I never see it folded until it’s printed.

March 13, 2023 12:46 PM

Al Jaffee, Now 102, Is Ready to Be Added to Mount Rushmore An extended version of Mike Sacks’s 2008 interview with the MAD Magazine cartoonist, originally excerpted in And Here’s the Kicker: Conversations With 21 Top Humor Writers on Their Craft (2009).

Also from Sacks: Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today’s Top Comedy Writers

Archive (some images missing due to dynamic gallery scrolling behavior on the original page)

posted by staggernation (15 comments total)

I saw Al Jaffee's name and immediately thought, "Oh no, did he die?!" Glad to see he's still kicking! Will check out the interview soon.
posted by May Kasahara at 12:59 PM on March 13, 2023 [9 favorites]

On Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast
posted by rhizome at 1:05 PM on March 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

A cartoonist added to Mount Rushmore sounds like that single-panel I can't find just now that Art Spiegelman did of a cartoonist Hall of Fame showing enormous, Lincoln Memorial-sized statues of Schulz, Kirby, Crumb & etc seated on thrones fading into the distance while in the foreground is the Spiegelman section, a neglected, shabby little broom closet.
posted by Rash at 1:35 PM on March 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Al Jaffee and all the other MAD Magazine writers and artists were heroes to me. I remember once in my teens being thrilled and pleased with myself when I managed to come up with a snappy answer to some stupid question someone had asked me, because it was original, not just parroting one of Al's hilarious quips! So what I'm saying is, MAD was instrumental in dooming me to a life of being a useless smartass.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:47 PM on March 13, 2023 [16 favorites]

Jaffee and Sergio Aragonés are my favorite Mad contributors in part because compared with the other artists, they always seemed like they'd actually be nice and interesting to know in real life.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:49 PM on March 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

my dad is a cartoonist born in the early 50s, roughly when mad magazine started.

I still call him to remind him that al jaffee was still writing mad jokes from before he was born.

may he live forever!
posted by lkc at 1:51 PM on March 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

I grew up with Mad, and thanks to that magazine, I have the proper cynical attitude towards advertising, politics, religion, work, etc. and a good appreciation of the power of satire to speak truth in a world full of scams. Given a lot of comments here and there here on the blue, including a current posting, satire, as an art, seems to be now poorly understood, both by readers and writers. I am forever grateful that I started reading Mad in the third grade and continued through high school. Al Jaffee and the rest of the "usual gang of idiots" were my best teachers. I feel sorry for those who did not get to learn from them.
posted by njohnson23 at 4:05 PM on March 13, 2023 [14 favorites]

My 4th grade teacher (blond, fashionably dressed, and very good looking Miss Tuemler) caught me reading and confiscated my MAD Magazine, telling me I could get it back from the principal's office after school. 45 minutes later the principal, in his semi-regular address to the school over the intercom, read a hepcat, jazz-themed parody of 'Twas the Night before Christmas from it to the entire school.

She glared at me the whole time.
posted by jamjam at 4:44 PM on March 13, 2023 [28 favorites]

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the pad,
Not a hipster was swinging, not even old Dad;
The chimney was draped in that stocking routine
In hopes that "The Fat Man" would soon make the scene...
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:35 PM on March 13, 2023 [7 favorites]

May he live forever!
posted by infini at 1:11 AM on March 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

Sixty Minutes: Mad Magazine: Inside Look Behind the Scenes (1987)
posted by BWA at 6:02 AM on March 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

There was nothing worse than buying an issue of MAD at the newsstand (alas, I never had a subscription) and discovering that someone had already half-assed the fold-in.

You'd think that I should have checked, but I was always so nervous. Even though my parents had introduced me to MAD and my mom had even dug up a bunch of her old issues from the 1960s including a bunch of trade paperbacks collecting Jaffee's own output (Willie Wierdie!), I always felt like someone was going to judge me for buying it.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:22 AM on March 14, 2023 [4 favorites]

I am extremely happy that Al is still with us.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 9:02 AM on March 14, 2023 [5 favorites]

Oh, dear. I’m sorry to report that Al Jaffee has died. He passed away on April 10, 2023.


SN || iffling we all are, with this unfortunate news. I, myself, am decidedly unh || APPY.

ANSWER || me this, dearly departed Al.

TO || those who grieve your loss, I ask, through || MY

STU || mbling, barely coherent thoughts: What final intre || PID

QUES || t shall you embark on now? I await your reply with much anticipa || TION.
posted by New Frontier at 3:07 PM on April 10, 2023 [4 favorites]

Thanks for pointing me to that Vulture article. It was lovely. When my father came to this country he learned English reading Mad Magazine. I remember the joy he, I and my brother had reading the magazine together and folding the fold-in.
posted by acrasis at 3:43 PM on April 12, 2023 [1 favorite]