RIP MAD Magazine

[DrNewGod]

Oh Alfred E. Say it ain't so.

[GindyPosts]

The sad truth is that it was bound to happen sooner or later.

To me, MAD Magazine was... an acquired taste. When I was younger, I didn't understand the aspect of their humor, and even thought if came off mean spirited. But, in hindsight, that came from a place of ignorance. To truly understand your parody, you have to spend time looking at the very thing you are going to satire, exploring the ins and outs of it, before tearing it apart. Sometimes, it can be a miss, but most of the time, you understood what they meant and the ramifications and it hit a home run. Their compilation sets helped highlight everything that they explored. They also helped inspire countless writers and comedians over decades, so their reach is monumental.

They will be missed, truly.

And...

[Malvolio]

No offense to those who didn't even know that MAD was still being published, but it's kind of like when a museum closes down and people who never stepped foot in the museum talk about how sad it is that the museum will no longer be around.

That said, I have been purchasing every issue of MAD for years. I kept buying even when they were almost canceled several years ago and went to a quarterly publishing schedule for a little while. I will even continue to purchase their year-end specials which are scheduled to have new material. But I will miss the regular Sergio cartoons, the Al Jaffee fold-ins, Spy vs. Spy and all the rest. RIP, MAD.

[Tendrin]

Sergio was the only reason I ever bought MAD.

[TheRay]

It's a loss, but since they are not going away completely it is more than manageable.

[Venomous Mask]

It definitely could be pretty funny when it wanted to, but it just seemed more and more to be a relic of a different time. I hope that Spy vs. Spy continues to get published elsewhere, but while this is sad, I think the magazine's collapse was inevitable as it just looked more and more archaic in tone. It's kind of like Weird Al in magazine form.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

I’m sad that the last national presence the magazine had was Trump referencing it and it being the butt of a joke about relevancy

[Malvolio]

It definitely could be pretty funny when it wanted to, but it just seemed more and more to be a relic of a different time. I hope that Spy vs. Spy continues to get published elsewhere, but while this is sad, I think the magazine's collapse was inevitable as it just looked more and more archaic in tone. It's kind of like Weird Al in magazine form.

Funny you should say that as Weird Al guest-edited an issue of MAD a few years ago. The only guest editor MAD ever had.

[SquirrelMan]

Sergio was the only reason I ever bought MAD.

No love for Spy vs Spy?

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I do wish they had made it to 70 years before folding up. But magazines in this era have went bust a lot. In fact subscription numbers are shocking how far Mad has dropped. In fact in the 1970s they had 2+ million subscriptions. In 2017 it was estimated it was 140,000+ a month.

Also WB/DC sort of hurt the magazine themselves as a way to cut costs. Once it was taken to a bi-monthly schedule it seemed to signal ahead its doom was gonna happen.

[Malvolio]

I'm hoping that sometime over the next year or so WB decides to give MAD an exclusive online presence. It's worked for other magazines such as PC Magazine and Newsweek, which no longer have physical paper editions, but still publish new content on their websites.

[TheRay]

To me, MAD Magazine was... an acquired taste.

I have always found this phrase interesting. Does everything not technically qualify as an "acquired taste"?
I doubt there is anything so universally beloved that people have no other choice but to love it.
Maybe cotton candy, but that's about it.