MAD magazine in the 1960s
MAD magazine, which debuted in 1952, became a cultural phenomenon in the 1960s, renowned for its sharp political satire and humorous parodies of contemporary media, film, and advertising. Initially launched as a comic book, it transitioned to a magazine format in 1955, allowing it to address more serious themes such as the Cold War and societal issues, while maintaining its irreverent tone. The magazine's content ranged from playful mockery of popular television shows like "Lassie" to pointed critiques of racial representation in media, as seen in its parody "Jewelia."
By employing humor to address both absurdities and serious societal concerns, MAD captured the attention of a youthful audience, with a circulation that reached one million by 1960. Its mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, epitomized the magazine's whimsical yet critical perspective, resonating particularly with teenagers and college students. However, the magazine faced legal challenges, including lawsuits over copyright infringement and accusations of promoting un-American sentiments, which highlighted the contentious atmosphere of the era. Despite the challenges, MAD magazine's legacy lies in its ability to foster critical discourse and humor during a time of significant cultural upheaval, influencing future satirical publications.
Subject Terms
MAD magazine in the 1960s
First Published 1952
Publisher William M. Gaines
A widely read magazine that used cartoons to satirize everything from popular culture to emotionally charged issues such as racism and the Vietnam War. Its humor ranged from political satire to sophomoric gags.
Key Figures
William M. Gaines (1922-1992), publisher
The Work
MAD magazine was one of the first publications to use political satire in the conservative 1950’s. MAD first appeared in 1952 as a comic book; however, in 1955 when comics were criticized for allegedly causing juvenile delinquency, it appeared in a tamer magazine form. Its parodies poked fun at comic strips, films, advertisements, and television shows and ranged from political satires to sick jokes. In MAD’s world, the normal and the abnormal, the American and the un-American were treated with equal zaniness.
In 1960, the magazine satirized the popular television series Lassie, which featured a boy, his all-American family, and their dog, a supersmart collie named Lassie. MAD’s cartoon character asked, “Can America’s wholesomest TV family find happiness owning a plain, average nine-year-old collie with the intelligence of a plain average forty-year-old college professor?” In 1963, it poked fun at the television industry’s attempts, prompted by the Civil Rights movement, to make its programming reflect racial diversity. The show Julia (starring Diahann Carroll) featured an African American nurse. MAD, in its version, “Jewelia,” commented, “Look at that apartment she lives in and look at that fantastic wardrobe she’s got. She’s a member of a minority group as far as the show’s audience is concerned the majority of Americans don’t live that good.”
The magazine also tackled more serious subjects such as the Cold War. In 1962, the “MAD Guide to Russia” commented, “In America, time for a change means the citizens are going to get rid of the current government and replace it with a new one. In Russia, it means the government is going to get rid of the citizens and replace them with new ones.” In 1963, the magazine’s “East Side Story” transformed Nikita Khrushchev and other Eastern Bloc leaders into a street gang similar to the tough New York gangs portrayed in the popular musical and film West Side Story. In MAD’s version, the Reds revolt against Khrushchev, and his wife escorts him back to the Soviet Union. In 1967, when internal unrest threatened to tear the nation apart, MAD’s “The Preamble Revisited” showed photographs of the Ku Klux Klan, police arresting strikers, a lynching, and the aftermath of a riot, comparing these images to scenes from Nazi Germany thirty years before. MAD called itself “high-level trash” and lambasted its own readers for wasting time reading the “idiotic garbage.” MAD’s official mascot was gap-toothed quintessential nerd Alfred E. Neuman, whose slogan was “What, me worry?” Its indiscriminate hilarity was echoed on television by comedians such as Sid Caesar and Steve Allen.
Impact
Americans, particularly teenagers and college students, loved to hate MAD or hated to love it because it exposed absurdity in the culture. It alerted readers to what was happening in advertising, the consumer movement, and the mass media. By 1960, circulation reached one million. It was read by 58 percent of all college students and 43 percent of all high school students. However, all was not fun and games publishing a humor magazine. In the early 1960’s, two troubling court cases drained MAD’s creative energies.
In 1960, the Music Publishers Protective Association, representing such composers as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers, filed a $25 million lawsuit for copyright infringement of twenty-five songs. The plaintiffs said that only the copyright owners had the right to parody their work. In 1963, a district court ruled that twenty-three songs were completely different from the originals; however, two songs were too similar to the originals to be considered legitimate parodies. A court of appeals in 1964 ruled in favor of MAD’s right to publish all the songs. Judge Irving R. Kaufman said, “While the social interest in encouraging the broad-gauged burlesques of MAD magazine is admittedly not readily apparent, we believe that parody and satire are deserving of substantial freedom both as entertainment and as a form of social and literary criticism.” That same year, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision.
The magazine’s other court battle was in Oklahoma, at the beginning of the decade, when the prevailing Cold War mentality made drug stores and newsstands reluctant to sell unpatriotic publications. Clyde J. Watts, a lawyer and retired brigadier general, was reported to have called MAD “the most insidious communist propaganda in the United States today.” His statement caused MAD to be pulled from stores throughout Oklahoma, resulting in a drop in sales. In 1961, the publisher filed a $1.5 million libel and slander suit against Watts, who countersued for $250,000 for libel. The matter was settled in 1962 when Watts publicly stated that he never referred to the magazine as communistic. The case was closed, and each side paid its own legal fees.
Some of MAD’s other enemies were conservatives and reactionary groups such as William F. Buckley, Jr., the Ku Klux Klan, and the John Birch Society. In 1963, at the height of the Cold War, its political satire tended to favor liberals although its main targets were extremists on both sides. MAD found a middle ground in a society polarized between the squeaky clean suburban lifestyle and the perceived menaces of communism, ethnicity, and rock and roll. It dared to drill holes in the American Dream. Critics believe that MAD’s main accomplishment was to strike down the barriers of black and white conservative or liberal and establish the possibility of gray.
Related Works
Spy and National Lampoon are similar magazines with outrageous satire that were published years after MAD’s debut.
Additional Information
For an illustrated look at MAD magazine, see Completely MAD: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine (1991) by Maria Reidelbach. MAD magazine, although not as popular as it was in the 1960’s, had a U.S. circulation of 584,684 in 1996.