Recurring Features in Mad (magazine) - Letters and Tomatoes Dept.

Letters and Tomatoes Dept.

An esoteric version of the standard "Letters to the Editors," this section of the magazine includes correspondence from readers, reader drawings or craft projects, celebrity photos, references to Mad in other media, and so forth. In recent years, all letters are typically answered in a snide and insulting manner, and always include a pun or twist on the sender's name.

The first "Letters" section (then called "Mad Mumblings") appeared in MAD #3 (January–February 1953). The first letter printed came from a Marine Corps corporal named Eugene F. Shanlin, who said he "had never heard people laugh out loud at a comic magazine before!" (Shanlin later became a New York City policeman before retiring to Florida, dying in 2000 at the age of 69.)

There have been a few recurring sub-departments, including the "Make a Dumb Wish Foundation" which promised to make readers' stupid requests come true (a parody of the Make a Wish Foundation); "Antiques Freakshow with Hans Brickface", in which photographs of readers' bizarre household items were appraised by the slightly psychotic Hans; absurd one-sentence observations called "MAD Mumblings", which were typically non sequiturs posted online by the readers; and celebrity "Two-Question Interviews" which were essentially over before they began, thus revealing nothing.

The magazine solicits reader photos of famous people posing with a copy of Mad. Once a year, Mad publishes "The Nifty Fifty," listing 50 famous people they hope to see in upcoming "Celebrity Snaps". A reader who successfully gets one of the fifty to pose ih a photo gets a free three-year subscription (provided that the celebrity is touching the issue). Some celebrities send in photos of themselves, typically in response to the magazine having targeted them in a previous issue. The magazine was delighted to publish a photo of Dan Quayle unwittingly holding the "PROOFREADER WANTED" cover of Mad #355, on which the magazine's logo appeared as "MAAD." During a photo op in 1992, the then-Vice President had incorrectly "corrected" an elementary school student on the way Quayle thought the word "potato" should be spelled.