Mad/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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Trivia related to the magazine:

  • Follow the Leader: The magazine's success inspired a succession of copycats, including Cracked and countless others, many of which even had Expys of Alfred E. Neuman as their mascots (and many of which lasted for only a few issues). William Gaines supposedly kept a voodoo doll that had pins marked with the names of Mad knockoffs; by his death in 1992, only the Cracked pin remained.
    • Gaines even launched his own rip-off, Panic.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Very many freelance artists and writers have worked for the magazine, so their art is often recognizable outside it.
    • Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, Bob Clarke and Bob Jones (among others) are all freelance artists who have done countless ads. In fact, when they did a parody of the Esso "tiger in your tank" ads, they almost had Bob Jones draw it until they realized that Jones drew the real ad.
    • Paul Coker was a Rankin-Bass animator. His loose, scratchy style is quite recognizable.
    • Sergio Aragonés is also known for his Groo comic.
    • Former Sonic the Hedgehog writer Michael Gallagher shows up now and then, as did artist Dave Manak (who handled Spy vs. Spy for a while).
    • Several notables have drawn at least one cover each: fantasy artists Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta, movie poster illustrator Drew Struzan and even The Today Show chimp mascot J. Fred Muggs.
    • Chevy Chase wrote at least one pre-Saturday Night Live piece that got published, a back cover "TV Scenes We'd Like to See" parody of |Mission Impossible in which Jim Phelps gets fired.
    • Not only did Wally Wood create Daredevil's iconic costume and the infamous Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster, he was also one of the founding artists of Mad.
    • Writer Dick DeBartolo is the host of the Daily Giz Wiz podcast, and was a longtime question-writer for Match Game.
    • Several artists and writers and artists jumped ship from Mad to rival Cracked. Most notably, artist John Severin left Mad shortly before the end of the comics era, and quickly became the flagship artist of Cracked. Longtime writer Lou Silverstone also left for Cracked in 1990, as did Don Martin (of all people!).
  • Old Shame: Mad lent its name to an Animal House-style comedy, Up the Academy. After it did poorly at the box office, Mad was quick to disown it, and wrote a two-page satire of their own movie, which ended with the entire staff fictitiously quitting in shame. William M. Gaines also paid Warner Bros. $30,000 to remove every reference to Mad from the movie. However, following the sale of Mad to Time/Warner, the references were restored on all recent TV airings and the DVD. But it's still Old Shame to the Mad staff.

Trivia related to the cartoon:

  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Tara Strong shows up a few times in the third episode.
  • In the "Parent-Training" skit (Moves Like Jabba), the girl listens to a Hip-Hop version of the Demon Sisters theme from Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt before her mother interrupts. Considering what happens on that show and the rarity of the song, this is probably a deliberate reference.

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