It was an early lesson in the ideal of impartiality. I guess I was about 7 years old and was fully invested in reading comic books, Famous Monsters of Filmland and, for laughs, Mad Magazine. Any fan of "Mad" knows that it fully explores satire, often seizing upon the news or themes of the day.
In the build-up to the 1968 presidential election, one edition of Mad included a bumper sticker, trumpeting its iconic character Alfred E. Neuman for president. Of course, they weren't serious. If you don't know about Mad's approach it involves a combination of humor and anarchy (the light-hearted kind). Being a kid who loved corny jokes (some things never change) I thought this would be well-placed on the back of our old Ford station wagon. We were a one-car family back then. The only trouble was my father, who then worked for the AP, was dead-set against it. And so it didn't end up on the car, or if it did, it wasn't there for long.
I understand now why he was right. Appearing to advocate for Alfred E. Neuman would be akin to saying "none of the above" in the election. Even though it was only representing my underdeveloped viewpoint at the time, people seeing my dad parking the car at the State Capitol building in Topeka, where he often worked, might not have gotten the "joke".
Mad magazine helped me to get through the late '60s and early 70s. I probably read more versions of "Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions" in paperback than I should have. Insert your own joke here about how I should have done my homework.
I'm glad to see that Mad is still around, and apparently still poking fun at the political scene. In this day of embittered political discourse, some good-natured humor would be a welcome distraction. And that's not a partisan political comment.
In the build-up to the 1968 presidential election, one edition of Mad included a bumper sticker, trumpeting its iconic character Alfred E. Neuman for president. Of course, they weren't serious. If you don't know about Mad's approach it involves a combination of humor and anarchy (the light-hearted kind). Being a kid who loved corny jokes (some things never change) I thought this would be well-placed on the back of our old Ford station wagon. We were a one-car family back then. The only trouble was my father, who then worked for the AP, was dead-set against it. And so it didn't end up on the car, or if it did, it wasn't there for long.
I understand now why he was right. Appearing to advocate for Alfred E. Neuman would be akin to saying "none of the above" in the election. Even though it was only representing my underdeveloped viewpoint at the time, people seeing my dad parking the car at the State Capitol building in Topeka, where he often worked, might not have gotten the "joke".
Mad magazine helped me to get through the late '60s and early 70s. I probably read more versions of "Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions" in paperback than I should have. Insert your own joke here about how I should have done my homework.
I'm glad to see that Mad is still around, and apparently still poking fun at the political scene. In this day of embittered political discourse, some good-natured humor would be a welcome distraction. And that's not a partisan political comment.
