Emil Steiner March 23, 2011 Cheap Laughs: Analysis of the American Magazine Humor Niche Henry Hill: You're a pistol, you're really funny. You're really funny. Tommy DeVito: What do you mean I'm funny? Henry Hill: It's funny, you know. It's a good story, it's funny, you're a funny guy. [laughs] Tommy DeVito: What do you mean, you mean the way I talk? What? Henry Hill: It's just, you know. You're just funny, it's... funny, the way you tell the story and everything. Tommy DeVito: [it becomes quiet] Funny how? What's funny about it? “Goodfellas” (1990) Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Three magazines walk into a bar. The first has goofy red hair and is missing his left incisor. The second has a blond mop-top, coveralls, and a mop. The third smells so bad that tears jump to the bartender’s eyes. “Can I see some ID?” asks the bartender holding his nose. “What--me worry?” responds the first. “Shut up!” mouths the second, before transforming into a LadMag and reappearing online only. “Tu stulus es!” retorts the third. Don’t get it? Well most people don’t get their humor from magazines either these days (so suck it!). Television, film and user-generated Internet content are the current undisputed kings of comedy. However the three magazines, caricatured above, represent a significant portion of the contemporary humor magazine niche. Their names
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Cheap Laughs: Analysis of the American Magazine Humor Niche2011/12/03 · humor magazine, besides Time. (The Untold History of Mad: 1952-1960) Founded in 1952 as a comic book by Harvey
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Emil Steiner March 23, 2011
Cheap Laughs: Analysis of the American Magazine Humor Niche
Henry Hill: You're a pistol, you're really funny. You're really funny. Tommy DeVito: What do you mean I'm funny?
Henry Hill: It's funny, you know. It's a good story, it's funny, you're a funny guy. [laughs] Tommy DeVito: What do you mean, you mean the way I talk? What?
Henry Hill: It's just, you know. You're just funny, it's... funny, the way you tell the story and everything. Tommy DeVito: [it becomes quiet] Funny how? What's funny about it?
“Goodfellas” (1990)
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Three magazines walk into a bar. The first has
goofy red hair and is missing his left incisor. The second has a blond mop-top, coveralls,
and a mop. The third smells so bad that tears jump to the bartender’s eyes.
“Can I see some ID?” asks the bartender holding his nose.
“What--me worry?” responds the first.
“Shut up!” mouths the second, before transforming into a LadMag and reappearing
online only.
“Tu stulus es!” retorts the third.
Don’t get it? Well most people don’t get their humor from magazines either these days
(so suck it!). Television, film and user-generated Internet content are the current
undisputed kings of comedy. However the three magazines, caricatured above,
represent a significant portion of the contemporary humor magazine niche. Their names
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are MAD, The Onion, and Cracked.com and together they’ve been keeping people
(mostly young men) in stitches for over 125 years.
In the past they competed. Today they represent three contradictory demographics of
the competitive niche. To wit (yuck, yuck), MAD is the oldest, but has the youngest
demographic of readers and is available only in print or PDF form. Cracked.com is the
second oldest, has a mostly college-aged readership, and is only online. (Cracked.com
Media Kit) The Onion is the youngest, but has the oldest readership is available both
online and in print. (Onion 2011 Online Media Kit) Their differences are reflections of
their history and indicators of the current state of the American humor magazine
market.
The Usual Gang of Idiots
Although the Harvard Lampoon may protest, Mad claims it's “America's longest-running
humor magazine, besides Time.” (The Untold History of Mad: 1952-1960) Founded in
1952 as a comic book by Harvey Kurtzman (editor) and William Gains (publisher) the
first issue's cover proffered an ethos that has remained for seven decades: Kids get it,
parents don’t.
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MAD magazine came of age in 1956, when Al Feldstein took over as editor. The identity
shifted from comic book to satire magazine. No longer beholden to rules of the Comic
Code Authority, MAD grew edgier, taking on politics and society with a juvenile
disregard for decorum. (History of MAD, Wikipedia).
That anti-establishment sentiment is reflected in the magazine’s fictional mascot, Alfred
E. Neuman, who first appeared on the front cover as a write-in candidate in the 1956
presidential election, (issue no. 30). Below a comic elephant-donkey stare-down sits the
bust of Neuman, his blasé gaze bordering on lobotomized. “What--Me Worry?” says the
subverted Howdie Doodie without ever moving his lips. That campaign slogan of
youthful insouciance grew into a counter-culture inside joke during the next three
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decades, as MAD’s circulation swelled, peaking at 2,132,655 in 1974.
(http://users.ipfw.edu/slaubau/madcirc.htm).
MAD’s writers, known as the Usual Gang of Idiots (think: Algonquin Round Table with
better cartoons and more toilet jokes) remained on the vanguard of humor throughout
the Cold War. Their self-effacing/self-aggrandizing wit engendered countless imitators --
most notably, Cracked Magazine. As the writers quip: "Soon newsstands are clogged
with competitors such as Wacky, Gaga, Bugnuts, Loco, Bonkers, Clinically Unbalanced,
The Problems of the Mentally Ill, Non Compos Mentis, Medical Candidate for Invasive
Frontal Lobe Surgery and A Danger Both to Himself and to His Community. The sheer
number of MAD imitators is so out of control that there isn't enough paper to print
them all. Soon, publishers are making deals with Brazilian land barons to raze their rain
forests. Scientists estimate that it will take at least 200 years for Earth's ecosystem to
recover fully." (The Untold History of Mad: 1952-1960)
But seriously, MAD's satirical voice has not only influenced three generations of
comedians but also activists, journalists, and musicians. Roger Ebert credits the
magazine with teaching him how to be a movie critic. (Foreword to Mad About the
Movies, Mad Books). National Book Awards winner Joyce Carol Oates called it
"wonderfully inventive, irresistibly irreverent and intermittently ingenious." (GARNER,
Dwight; Collateral Damage; New York Times; July 17, 2007) As MAD boasts in its “Untold