Mad Magazine vs The National Lampoon

[Mustard]

I don't like The National Lampoon, it's mostly smarmy WASPy Harvard graduate indignation at society padded out with poorly aged bawdy humor, so basically a Carlin special in magazine form. It takes itself way too seriously, it beats you over the head with its sarcasm while trying to appear detached and is dull as shit to read. I was going through the archive today and it is not even remotely funny. Oh look! A "surpise poster" of a cow grazing! That sure is wacky and unusual and not something you'd typically see in an ordinary magazine! Wait, here's an article on how to exploit tax laws with a lot of one-note sarcasm! Isn't that subversive! No wonder smug, unfunny fags like Mike Birbiglia are huge fans of it.

Mad Magazine however I used to read a lot as a kid and loved, it doesn't take itself seriously at all unlike the Lampoon which replaces comedy with commentary. The caricatures of celebrities are hilarious and even the comics lampooning old TV shows from before my time like Emergency! and Murder She Wrote are still hilarious. It all holds up pretty damn good.

 

[Slackjawed Cow]

 

[LiberalPussy]

Both were unfunny. Mad Tv was pfg though.

 

[RealTonySchiavone]

I read MAD, but it could be super jewy, and Dave Berg's "The Lighter Side Of..." always made me roll my eyes, even at 10 years old. I liked Cracked magazine better.

 

[Nigger John]

Mad made fun of the military. I respect that 🫡

 

[Mustard]

View attachment 224513

Dont care, still better than the Lampoon

 

[Smeckler's Powder]

What years of Lampoon you been reading? I've been wanting to get some early/mid 70s ones.

 

[TheGhostOfAbeVigoda]

I loved MAD and Cracked as a kid. Cracked was better and I remember my dad would even take them into the shitter with him. If you go back to MAD as an adult, a lot of it is really fucking reaching for a joke that doesn't even make sense. Like Fonald Plump level shit. It's wacky because it's almost his name, but it isn't. Y'know?

 

[Mustard]

What years of Lampoon you been reading? I've been wanting to get some early/mid 70s ones.

Im gonna guess you're joking but Ill answer anyway. I started with the early 70s. It's all on archive. org

 

[Smeckler's Powder]

Im gonna guess you're joking but Ill answer anyway. I started with the early 70s. It's all on archive. org

lol why'd you think I'm joking? I read Mad a little when I was a kid so only ever 90s MADs.. and only ever owned a few due to monetary constrictions but would read them at the store all the time and fuck up their fold ins. Saw the Brilliant, Drunk, Stoned, Dead and Futile and Stupid Gesture in the last couple years which got me curious about Lampoon but I haven't actually read any magazines yet. I know it got printed for a long time, well after anyone decent was still around so that's why I was curious what years you're reading. I get the impression the offshoot albums/radio/stage shows were probably better than the actual magazine.

 

[Guest]

I had an issue of Lampoon with tits in it and I beat off to it in my grandma’s shower while I was on vacation 100x one year

 

[Child..]

This thread in picture format:

Sassy 60 year olds...log off

 

[Mustard]

lol why'd you think I'm joking? I read Mad a little when I was a kid so only ever 90s MADs.. and only ever owned a few due to monetary constrictions but would read them at the store all the time and fuck up their fold ins. Saw the Brilliant, Drunk, Stoned, Dead and Futile and Stupid Gesture in the last couple years which got me curious about Lampoon but I haven't actually read any magazines yet. I know it got printed for a long time, well after anyone decent was still around so that's why I was curious what years you're reading. I get the impression the offshoot albums/radio/stage shows were probably better than the actual magazine.

growing up I mostly read the 2000s MADs with stuff like spoofing Tom Cruise on Opera and making fun of Kirsten Dunst's snaggletooth. There was this giant bookstore I used to go to and they had like every issue except from way early so like the 50s and early 60s so occasionally Id flip through the 70-90s stuff.

More recently I bought a box of good condition MADs and some Lampoons but I'm too lazy to dig them out and take a look so Archive it is.

 

[Sean Baird]

This thread in picture format:

Sassy 60 year olds...log off

You are so alone.

 

[Udders]

Used to love MAD. The tv/pop culture parodys, comics, spy vs spy, all good shit. Last I checked it turned into another flaming left wing rag, many such cases. More like SAD.

 

[Smeckler's Powder]

Used to love MAD. The tv/pop culture parodys, comics, spy vs spy, all good shit. Last I checked it turned into another flaming left wing rag, many such cases. More like SAD.

I thought it had stopped. Maybe it did for a bit and came back? Blecchhh!

 

[Turk February]

I used to have stacks of Cracked Magazines as a kid because I just assumed it was funny. Never got it.

 

[Child..]

You are so alone.

Mrs Boq by my side rn...you're a kissless virgin on a lot of meth who only knows patposting.

 

[Child..]

I used to have stacks of Cracked Magazines as a kid because I just assumed it was funny. Never got it.

Where the fuck would you find those? All my comic books I had as a kid were shipped to me by my Euro based relatives. I recall having a tough time finding any good comics

WWAW "Adventures of TinTin" and "Asterix and Obelix"...funnier than anything on mad magazine

My dad and I would take the subway to Queen Street and browse the Silver Snail for hours, but never find anything like what I got from overseas. I still get umami-flavored nostalgia-induced tingles when I remember the storefront.

 

[Lamont & Tonelli]

Foreigners Around The World by P.J. O'Rourke

A satirical piece mocking racism circa 1976 by P.J. O'Rourke for National Lampoon.

forum.lowyat.net

I'm not arguing that Lampoon isn't mostly highbrow horseshit for effete faggots, but please find a comparably hilarious Mad article to compare to this masterpiece.