MAD magazine

When I was young, we had some paperback reprints of MAD magazine, though Mother disapproved.  In recent years I've been rereading them and found a lot of it is pretty sharp satire, some of it in ways I couldn't appreciate at the time.

I did appreciate some of their kiddie humor, like a set of children's definitions that included "An aunt is to give you clothes for your birthday instead of toys," and "An uncle is to pinch your cheek, and you can't pinch back." And like "If famous authors drew comic strips..." where they show Edgar Allen Poe's version of DENNIS THE MENACE, in which Dennis burns down his house with his parents in it. ("No more spanking, Nevermore!")

One part I remembered has parents in the '50s lecturing their teenage children about how the younger generation's clothes, dances and language are ridiculous.  Then they show the parents when they were young in the '20s, wearing raccoon coats, dancing the Charleston and saying things like "Twenty-three skidoo, small change!"

And there's also "TV shows we'd like to see..." "How did you know our mystery guest was Alfred E. Neuman?" "I peeked!" And the Anacin commercial: "What do doctors take for headaches and pain relief?...  How should I know, I'm only an actor!" And how high-class magazines use the photo "Millionaire playboy shot by sweetie in lover's quarrel": HOUSE AND GARDEN says "Furniture is by Rancid, and draperies are by the Window.  Entire room is set off by Chartreuse-tinted indirect lighting.  Entire apartment is set off by dynamite."

And there's the Jack and Jill story as told in various magazines:  SEVENTEEN ("It was more than a teenage crush..."), OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES ("Double death for 2 illicit lovers"), TRUE ("The last climb... Lucky for Jack he had a hangnail!"), CONFIDENTIAL ("Did they really go up for water?"), and MODERN ROMANCES ("The last thing I remember was Jack lunging at me...").

They made fun of Bobby Darrin a lot.  They did a feature "Inside Bobby Darrin's wallet," which included an order form for the book "How to be Popular" by Shlock Publications.  And they had a Dick & Jane-type guide to Greek mythology which showed Darrin as Narcissus!