To the side of the title: "OUR PRICE 30c CHEAP"

As a child, I pretty much learned how to read with the aid of flash cards and backdated copies of Mad magazine. I never liked superhero comics (which have probably aged a lot better than Mad‘s generation gap humor), but I always enjoyed Don Martin, Mort Drucker and the usual gang of idiots. I recently got my bent, bony fingers on a copy of the March 1966 issue, which was something of a letdown.

On the cover of this 48-page issue, the magazine’s gap-toothed mascot Alfred E. Neuman (who was based on this old postcard) sits at a classroom desk reading a copy of Mad, which hides a book of Shakespearean plays inside. Most of the issue, apart from the aforementioned Don Martin cartoons, is pretty lame. There are pieces spoofing the suburbs, shopping and what TV would look like when youth culture completely took over. And there are plenty of dated references to teenagers with long hair and transistor radios.

Maybe Mad was too topical to still seem funny outside if its historical context or perhaps this was just a lousy issue, but the magazine was genuinely revolutionary in what was a satirical wasteland in a very uptight America when it started publishing in 1952. Here’s an excerpt from the spoof called “Why the Suburbs?”:

“‘Why do people move to the suburbs?’ you ask.
‘We do it for our children!’ the parents answer.
That’s why they buy a big $50,000 house–
Because what child could possibly be happy in less!
That’s why we join an exclusive Country Club–
Which doesn’t allow dogs or children!
That’s why they hire gardeners to fix the lawn
So it looks pretty–
Too pretty for children to play on!
That’s why they build finished basements–
So the children can’t play there either
Because they might scratch the fancy bar
Or scuff the grownups’ pool table!
Isn’t it wonderful to be a child in the suburbs?
Think about all the poor children in the slums,
They live in such terrible homes
That they can sit in the living room
Any time they want!”