Frank Jacobs, Mad Magazine writer, has died | Hacker News Reader

Frank Jacobs, Mad Magazine writer, has died

nytimes.com

71 pointspseudolus18 comments

Mad Magazine had an enormous influence on me. I especially remember their parodies of advertising where some clever wordsmithing turned awful reviews into glowing endorsements (such things like "I think it's best we buried this in the desert and never spoke of it again!" being shortened to "I think it's best...!"). They were the first time it occurred to my young mind that grownups could tell a lie without quite telling a lie, and it stuck with me forever.

Everyone involved with Mad, thank you. You permanently changed the way I look at the world, in ways that've made my life a lot better.

>>> Mad Magazine had an enormous influence on me

Same. It's almost incredulous to me there was a time you could go down to the local news stand and purchase some thing like Mad. Subversion on a mass scale. Aimed at basically elementary school kids.

A single highlight from Frank Jacobs epic career: 1976 "Keep on Trekkin'", A Mad Star Trek Musical ;)

http://mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com/2008/11/1976-mad-sta...

If some "Enterprising" souls want to turn this into a real-life musical they would probably be guaranteed an interesting cross-segment of Mad Magazine fans and Star Trek fans.

A teacher took a look at my copy of Mad and lost her mind about “that filth” I was reading, and told my dad.

She didn’t know that one of my earliest memories was sitting on his lap while he read “Don Martin Drops 13 Stories” to me, with funny voices to make me laugh. Thanks, Dad. I passed the favor down to my own kids.

> It's almost incredulous to me there

Incredible, not incredulous. Unless you are intentionally reviving 17th century English.[1]

The Mad writers were literate and Frank Jacobs most of all.

[1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/incredulous

Is there an equivalent that teaches the same lessons to the younger generations?

If I knew, I would’ve been sneaking it to my kids all this time.

My favorite was a record single included with an issue that played a song but played with a differently every time (well up to eight times). Super Spectacular Day.

It's one of the best. A funny song with 8 different endings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mkHdnyr2RU

How did it work? Was it not linear?

This is done by having multiple concentric grooves in the record. When you drop your needle on, it'll play one of the grooves which makes it seem randomly selected. Another example is Monty Python's Matching Tie and Handkerchief, which has two grooves on one side to make a "3-sided" record.

Al Jaffee, longtime artist of MAD Magazine, retired last year at the age of 99!

Jacobs was 91. There’s something in the water at MAD.

I suspect the something was laughter.

Read enough MAD that I can actually visualize Jacobs' signature in my head.

god that Drucker drawing at the head of the article, so gorgeous.

Says by Jack Davis.

argh right, I said it right in the tweet I made with a closeup of that hand, I posted this after reading the article (and being stoned and distracted by the cats)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com