That Raunchy MAD Magazine
I got my first Mad Magazine when I was nine years old. At the time, it was like watching Benny Hill on Channel 9. It was silly, sometimes childish, but there was an element of sex that made it raunchy. There was a element of anti-authority in both. By adult’s standards, neither Benny or Mad were raunchy, but when you’re nine years old, the hint of nudity was wild and you couldn’t wait to share this with your friends. Mad Magazine was like that. Every woman drawn in those magazines were busty. To a nine year old, it was adult.
I don't think magazine stores had an issue about the age of the buyer, but when you got the first issue of your own, it felt like you were not a kid anymore. The older boys read magazines like Mad.
Mad Magazine started in 1952 by Harvey Kurtzman and William Gaines. It was sold as satire for teens. Think about how restrictive 1952 was so this was adult material for teens back then. Ever since that first issue, Mad was advertisement free.
The main character or spokesman for Mad has been Alfred E Newman. His famous quote was “What Me Worry?” There were other reoccurring characters that became legendary. Spy vs. Spy was a wordless comic where the white spy and the black spy (the characters were drawn either entirely white or black, it wasn’t a racial thing) tried these slapstick antics to kill each other. The back page of the magazine had a hidden message that you had to fold the back page correctly.
Mad was so popular that it spawned a song that Dr. Demento featured called “It’s a Gas.” There were copycat satire magazines along the years, but Mad outlasted them. Let’s not forget the popular 1990s television show. While it didn’t rival Saturday Night Live in ratings, it had great memorable characters like Mrs. Swan.
It’s not as popular as it once was, but Mad is still a presence at the local magazine rack.
I’m much older and I still flip through those magazines. Want a laugh, find a Mad magazine.
information from Wikipedia and my own memories.