!
Oh, and I like a lot of movies I didn't list here, just to be clear, but mainly the basics; your Life of Brian's and Spinal Taps.
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It's like not knowing who ol' George Jefferson (http://www.overcompensating.com/posts/20080118.html) is.
Ol' George Jefferson has company (http://notsofriendlyfire.townhall.com/Default.aspx?mode=post&g=5ab14115-7c99-420b-80db-3f3f1ddb9fd8).
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I have just discovered that Keith and I have a lot in common. Except for the video games and the ottoman empire.
Do you find this frightening too, Keith? I am sorry.
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Sorry?
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It's okay, Keith.
50 "Hail Yodas" on my desk Wednesday morning is all.
In cursive, mind you.
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Batman, Superman, and Star Wars.
Those are the things you need to know about.
Wait, so it's a bat, and also a man? That's crazy talk.
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Yeah, so to make this more focused, I have very, very little knowledge of Batman, Superman or Star Wars. I know shit tons about the Ottoman Empire though!
Hell and yes. The Ottoman Empire owns Superman.
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I too have never see the original Star Wars trilogy, nor have I wished to see it. I genuinely don't like sci-fi of any variety, and I've seen more than enough referential information about Star Wars, (even of a non parody based ilk via the comic shop) to know it it not my thing. I was physically dragged into the theatre to see the first of the new trilogy and slept through most of it.
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Ol' George Jefferson has company (http://notsofriendlyfire.townhall.com/Default.aspx?mode=post&g=5ab14115-7c99-420b-80db-3f3f1ddb9fd8).
What I like about this article is that it acts like stupid laws are something that the liberals communists (this is Townhall.com we're talking about here) invented in the last few years, along with the nanny state. This is just today's version of those old laws still on the books in some places that say you can't ride your donkey into city hall wearing bloomers on a Friday.
I too have never see the original Star Wars trilogy, nor have I wished to see it. I genuinely don't like sci-fi of any variety, and I've seen more than enough referential information about Star Wars, (even of a non parody based ilk via the comic shop) to know it it not my thing. I was physically dragged into the theatre to see the first of the new trilogy and slept through most of it.
Wow, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that might put you into a pretty small minority among the denizens of this here board, not to mention the internet.
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I was physically dragged into the theatre to see the first of the new trilogy and slept through most of it.
This was how most people who LOVE "Star Wars" reacted to that movie, though.
...except that when we woke up, we were seething with rage, is all.
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Wow, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that might put you into a pretty small minority among the denizens of this here board, not to mention the internet.
Yeah factor in the fact that I spent several years working at a comic book shop and I'm a rare breed indeed. I have a really clear memory of being really young and taking an Elfquest graphic novel out of the library and that this was somehow the thing that turned me off to sci-fi for life.
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But Smells... I mean... you still like Asimov right? Heinlen?
Please, baby, say it ain't so.
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Okay, so I'm not familiar at all with Elfquest, so I just went to the official website. Based on the main page, that shit looks pretty obnoxious, but seems to be a lot more oriented toward fantasy? I guess...I'm just wondering how it's possible to categorically dismiss sci-fi. As a genre, maybe, but science fiction is everywhere you look these days to the point where you can't avoid it. For me, it's hard to believe that there is not one thing out there with science fiction in it that you don't like.
But I'm a lazy, comics-reading college student and you are successful and work in theatre, which is something I could never see myself doing well at, so...we probably don't really live in the same mental spaces. So I still think you're cool.
*edit* Yes, I judged a book by its website. Hooray internet!
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Oh man.
Souring on sci-fi because of Elfquest is like souring on handjobs because you got punched in the nuts.
Both are examples of things that could've been awesome but someone chose to be an asshole to you instead.
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...that isn't what handjobs are?
shit, no wonder I have so many problems going after girls. My heart just wasn't in it, you know.
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I think Chris Onstad said it best
Comic strips suck, they suck so hard. They suck in the worst, most shameful way. Comic strips are such incredible formulaic garbage, with a few excellent exceptions that I will not list here.
This applies to so many things don't you know.
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This applies to so many things don't you know.
I have never agreed with something more in my life.
What is that from?
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Yeah, I've worked in a library and three bookstores on top of a movie rental place and having edited/written for the entertainment section of a paper, so I am well aware of the diaspora that is out there, and the differentiation between sci-fi and fantasy. Generally the two are within the same category on shelves, I suppose because they both draw from a concept of a reality greatly separated from the one we live in now. I genuinely do not like sci-fi. I don't draw from a place where I think it's wrong to like Star Wars, or the Matrix or Asimov or whatever. I, myself, don't like it. And I'm well aware of the fact that that's fairly close to saying something like "I don't like chocolate." By in large, most people like this stuff. They like being removed from the here and now and imagining a far different world (either futuristic or otherworldly), they enjoy imagining possibilities outside what is known.
As for the handjob comparison... I have to disagree. I mean, you could get a single hand job from one guy and discern that you don't like gay sex. You don't have to go all the way or try out a variety of men to figure out that something isn't palatable to you, right? So I can look at the Alien series and get why other people like it, why it is something many people really enjoy, and I can still know it's just not to my tastes.
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To be fair, the analogy more works because reading "Elfquest" is like getting punched in the nuts, as most swords-and-dragons shit is unless you want to live in a world of swords-and-dragons so badly that even really bad stuff of that genre still thrills you.
It is hard to judge entire genres like this but I think that fantasy is an exception in that... most fantasy writers don't seem to try very hard because they realize that most of the people reading it are not reading it for good stories and are more reading it to... pretend that they could own a unicorn and get fucked by a prince (even if they are a guy, especially if they are a guy) or whatever.
There are exceptions to this rule but there are less than in basically any other genre.
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I don't like handjobs.
I don't like Mondays, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Ann_Spencer) either, but that's another story.
I am pleased that this thread went from Mad magazine to handjobs so quickly, however. Nice work, everyone.
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OK, I was just preparing an argument that the comparison between handjobs and fiction genres was inappropriate because there's no way that handjobs can differ from each other as much as a work of art can.
And then I realized,
A. I have no evidence on which to base the aforementioned claim about handjobs, and
B. Good God, what has my life come to?
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OK, I was just preparing an argument that the comparison between handjobs and fiction genres was inappropriate because there's no way that handjobs can differ from each other as much as a work of art can.
And then I realized,
A. I have no evidence on which to base the aforementioned claim about handjobs, and
B. Good God, what has my life come to?
. . .
Well, based on my posting history, you can probably guess what I was going to say.
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I am pleased that this thread went from Mad magazine to handjobs so quickly, however. Nice work, everyone.
I don't know man, it took four dang ol pages for a fairly logical progression, we might be loosing our edge.
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Well, based on my posting history, you can probably guess what I was going to say.
Well not precisely.
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Well not precisely.
Heh heh. Does that help?