What Was The Cult of MAD Magazine

This interview was made in 1989 and was part of my television series on the 1960's called Making Sense Of The 60's.
Mad Magazine was wildly popular in the 1960s because it captured the irreverent, anti-establishment spirit of the time. It appealed to teenagers and young adults who were skeptical of authority, mass media, consumerism, and political institutions.
Mad Magazine helped shape the sense of humor of an entire generation, including future comedians, cartoonists, and filmmakers. It paved the way for satire-heavy media like The Simpsons, The Onion, and Saturday Night Live. In many ways, Mad Magazine was like a “gateway drug” to critical thinking and skepticism-encouraging young people to question authority, advertising, and the status quo, all while making them laugh.
Satirical Voice - Mad had a unique ability to parody and lampoon American culture, from politics and advertising to television and movies. Its humor was subversive, making young readers feel like they were in on the joke.
The 1960s saw a growing distrust of authority figures, corporations, and government institutions. Mad took this distrust and turned it into comedy, making fun of everything from President Johnson’s policies to the Vietnam War.
Mad was one of the few places where you could see biting parodies of movies, TV shows, and advertising-before the rise of Saturday Night Live and modern satire. Kids loved seeing their favorite shows like Batman or Star Trek hilariously mocked.
Alfred E. Neuman’s "What, Me Worry?" Attitude. The magazine’s mascot became a symbol of carefree rebellion. His face represented the generation’s mix of cynicism and humor.
Yes, Mad was political-but in a satirical and non-partisan way. It skewered both the left and right, exposing hypocrisy rather than taking clear sides.
It made fun of President Lyndon Johnson and his handling of Vietnam.
It mocked Richard Nixon, especially during his 1968 campaign.
It critiqued consumerism, nuclear war fears, and corporate greed.
It poked fun at the counterculture as much as mainstream America.

[@rain3373]

Hi David, I'm a 20 year old from Maine. one of your documentaries showed some metalheads doing similar stuff that i do back in the 80s. Another documentary you had that stood out to me was the runaway kids living in new york city. I do a lot of crazy stuff and those documentaries you recorded gave me a lot of inspiration as a kid to reject authority and live free spirited. Thank you for that

[@thegreatreverendx]

American popular culture would not be what it is today without MAD magazine.

[@vicaldama9314]

I loved Mad and Cracked which led me to national lampoon and heavy metal witch led to Answer me and Quarterlys and zines and Vice. Now print is dead but I still dance with it's corpse...thank you Alfred E Newman

[@bicylindrico]

I too grew up in the Columbus Ohio area and also was a fan of the magazine as a kid being born in 1973. I always loved the tiny miniature cartoons along the sides and bottoms of the pages. Great comedy and great memories.

[@MicahScottPnD]

Forgot about those, loved those!

[@joanneentwistle7653]

I always saved up my allowance to buy a Mad magazine instead of candy....I had a keen sense of humor since childhood. I also would sneak downstairs and quietly watch Second City TV and Benny Hill and The Two Ronnies, until I was marched back up to bed.

[@StephanieJeanne]

I loved SCTV and Benny Hill, but I didn't discover them until after high school. 😂

[@T-dx8dn]

I bought Mad and Cracked all the time. Grade A entertainment!

[@LeeCulpepper-gb3cl]

I would like to have all my old mad magazines back I collected the 60s and 70s

[@MicahScottPnD]

Marched back to bed🤣

[@Dingdongwitchisdead]

Mom wouldn’t allow me to get it. She thought it was vulgar.😂😂

[@riverbender9898]

Growing up in a small upstate NY village, in the 50's, MAD magazine let me peek into the world as it really was. The staid facade of 50's America was stifling, but MAD showed us that there was a reason to question everything. Thanks David.

[@errolv]

Thank you Dave for bringing MAD magazine up. I grew up with MAD in my hands as often as I could. As soon as the next issue came out, I'd be standing in the market aisle reading the whole thing. Later I went legit and paid my hard earned money for an annual subscription. Bill Gaines did not hire a gang of idiots. His writers and artists had the sharpest sticks in the business to poke in the eye of modern American culture. Before there was SNL, there were another three letters: MAD.

[@MicahScottPnD]

That's some nice praise.

[@franneep]

Oh yes. MAD was the best!

[@FracturedParadigms]

Nuts and zoo were good too

[@chrismorse2096]

Absolutely the best magazine growing up in the 60’s

[@chrisutter7054]

When I was a teenager my dad used to buy mad magazine and one day he let me paint his white work truck with Alfred E Newman on the side. 😅❤

[@ShortbusMooner]

I was born in Findlay, OH.. I was an avid Mad mag reader- I probably still have a few in storage.. 😁👍

[@redmoondesignbeth9119]

My Mom's BFF had kids that were 10 years older so I read their Mad. It blew my mind. I was under 10 and it helped me think in odd and creative things. The BFF also had a collection of Fredricks of Hollywood. They were fascinating and confusing. Who looks like that? Is that what my goal is? Why are their boobs so pointy? I didn't understand "Un-Truth in Advertising".

[@MicahScottPnD]

🤣😂😉👍

[@maximus1318able]

Man I remember any trip or vacation I went on as a kid going to the store to buy stuff to fill my backup with, my reading material would consist of sports magazines and both Mad and cracked.

[@TheCowboylogic]

David Hoffman. Thank you so much. I needed a chuckle today.

[@1984isnotamanual]

I love mad, I still by it sometimes. When I saw they were stopping new printing it was a sad day.

[@ZeroOskul]

"What... me? Worry?" -Alfred E. Neuman I just checked and I actually live on the main cross street that leads to Rainbow Park, which is literally two blocks long, and about a mile away from me. Rainbow Park never catches my eye because I never have reason to use it--it doesn't really go anywhere and is only two blocks long--and besides, the next little road up that main cross street, after Livingston, is called Bide-A-Wee Park. Bide-A-Wee Park has street markers carved in stone pillars on both corners leading onto the street, left over from when it was first advertised in the early 1920s. Bide-A-Wee, because of those pillars, catches my eye. Quite like the "Hollywoodland" sign, which was also erected at that time, in the early 1920s. The signs in Hollywood and on Bide-A-Wee Park were originally just for marketing, but the residents wanted the signs to stay. "Land" was removed from the renowned "Hollywood" sign in 1949. But, regardless of all that, I am literally a mile from where this guy grew up. I intentionally rewrote the above because you had posted that you were having trouble keeping multiple subjects in mind. I wrote it in a way that should make the multiple subjects accessible and comprehensible. Keep on rockin' it, David! Just keep getting a little better every day, and never expect to be done. It may be a good time to reread *Flowers For Algernon* by Daniel Keyes. Ciao!

[@jeffwier696]

I ran across a Mad magazine at the checkout the other day. It was larger than the regular edition. I glanced at the price. $15.99!!! I bought it anyway! 😊

[@baronpedro9263]

Brings back memories of reading and rereading Mad magazines.

[@williamrahal5438]

I’m only 27 but I grew up on mad magazine, I remember going out with my mother on a Sunday morning to go for breakfast and she would always pick me up the newest issue of Mad. I still read them today!

[@teresabarnes-matych]

I was raised in Redlands, California…also Republican and very integrated. I always like I was on the outside but looking in. Many of my classmates never left that town but I, my Husband and also our son have traveled to and sailed through over 30 countries for work and/or wanderlust. I enjoyed reading Mad Magazine very much!

[@lauriekutcher4825]

Mad, Cracked, and National Lampoon.

[@MiracleonMarigold]

I needed to see this. I felt so offbeat growing up on my Indian reservation, mad magazine made me and my cousins feel less odd.

[@MicahScottPnD]

That's interesting! I wonder what part of the US and what decade. I grew up NoDak in 80s, not on res but with MAD.

[@Darthborg]

Thanks again David for this interesting video ❤

[@ronlight7013]

This is a pretty brilliant observation in the simplicity of its statement. For one, the mass media really served to define us Baby Boomers in terms of group identity, social cohesion and common values, yet, just as your subject says, the media also provided creative definition for self-identified outcasts and social outsiders. Having visited, I can imagine the conformity and blandness of life in Columbus. Much as the subject suggests, Midwesterners I find to be plain and sincere (or is it, plainly sincere?) with a what-you-see is what-you-get kind of self-presentation. What's missing (in a word) is irony, and that's where Mad Magazine would speak volumes to someone with shifting perspective and a wandering mind. For many of us, social revelation reveals itself through the subtext of irony, and we fail to enjoy or understand existence without it. Mad Magazine was a lifesaver, even for those of us brought up in a more urbane environment.

[@MicahScottPnD]

That was sure worth reading, your comment 👍

[@MGMG-lc2fe]

I love your write up, you describe it perfectly the balanced view of both sides, all parties equal shortcomings, hysterically presented. For the smiles, thank you Mr. Hoffman✨

[@MicahScottPnD]

Yeah!

[@MGMG-lc2fe]

@MicahScottPnD it's not fun if everyone doesn't get to laugh 💖🌞✨

[@MicahScottPnD]

@@MGMG-lc2fe Now that's a nice statement, MG!

[@MGMG-lc2fe]

@@MicahScottPnD I appreciate that, thank you.💖🌞🌞

[@Super-ew1ty]

Spy vs Spy was the best

[@thomasmagee5644]

So help me,this guy on camera kinda even looks like Alfred E. Neuman.Got the tooth gap,too.

[@walterfechter8080]

Many thanks, David, for this informative and fun video! All the best -- W

[@NortheastHobbyfarmer]

High Times went well with Alfred.

[@MicahScottPnD]

I believe that!

[@QuarrellaDeVil]

Checking in from Potrzebie.

[@mahalosailing]

All about the bifold back page

[@alleycat9369]

We always got the monthly copy back in the early 60’s (I think early) One of my favorites was Spy vs. Spy but all of the mag was funny.

[@susankahl6409]

I love MAD magazine. Also, this man kind of looks like Alfred E Newman 😂

[@jacquelinedyer9236]

I was born in Columbus Ohio

[@gracelandone]

I was the nerd kid who was hiding MAD under my mattress instead of Playboy. Mom did not approve of Mr. Neuman’s ethos.

[@MicahScottPnD]

​@@gracelandoneDid you ask mom about Playboy? Maybe she'd have said "well, ok, maybe MAD instead" 😂

[@anniegaddis5240]

We were hippies, but din't know it! Sharing!

[@dulcinea1111]

What, me worry? Classic.

[@riceburner4747]

Did they get the name Alfred E Newman from old black & white movies? That name did a lot of musical backgrounds of famous movies, too many to remember.🤔

[@MicahScottPnD]

That's interesting

[@selvamthiagarajan8152]

I wish I could fondly look back at my life. My life sucked, still sucks. Like hearing this man talk about his childhood. Hope he provided his children the live he had.

[@MicahScottPnD]

I hope something works out for you, that's not a fun feeling to have.

[@selvamthiagarajan8152]

@@MicahScottPnD thank you kindly sir

[@adventurecreations3214]

Mad Magazine. Cutting edge thinking for my childhood. Thanks for this film. Great stuff.

[@Emlane09]

I thought it looked like my ex boyfriend, who is Irish

[@cleokey]

I was a subscriber during the 60s. Bring it back today! Think of all the content now. 😊

[@malcorub]

I'm 43, I recall Mad TV and then also the Simpsons having a bit of Mad Magazine in the New York episode but I don't recall much else about Mad Magazine from the late 80s and 90s.

[@potapotapotapotapotapota]

MAD magazine was a big part of my childhood, especially those little Spy vs Spy comics.

[@StephanieJeanne]

I only got a little taste of it later on, and I always thought, 'this is so weirdly amusing.' I'm sure much of it went over my head at such a young age. 😂 Thanks, David. 🩵

[@drewpall2598]

@StephanieJeanne... I have the special edition "Mad About the Sixties: The Best of the Decade" I know most of the humor did go over my head at a young at I can relate to it now. Enjoy the rest of your day my friend 😊🧡✌

[@StephanieJeanne]

@drewpall2598 Cool!! 😎 Hang on to that! ☺️💜✌️

[@drewpall2598]

@@StephanieJeanne will do! 😊

[@MicahScottPnD]

​@@drewpall2598That would be very fun to look at now!

[@HanktheWonderDog]

The sheer brilliance and simplicity of a cover, such as you show echoes best the reason: picking his nose with his middle finger...Mad gave the pricks the prick in the funniest, firecest way...all of us weirdos were in on it, laughing our butts off.

[@debbiebalnaves4842]

I never liked the MAD magazine. 🤷‍♀️ I grew up in the 1960s I had friends who liked it. I never got into it.

[@robertsteele474]

Teen Beat was more your thing perhaps?

[@MicahScottPnD]

Awesome write up, excellent context. I can't exactly say Mad made who i am today, but I sure enjoyed it growing up!

[@univiceversa]

Whats weird? Weird words

[@chesterproudfoot9864]

As a late boomer I was right on his heels. I'd see the posters of "don't trust anyone over 30", "Eldridge & Beaver Cleaver", and not get it. When I discovered MAD magazine it started to click. And to this day, Sergio Leone is my all-t‫ime favorite cartoonist. Al Jafee is number 2

[@peterwassmuth4014]

Awesome! Thank you for Sharing! 💯✴ The best Magazine ever created!!

[@ambientbluntsmoke]

Idk if this is the real david hoffman but godbless you sir for posting so many pieces of work i appreciate you keeping these pieces of history!

[@Zzyzzyx]

I have dozens of battered old copies of MAD from the 60s and early 70s. Growing up, MAD was my social studies curriculum!

[@randybloomfield5090]

Tell us yer hippie with saying yer a hippie

[@susiefairfield7218]

Love Spy VS Spy

[@MicahScottPnD]

I can't understand the syntax of the first sentence. Is it possible there's an autocorrect error, or i might just be reading it wrong?

[@christen13]

MAD

[@GoosePlaysGuitar]

This dude LOOKS like Alfred!

[@Zzyzzyx]

There is a great article from 2019 on MAD magazine that I recommend to everyone, called "Mad magazine is dying - maybe we should worry" (Washington Post).

[@paulhusbands]

Oh yeah we were mad about Mad!

[@BlackSeranna]

I felt the same growing up.

[@vonneely1977]

Is that... Mort Drucker? O.O

[@brianlam1663]

Only someone who is INCREDIBLY entitled, would describe as problematic a world be just “alright “…. Be glad things were “alright”!! Would he have preferred a war zone!!? What absolute ARROGANCE!! That’s someone who has never travelled anywhere in their life!!

[@averagebodybuilder]

Fester and Karbunkle!!!!!

[@jimmycain8669]

Obama looks like Alfred E. Newman. I liked Spy vs. Spy.

[@paulhusbands]

Spy vs Spy!