The recent news that MAD Magazine is shutting down publication after nearly 70 years of making mostly young Americans--including me, back in the day--laugh at the various foibles of our country and its culture hit me very hard. Part of that, of course, was nostalgia for my long-lost and occasionally misspent youth. Of greater significance to me is what the departure of MAD means for the current state of satire in this country.
MAD began in the 1950s not as a magazine, but as a comic book published by EC Comics, a comic-book company known for its willingness to push the boundaries of acceptable content, especially when it came to graphic violence, but also in presenting plots that increasingly mirrored liberal concerns about modern society. That willingness, and the willingness of other companies to experiment in less radical ways with the art and storylines they put into their comic books, led to a form of '50s insanity that was a kind of second cousin to Senator Joe McCarthy's Communist witch-hunts in Hollywood. Alarmed by some of the "revelations" about modern comics in a book called "Seduction of the Innocent," Congress began to investigate the industry to the point of putting several companies out of business. This led to the creation of the Comics Code Authority, a kind of Good-Housekeeping-type of seal-of-approval for comic companies that abided by certain restrictions on content.
How did EC respond? By abandoning all of its books except MAD, and changing MAD from a comic-book to a magazine format. By doing so, they liberated themselves from the authority of the CCA, and were free to say what they wanted about whatever they wanted to talk about. And, in more ways than one, and without going beyond the parameters of "obscenity" laws that were still on the books, they exercised that freedom fairly liberally.
That's not to say that MAD was a part of a vast, left-wing conspiracy. It lampooned politics, but always in a way to make sure that politicians in both major parties (and, sometimes, in some minor ones) got their just desserts. It made fun, sometimes gently (and other times not so gently) of everyday American life, whether bowling, barbecuing, baseball, or anything else. Most especially, it mocked our cultural life, most especially in its parodies of popular films and TV shows. I don't presume to speak for everyone, but the lampooning of plots and caricatures of actors (the latter most notably by the great Mort Drucker) made me feel that I hadn't really, truly seen the movie or show in question until I had seen MAD's take on it. Even when they blatantly mocked one of my all-time favorite movies, I still felt that way.
Just take a look at what MAD did to the famous--or infamous, if you will--"horse's head" sequence from "The Godfather." Every time I think of it, I think to myself "Leave it to MAD to take a classic movie moment, and turn it into a classic moment of satire."
Satire.
Does it have a place in America anymore?
Is it possible to poke fun at a society in which everything seems to be more and more of a joke? Or, at least, a society in which there are no true boundaries? And where the boundaries that are left feel more and more vulnerable with each passing day?
It's a question I find myself asking when I watch "Saturday Night Live," which I do these days with decreasing frequency. Yes, Alec Baldwin's imitation of T**** is spot-on. But so what? The outrageousness of the original is almost impossible to surpass. And even a lot of their original material seems more and more unconnected to the experience of the show's audience.
Satire depends on the ability to go at least one step farther than the original. It relies on the idea that there's a range of human behavior that's "out-of-bounds" in the everyday lives of most people. And it's within that range that satire finds the freedom to openly laugh at what happens in those everyday lives.
Where is that range now? Does it even exist, in a world of social media where people are constantly destroying old boundaries, setting new ones, and then tears those down without a second thought? Can it exist, in a world in which the only surviving "ism" is narcissism? Where we can laugh at everything except ourselves? In a world in which a President like T**** is possible?
I don't think so.
And that's why I'm not surprised about MAD's demise. Saddened, of course, almost as if I have lost an old friend. But not surprised.
I am, however, far sadder about the thought, the likelihood, that we now live in a world that no longer has the ability to laugh at itself. I hope I'm wrong.
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