Mad is known for many regular and semi-regular recurring features in its pages.
Fold-ins
Every issue but two of Mad from 1964 to the present has featured a Fold-in, written and drawn by artist Al Jaffee until he retired in 2020 and Johnny Sampson thereafter. They usually appear on the inside back cover, though one issue featured a Fold-in front cover and the year-end "Mad 20" issues move the feature to an interior page. In each Fold-in a question is asked, often of a topical nature. The subject is illustrated by a picture taking up the bulk of the page, with a block of text underneath. When the page is folded inward, the inner and outer fourths of the picture combine to reveal an alternate answer in both picture and words. Jaffee's precise layouts sometimes include false visual cues designed to trick the reader's eye towards an incorrect solution.
"The Lighter Side of..."
From 1961 to 2002, Dave Berg produced "The Lighter Side of...", which often satirized the suburban lifestyle, capitalism and the generation gap. Subjects commonly lampooned include medicine, office life, parties, marriage, psychiatry, shopping, school and other everyday activities. Although this feature eventually became notorious for its corny gags and garishly outdated fashion choices, the Mad editors reported that it was the magazine's most popular feature. "The Lighter Side" was more pointed in its early years, providing the sort of Americana-based humor that standups such as Shelley Berman and Alan King performed successfully onstage. The feature was retired with Berg's death.
Four months after the last Berg artwork was published, his final set of gags, which Berg had written but not penciled, appeared as a tribute. These last "Lighter Side" strips were divided among 18 of the magazine's regular artists, including Jack Davis' last original work for Mad. In 2007, an occasional feature called "The Darker Side of the Lighter Side" debuted. These consist of reprinted Berg strips, with rewritten word balloons that change the gags to references about disease, sex offenders, corpse disposal and other unsavory, un-Berg-like topics.
"Spy vs. Spy"
Antonio Prohías's wordless "Spy vs. Spy," the never-ending battle between the iconic Black Spy and White Spy, ended up outlasting the Cold War that inspired it. Except for the respective black/white color of their clothing, the two spies were identical in appearance and intent. The strip was a silent parable about the futility of mutually-assured destruction, with various elaborate traps designed in Prohías' thick line. Typically, the trap would boomerang back on whichever spy had concocted it. There was no pattern or order dictating which spy would be defeated in a particular episode. A female "Grey Spy" frequently appeared from 1962 through 1965, followed by a 40-year hiatus. After that she made occasional appearances from 2005 to 2020. Unlike her two adversaries, she always prevailed. Although Prohías retired from doing the strip in the late 1980s, "Spy vs. Spy" continued in a series of different hands until 1997, when Peter Kuper took over as the full-time writer-artist. However, the original Morse Code byline "by Prohias" remains in each strip's title.
Don Martin gags Don Martin, billed as "Mad's Maddest Artist", drew gag cartoons, generally one page but sometimes longer, featuring lumpen characters with apparently hinged feet. Martin's absurd sight gags were frequently punctuated by an array of onomatopoeic sound effects such as "GLORK" or "PATWANG-FWEEE", coined by Martin himself (or by frequent ghost writer Don Edwing).Martin, Don. The Completely Mad Don Martin, Running Press, 2007. Martin's wild physical comedy would eventually make him the signature artist of the magazine.
When Martin first joined Mad, he employed a nervous, scratchy art style, but this developed into a rounder, more cartoony look. Many of his cartoons used similar expositional titles (e.g., "One Exceedingly Fine Day at the Beach," "On the Elevator," "The Pickpocket"). On occasion these titles became increasingly elaborate (e.g., "One Night in the Acme Ritz Central Arms Waldorf Plaza Statler Hilton Grand Hotel", "One Hot Sunny Afternoon in the Middle of the Ocean", or "One Fine Day at the Corner of South Finster Boulevard and Fonebone Street").
Martin's 31-year association with Mad ended in some rancor over the ownership of his original artwork. Not long after leaving Mad, Martin ended up working at Mad competitor Cracked, which, unlike Mad, allowed creators to keep their pages. In 1994, Martin left Cracked and published a handful of issues of his own self-titled publication.
"A Mad Look at..." and "Drawn-Out Dramas" Sergio Aragonés has written and drawn his "A Mad Look At..." feature since his debut in Mad #76 (January 1963), which began to be sold on November 13, 1962.https://www.madcoversite.com/mad076-08.html Alfred's Poor Almanac, Mad #76 Each is a series of gag strips with a common theme. Aragonés' Mad cartooning is notable for almost never using word balloons; when they occur at all, they will most often feature a drawing of whatever is being discussed. Aragonés will periodically bend this rule for a store window sign, a stray "Gesundheit", or some other dialogue vital to the punchline.
Aragonés also provides the "Mad Marginals" or "Drawn-out Dramas", which are small gag images that appear throughout the magazine in its corners, margins or the narrow spaces between panels. Aragonés also debuted the feature in Mad #76, and it has appeared in every issue of the magazine since, except for Mad #111. According to Aragonés, his work for that issue was lost in the mail.
Movie and TV show parodies A typical issue will include at least one full parody of a popular movie or television show. The titles are changed to create a play on words; for instance, The Addams Family became The Adnauseum Family. The character names are generally switched in the same fashion.
These articles run for several pages, and are presented as a sequential storyline with caricatures and word balloons. The opening page or two-page splash usually consists of the cast of the show introducing themselves directly to the reader. In some parodies, the writers sometimes attempt to circumvent this convention by presenting the characters without such direct exposition. Many parodies end with the abrupt deus ex machina appearance of outside characters or pop culture figures who are thematically tied into the nature to the movie or TV series being parodied, or who comment satirically on the theme. For example, Dr. Phil arrives to counsel the psychologically damaged Desperate Housewives; in another spoof, the former cast of Sex and the City are hired as the new hookers for another HBO series, Deadwood.
The parodies frequently make comedic use of the fourth wall, breaking character, and meta-references. Within an ostensibly self-contained storyline, the characters may refer to the technical aspects of filmmaking, the publicity, hype or box office surrounding their project, their own past roles or real-life circumstances, and critical analysis of clichés. In the final panel of "The $ound of Money", the magazine's 1966 parody of The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews sings a parody of the song "Climb Ev'ry Mountain". The rewritten lyrics reference both the producers' decision to create scarcity and maximize box office profits by running the film in just one theater per city at inflated ticket prices ("Charge high admissions; / Let people wait; / That will make them think they're / Seeing something great!"), as well as Warner Brothers' decision to replace Andrews with Audrey Hepburn in its movie adaptation of My Fair Lady. Andrews had been a great success as Eliza Doolittle in the original Broadway production, but she was passed over for the film role. Despite the high-profile snub, Andrews made an Oscar-winning debut in Mary Poppins – released four months before My Fair Lady – and solidifying her big screen success with The Sound of Music. Concluding the Mad parody, Andrews gleefully sings: "With all these profits, Things will be fine! When we top "Fair Lady", Ven-geance... will... be... mine!"
Several show business stars have been quoted to the effect that the moment when they knew they had finally "made it" was when they saw themselves thus depicted in the pages of Mad. Many celebrities parodied by the magazine have posed for photographs which were printed in Mad letters column, generally holding the copy of the magazine they appeared in, and frequently, reacting in some comical way. After the magazine depicted the main cast of L.A. Law on a 1987 cover, the actors responded with a photo in which the actors mimicked their caricatured poses and placement, with series creator Steven Bochco blacking out a tooth and taking the place of Alfred E. Neuman.
Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash told Mojo, "The magazine cover that has meant the most to me was probably when I appeared in Mad Magazine, as a caricature of Alfred E. Neuman (#330, 1994). That was when I felt that I'd arrived."Mojo, June 2008, pg. 58. Film critic Roger Ebert said that being parodied by Mad was "the ultimate honor." In an appearance on The Tonight Show, Michael J. Fox told Johnny Carson that he knew he had made it in show business "when Mort Drucker drew my head." Howard Stern has often talked about what the magazine meant to him, as in January 2009 when he said, "My greatest career highlight was being on the cover of Mad Magazine."Howard Stern broadcast on Sirius Radio, 1-20-09 He revisited the topic in October 2013, saying, "It really was the pinnacle of success for me, that I could be on the cover of MAD Magazine, with Alfred E. Neuman plunging my head into a toilet bowl. I was just so thrilled and happy... I couldn't believe it."Howard Stern Show broadcast on Sirius, October 22, 2013
Monroe Monroe was an ongoing storyline about an angst-filled teenaged loser. It depicted the title character's travails in school, his dysfunctional home and his relentless troubles elsewhere. Written by Anthony Barbieri, it was illustrated by Bill Wray from 1997 to 2006. The previously black-and-white feature was colorized in 2005, and went on hiatus for much of 2006. When it returned, it was drawn by Tom Fowler with Barbieri remaining the writer. It last appeared in January 2010.
Irregular recurring features Several Mad premises have been successful enough to warrant additional installments, though not with the regularity of the above. These include: The Mad Academy Awards for ____ – typically written by Stan Hart, these would mimic the Oscar telecast by showing nominated "performance clips" in non-film areas of life (such as parenting or small business ownership). Advertising parodies – too numerous to catalog, though many have been written by Dick DeBartolo; these have ranged from TV ad spoofs to national print campaigns to home marketing and have long provided one of the most durable sources of the magazine's humor. A separate paperback of original material titled Madvertising was published in 1972, and an extensive reprint collection appeared with the same title in 2005. Alfred's Poor Almanac – written by Frank Jacobs over several issues in 1962 and 1974, this text-heavy page featured quick one-liners, puns, faux anniversaries and other arcana, supposedly matched to each day of that month. Badly-Needed Warning Labels for Rock Albums – written by Desmond Devlin, this series of articles mocked both the ongoing Parental Advisory labelling controversy, as well as the musicians of the day, with specifically written warning labels for particular recordings. Behind the Scenes at ____ – written and illustrated by various, these frequently take a bird's eye view of a scene, such as a television studio or office. Various vignettes and conversations play out simultaneously, showing the reader how the participants "really" think and behave.