Mad/Trivia

Trivia related to the magazine:

• Follow the Leader: The magazine's success inspired a succession of copycats, including Cracked and countless others, many of which even had Expys of Alfred E. Neuman as their mascots (and many of which lasted for only a few issues). William Gaines supposedly kept a voodoo doll that had pins marked with the names of Mad knockoffs; by his death in 1992, only the Cracked pin remained.
  • Gaines even launched his own rip-off, Panic.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Very many freelance artists and writers have worked for the magazine, so their art is often recognizable outside it.
  • Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, Bob Clarke and Bob Jones (among others) are all freelance artists who have done countless ads. In fact, when they did a parody of the Esso "tiger in your tank" ads, they almost had Bob Jones draw it until they realized that Jones drew the real ad.
  • Paul Coker was a Rankin-Bass animator. His loose, scratchy style is quite recognizable.
  • Sergio Aragonés is also known for his Groo comic.
  • Former Sonic the Hedgehog writer Michael Gallagher shows up now and then, as did artist Dave Manak (who handled Spy vs. Spy for a while).
  • Several notables have drawn at least one cover each: fantasy artists Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta, movie poster illustrator Drew Struzan and even The Today Show chimp mascot J. Fred Muggs.
  • Chevy Chase wrote at least one pre-Saturday Night Live piece that got published, a back cover "TV Scenes We'd Like to See" parody of |Mission Impossible in which Jim Phelps gets fired.
  • Not only did Wally Wood create Daredevil's iconic costume and the infamous Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster, he was also one of the founding artists of Mad.
  • Writer Dick DeBartolo is the host of the Daily Giz Wiz podcast, and was a longtime question-writer for Match Game.
  • Several artists and writers and artists jumped ship from Mad to rival Cracked. Most notably, artist John Severin left Mad shortly before the end of the comics era, and quickly became the flagship artist of Cracked. Longtime writer Lou Silverstone also left for Cracked in 1990, as did Don Martin (of all people!).
• Old Shame: Mad lent its name to an Animal House-style comedy, Up the Academy. After it did poorly at the box office, Mad was quick to disown it, and wrote a two-page satire of their own movie, which ended with the entire staff fictitiously quitting in shame. William M. Gaines also paid Warner Bros. $30,000 to remove every reference to Mad from the movie. However, following the sale of Mad to Time/Warner, the references were restored on all recent TV airings and the DVD. But it's still Old Shame to the Mad staff.

Trivia related to the cartoon:

• Hey, It's That Voice!: Tara Strong shows up a few times in the third episode.
  • • She even reprises her role as Bubbles in 2 Broke Powerpuff Girls.
    • She even returns as Twilight Sparkle in one episode.
    • Tom Kane reprises his role has Him. His attempt at immitating the narrator does sound more like Professor Utonium.
  • Grey DeLisle seems to be a full-time voice.
  • Jason Marsden in various sketches from episodes 5 and later.
    • He voices the "Not Even Doom Music" Cat, just like a certain other gray cat in Thunder LOLcats.
  • Julia McIlvaine (June) has lent her voice to Bambi, Sam Sparks, and Cruella De Vil.
  • Dana Snyder (Master Shake, Gazpacho) appears in a few episodes as a Goomba and Ben 10 Franklin.
  • Gary Anthony Williams (Uncle Ruckus, Coroner Rick) is also a regular voice actor.
  • Diedrich Bader has appered in several episodes.
  • On the art style of things, the Stop Motion sequences are animated by Screen Novelties, who did the same animation for Chowder, and one of the most frequent animators is Jorge R. Guiterrez.
  • Robot Chicken alumni Seth Green and Breckin Meyer appear in the second season.
  • Andrew WK voices himself in Destroy, Bob the Builder, Destroy.
  • Kath Soucie voiced Rainbow Dash in My Little War Horse.
    • The French dub has about 5 actors: Emmanuel Garijo (|Hercules), Dorothee Pousseo (Mandy), Nicolas Marie (Mung Daal), Anne Rondeleux (Agent K), and Michel Dodane (Peter Griffin). Garijo is known to dub Justin Bieber in "Mad".
• In the "Parent-Training" skit (Moves Like Jabba), the girl listens to a Hip-Hop version of the Demon Sisters theme from Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt before her mother interrupts. Considering what happens on that show and the rarity of the song, this is probably a deliberate reference.