Recurring Features in Mad (magazine) - "The Mad 20"

"The Mad 20"

Since 1998, in every January issue, Mad has commemorated the "20 Dumbest People, Events and Things" of the year. These emphasize the visual motif above all else, parodying such things as movie posters, famous paintings, or magazine covers, though one or two text-heavier takeoffs are usually sprinkled into each year's assortment. The feature is reminiscent of the old Spy Magazine's "Spy 100" list, which purported to catalogue "Our Annual Census of the 100 Most Annoying, Alarming, and Appalling People, Places and Things."

Though the "20 Dumbest People, Events and Things" are numbered 1-20, the "rankings" appear to be essentially random. The "20th dumbest" slot of 2001 was awarded to Mad itself for its "slide down the slippery slope of greedy commercialism" in finally permitting advertising in its pages.

Keeping in mind the indiscriminate positioning, these were the "#1" selections for the various years:

• 1998: "Starr Wars," a movie poster parody of the partisan Kenneth Starr investigation, depicting Starr as Darth Vader, and Bill Clinton holding a cigar instead of a light saber;
• 1999: "Y2K Panic," a chaotic cartoon showing a crashing airplane displacing the Times Square New Year's Ball, sending it careening into a terror-stricken crowd;
• 2000: A rewritten Presidential oath of office. The issue went to press one week after the disputed 2000 election; the editors had thought they would be able to plug in the winner, but were obliged to publish two versions of the image, one with Al Gore being sworn in, the other depicting George W. Bush;
• 2001: "A.I. Asinine Ideology," a movie poster parody of the Steven Spielberg film A.I. highlighting Jerry Falwell's placing blame on the 9/11 attacks on gays, feminists, abortionists and the ACLU;
• 2002: "Martha Stewart Lying," a magazine spoof of Martha Stewart's insider trading scandal;
• 2003: "Term Eliminator," a movie poster parody of the third Terminator film mocking Arnold Schwarzenegger's victory in the California recall election;
• 2004: "Donny Rumsfeld and the Prisoners of Abu Ghraib," a book cover in the style of the third Harry Potter jacket, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban;
• 2005: "Where's W?", a book parody in the style of the "Where's Waldo?" series. The cover shows a tableau of the crowded, flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with George W. Bush completely impossible to find;
• 2006: "The Iraqi Quagmire Chess Set," in the style of a Franklin Mint collectable. Literal chess pieces were sculpted and photographed, depicting such figures as Dick Cheney, Joseph Lieberman, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi and Muqtada al-Sadr;
• 2007: "Michael & Me," A parody of the book "Marley and Me" and ostensibly written from the perspective of one of Michael Vick's illegal fighting pit bulls. The book cover depicts Vick strangling a dog;
• 2008: "Clueless," a parody of the board game Clue featuring losing Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. It included rules of play which mimicked Palin's rhetoric and speaking style. The rooms, weapons, characters were also changed to reflect her persona and associations.
• 2009: "The Canonization of Michael Jackson," a religious icon which poked fun at media, fans and other hangers-on who spent the weeks following Jackson's death ignoring or whitewashing the child molestation accusations, his eccentric habits and his penchant for self-glorification. (Jackson's personal physician, who is widely blamed for causing the singer's death by overdose, was given his own entry at #20: a parody of Jackson's "Thriller" album, renamed "Killer");
• 2010: "Creators of the Black Lagoon," a poster parody of the 1954 monster movie satirizing the malfeasance before and after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
• 2011: "The Walking Debt," a parody of the AMC series The Walking Dead mocking the partisan battle over the previously perfunctory adjustment to the U.S. debt ceiling. President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Mitch McConnell are among the politicians shown as shuffling, mindless zombies.
• 2012: "Paint Misbehavin'," a parody of the 1960 Norman Rockwell painting "Triple Self-Portrait" which was changed to satirize Cecilia Gimenez's botched restoration of the religious Ecce Homo fresco in Borja, Zaragoza.