@ghostkeeper - that’s exactly what I came to say. Dean’s occassional reading of Mad bugs me, but I keep it to myself because, well, who really cares? Not everyone has to know when I’m bugged (at least not anyone who won’t give me candy and/or money to shut up about it).
But right now we’re in the middle of a storyline that could only have been the product of not having read it since, at latest, the early 90’s. Once Time Warner bought out the magazine, started printing it on magazine-quality paper, and put in ads, Mad died.
Even bathroom humour is better than the bleeep they fill the magazine with now–most of it seems to be real photos with wacky captions. Mad Magazine was always lowbrow, and we loved them for it; it’s just that, before William Gaines died and Time Warner bought it out, it was never lazy.
Gosh. He hasn’t used THIS EXACT JOKE four times now.