Blogging Mad

I remember being a kid and seeing a Mad magazine for the first time. Adults who raised children or paid rent didn't approve (publicly, anyway). Obviously this was some time ago.

There weren't any dirty pictures and I could barely read, so I didn't understand the fuss. I did know that Alfred E. Neuman was without a doubt the ugliest so-and-so I had ever seen. But about the time I got my paper route I was old enough and had the cash to pick one up once in a while, so I corrupted my mind and became the blogger you're reading right now.

Actually, it got a bit worse. Then came National Lampoon, where I learned lines like "didja hear about the big party? It's in "....well, what follows is just too rude. There were ads for delightful posters (particularly "The Big A", a closeup of a woman's nude derriere which might have used a fisheye lens) and how to pick up women (who would have guessed that National Lampoon readers would need help with this?), the occasional gratuitous nude or topless babe, and depraved stories by Chris Miller, Doug Kenney, Brian McConnachie, and even PJ O'Rourke. Alumni of this crowd went on to make "Animal House", "Caddyshack" and others.

Maybe they weren't *too* corrupting. PJ lived in the belly of the beast yet lived to make his mama proud with "Parliament of Whores", All the Trouble in the World", "Eat the Rich" and many others worth plugging. So there might be hope for me yet.

Wanna regress? You can get copies of Mad, Sick, Cracked, National Lampoon and others right here.