What? Me Worry?

Here is a little tidbit you may or may not know about me.

I was raised on Mad Magazine.

When I was around 7 years old, my dad used to go to a barber on 17th street. I can't remember his name, but I always loved going because he had Mads as reading material.

One lucky, the planets were all aligned day, he offered to my brother and I his ENTIRE collection of Mad Magazines. Gold, Jerry, gold. He must have had issues back into the early 60s. I don't remember if my dad paid him anything, but I do not think he did. Oh! His name was Jin. Yes, it wasn't Jim, it was Jin. So anyway, my brother and I went home and dove into the world of irreverent humor, providing us with years of knowledge of movies and pop culture only Mad could teach us.

My mom could tell you stories about how I would read and re-read my most recent Mad over a mug of milk and Chips Ahoy cookies. I could memorize by heart the Silver Spoons satire that was in the latest edition.

When I went to NYC for my 30th birthday, I called up the magazine's offices to get a tour. No answer. So when I arrived (literally like an hour after we checked into our hotel) I made LP go straight to the offices. The doorman said I would have to wait until Monday for a tour. I was leaving on Sunday. It broke my heart.

There are still several movies that I have never seen but know everything about because I saw it satirized in Mad. For example...never saw the Godfather. Didn't need to, it was all right there, horse and all.

My favorite was Don Martin. I loved his goofy artwork and the one page comics. He moved on to the 'generic' Mad magazine- "Cracked". Cracked was funny, but certainly not as hilarious as Mad could ever be. (Al Jaffee--hello? What could be funnier?)

I recently came upon the Cracked website and it is pretty funny. I certainly wished Mad Magazine could have thought of the website first, because honestly I never got into the "Mad TV" thing, even if Nicole Sullivan was on it.

Check it out, it's worth a good 20 minutes waste of time. Especially if you read "What 80s cartoons Taught Us".

Oh and one more thing?

Alfred E. for President!