Many of the magazine's visual elements are sheer whimsy, and frequently appear in the artwork without context or explanation. Among these are a potted avocado plant named (rumored to be based on art director John Putnam's marijuana plant); a domed trashcan wearing an overcoat, the Mad (which more closely resembles an elongated hot air balloon); and an emaciated long-beaked creature who went unidentified for decades before being dubbed "Flip the Bird." In late 1964, Mad was tricked into purchasing the "rights" to an optical illusion in the public domain, featuring a sort of three-pronged tuning fork whose appearance defies physics.

The magazine dubbed it the Mad after the six rightmost letter keys on a keyboard in reverse order, not realizing that the existing image was already known to engineers and usually called a .
Mad cartoonists have regularly drawn caricatures of themselves, other contributors and the editors into the articles, most famously the character Roger Kaputnik in "The Lighter Side Of..

.", who was drawn to resemble Dave Berg. Al Jaffee sometimes incorporated a self-caricature into his signature.

The magazine's photo spreads have typically featured the same Mad staffers. Originally, the magazine tried hiring models for its photo shoots, but found that many were unwilling to make the ridiculous faces the magazine wanted. When the staff tried to prompt the reluctant outsiders, they soon found that they were better-suited for shameless posing (and more cost-effective) than the professionals were.

More recently, the magazine has made periodic references to "the monkey juice," generally in the context of overimbibing with same. The editors continue to punctuate letter column responses with the breezy interjection "Fa fa fa!" There have also been a number of recurring semi-characters within the editorial pages, such as Hans Brickface, who values items sent in by readers, and Godfrey, who was supposedly the magazine's head intern.

The mysterious name "Max Korn" has popped up for years; reader requests to clarify Korn's true identity have been greeted with increasingly outlandish explanations.
Mad has provided an ongoing showcase for many of the best satirical writers and artists. The magazine has fostered an unusual group loyalty.

Even though several of the contributors earn far more than their Mad pay in such fields as television and advertising, they have steadily continued to provide material for the publication. Among the notable artists were the aforementioned Davis, Elder and Wood, as well as , and . Writers such as , , , , and appeared regularly in the magazine's pages.

In several cases, only infirmity or death has ended a contributor's run at Mad.
Within the industry, Mad was known for the uncommonly prompt manner in which its contributors were paid. Publisher Gaines would typically write a personal bank check and give it to the artist upon receipt of their finished product.

Wally Wood said, "I got spoiled...

Other publishers don't do that. I started to get upset if I had to wait a whole week for my check."
Another lure for contributors was the annual "Mad Trip," an all-expenses-paid tradition which began in 1960.

The editorial staff was automatically invited, along with those freelancers who had qualified for an invitation by selling a set amount of articles of pages during the previous year. (Gaines was strict about enforcing this quota, and one year, longtime writer and frequent traveller Arnie Kogen was bumped off the list. Later that year, Gaines' mother died, and Kogen was asked if he would be attending the funeral.

"I can't," said Kogen, "I don't have enough pages.") Over the years, the Mad crew traveled to such locales as Paris, Kenya, Leningrad, Hong Kong, Monte Carlo, Athens, London, Amsterdam, Tahiti, Morocco, Venice, Greece, Germany, and more.
Although Mad was an exclusively freelance publication, it achieved a remarkable stability, with numerous contributors remaining prominent for decades.

Critics of the magazine felt that this lack of turnover eventually led to a formulaic sameness, although there is little agreement on when the magazine peaked or plunged. It appears to be largely a function of when the reader first encountered Mad. Like or , proclaiming the precise moment that kicked off the irreversible decline has long been sport.

Mad poked fun at this dynamic in its "Untold History of Mad Magazine," a self-referential faux history in the 400th issue. According to the Untold History:

The second issue of Mad goes on sale on December 9, 1952. On December 11, the first-ever letter complaining that Mad "just isn't as funny and original like it used to be" arrives.

Among the most frequently-cited "downward turning points" are creator/editor Harvey Kurtzman's departure in 1957, the magazine's mainstream success and/or adoption of recurring features starting in the early 1960s, the magazine's absorption into a more corporate structure in 1968 (or the mid-1990s), founder Gaines' death in 1992, the magazine's publicized "revamp" in 1997, or the arrival of paid advertising in 2001. Mad has been criticized for its overreliance on a core group of aging regulars throughout the 1970s and 1980s and then criticized again for an alleged downturn as those same creators began to leave, die, retire or contribute less frequently.
It has been proposed that Mad is more susceptible to this criticism than many media because a sizeable percentage of its readership turns over regularly.

Also, Mad focuses greatly on current events and a changing popular culture. A reader born in 1980, who takes to Mad in 1995, might look back ten years from 2005 and, comparing an issue from each year, decide that the magazine isn't as good as it once was. However, that same reader might very well fail to appreciate the humor or references in a 1985 or 1975 issue, even though the magazine would logically have then been superior to its later "slump.

"
Mad's sales peak was in the 1970s, but its critical heyday is in the eyes of its beholders. The magazine's art directorm , has suggested that historically, Mad was at its best "whenever you first started reading it."
The loudest among those who insist the magazine is no longer funny are typically supporters of , who had the good critical fortune to leave Mad after just 28 issues, before his own formulaic tendencies became oppressive.

This also meant Kurtzman suffered the bad financial timing of departing before the magazine became a runaway success. However, just how much of that success was due to the original Kurtzman template he left for his successor, and how much can be credited to the system and the depth of the post-Kurtzman talent pool, can be argued without result.
Judging from Kurtzman's final two-plus years at EC, during which Mad appeared erratically (ten issues appeared in 1954, followed by eight issues in 1955 and four issues in 1956), it seems clear that he was ill-suited to the job of producing the magazine on a regular schedule.

It seems equally clear that Feldstein's abilities were more workmanlike and reliable than the inimitable genius of Kurtzman. Kurtzman and returned to Mad for a short time in the mid-1980s as an illustrating team.
Many of the magazine's mainstays began slowing, retiring or dying in the 1980s; though the magazine had always been open to new talent in theory, the influx increased from this stage onwards.

Newer contributors include , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and .
In recent years, Mad has continued to receive complaints from fans and foes alike, sometimes over its perceived failings or because of controversial content, but generally over its decision to accept advertising. These accusers sometimes invoke the late publisher , asserting that the late publisher would "turn over in his grave" if he knew of the magazine's sellout.

The editors have a ready answer, pointing out that such protests are completely invalid because Gaines was cremated.
Mad has stepped gingerly into other media. Three albums of novelty songs were released in the early 1960s.

An example of this material was a song titled "It's a Gas" from the album Fink Along With Mad which punctuated an instrumental track with belches. featured this gaseous performance on his radio show in in the early 1970s. Mad also included some of these musical tracks as plastic-laminated cardboard inserts with their reprinted "Mad Specials.

"
A successful production, "The Mad Show," was staged in 1966, featuring sketches written by Mad personnel (as well as an uncredited assist by ). An early 1970s television pilot was not picked up.
In 1979, a very successful board game was released.

was an absurdist version of in which the first player to lose all their money and go bankrupt was the winner. Profusely illustrated with artwork by the magazine's contributors, the game included a $1,329,063-dollar bill which could not be won unless one's name was "Alfred E. Neuman".

It also featured a deck of cards (called "Card cards") with bizarre instructions, such as "If you can jump up and stay airborne for 37 seconds, you can lose $5,000. If not, jump up and lose $500." In 1980 a second game was released: the by .

In it, the player who first loses all their cards is declared the winner. The game is fairly similar to by .
Also in 1980, following the success of the -backed , Mad lent its name to a similar risque comedy film, .

It was such a commercial debacle and critical failure that Mad successfully arranged for all references to the magazine (including a cameo by Alfred E. Neuman) to be removed from future TV and video releases of the film. Mad also devoted two pages to an attack on Up the Academy; the spoof's ending collapsed into a series of interoffice memos between the writer, artist, editor and publisher, all bewailing the fact that they'd been forced to satirize such a terrible film.

A TV show was introduced in 1995 based on the magazine: , which aired comedy segments in a fashion similar to and . However, there is no editorial connection between the sketch comedy series and the magazine. Don Martin's cartoon characters were animated.

The characters from "Spy vs. Spy" were also animated on MADtv and, more recently, in TV ads for Mountain Dew soda.
In 1999, / released Totally Mad, a 95/98 compatible CD-ROM set collecting the magazine's content from #1 through #376 (December, 1998), plus over 100 special issues, thus becoming one of only a few mass magazines (such as and ) to have attempted this type of comprehensive archival release in digital form.

The seven discs of Totally Mad were divided chronologically, from "The Earliest Years: 1952-1960" and "The Early Years, but Not the Earliest: 1961-1968" through "The RELATIVELY Late, but not as Late as, the Latest Years: 1988-1994" and "The Latest Years: 1995-1998." The product's "Totally" claim was misleading, since it omitted a handful of articles due to problems clearing the rights on some book excerpts and text taken from recordings, such as 's "What It Was, Was Football." Some of this deleted material can be viewed at .

The set is now out of print and is no longer supported by either Broderbund or The Learning Company. In 2006, the DVD-ROM Absolutely Mad was released by digital publisher , effectively updating the original Totally Mad content through 2005. A single seven-gigabyte disc, it comprises over 600 issues including the magazine's specials; the newer collection is also missing the disputed material deleted from Totally Mad.

It differs from the earlier release in that all the printed content is in format which can be read on any platform for which a PDF viewer is available, whereas Totally Mad had used a special viewer program that was only compatible with .
Mad frequently repackaged its material in a long series of "Super Special"-format magazines and paperbacks, and William M. Gaines made a special effort to keep the entire line of paperbacks in print at all times.

However, other Mad-related merchandise was once scarce. During the Gaines years, the publisher had an aversion to milking his fanbase and expressed the fear that substandard Mad products would offend them. He was known to personally issue refunds to anyone who wrote to the magazine with a complaint.

Among the few outside Mad items available in its first 40 years were cufflinks, a T-shirt designed like a straitjacket, complete with lock, and a small ceramic Alfred E. Neuman bust. After Gaines' death came an overt absorption into the Time-Warner publishing umbrella, with the result that Mad merchandise began to appear more frequently.

Items were displayed in the Warner Bros. Studio Stores, and in 1994, The Mad Style Guide was created for licensing use.
One steady form of revenue has come from foreign editions of the magazine.

Mad has been published in local versions in many countries, beginning with the in , and in . Each new market receives access to the publication's back catalog of articles and is also encouraged to produce its own localized material in the Mad vein. However, the sensibility of the American Mad has not always translated to other cultures, and many of the foreign editions have had short lives or interrupted publications.

The Swedish, Danish, Italian and Mexican Mads were each published on three separate occasions; Norway has had four runs cancelled. United Kingdom (35 years), Brazil (33 years and counting), and the Netherlands (32 years) have produced the longest uninterrupted Mad variants.
Some of the foreign editions have spoofed material that is completely unfamiliar to American audiences, or which is not in keeping with Mad's general avoidance of obscenity (for an example of both, see the Swedish Mad parody of ).

Mad has had many imitators through the years. The three most durable of these were , , and . Most others were short-lived exercises, such as Zany (4 issues), Frantic (2 issues), Ratfink (1 issue), Frenzy (6 issues), two separate publications titled Nuts!

(5 and 2 issues, respectively), Get Lost (3 issues), Whack (3 issues), Wild (5 issues), Madhouse (8 issues), Riot (6 issues), Flip (2 issues), Eh! (7 issues), and Thimk (6 issues). Many of these titles appeared in the mid-to-late 1950s, when Mad's success was in its first flower, but as the decades went by, more knockoffs surfaced and vanished, with titles such as Wild, Blast, Grin, and Gag!

. Most of these productions aped the format of Mad right down to choosing a synonym for the word Mad as their title. Many featured a cover mascot along the lines of .

Even joined the parade with a sister humor magazine, Panic, produced by future Mad editor Al Feldstein.
In 1967, produced the first of 13 issues of , which parodied their own superhero titles, and owed its inspiration and format to the original "Mad" comic books of a decade earlier. From 1973–1976, published which featured Mad stalwart and frequent cover art by , but was less slavish in its Mad mimickry, relying more on one-page gags and horror-based comedy.

There was even a imitation of Mad – , a version that followed the same format, except that the TV, film and social parodies were vehicles towards conveying Bible-based messages.
But as it carries on past its 50th year, Mad has outlasted them all, save Cracked, which has appeared infrequently for years but still bobs in and out of production.
Other U.

S. humor magazines of note include former Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman's , and , as well as the and . However, each of these had its own distinct editorial approach and thus cannot be considered direct ripoffs of Mad in the same way as the others mentioned here.

Of all the competition, only the National Lampoon ever threatened its hegemony as America's top humor magazine, in the early-to-mid-1970s. However, this was also the period of Mad's greatest sales figures. Both magazines peaked in sales at the same time.

The Lampoon topped one million sales once, for a single issue in 1974. Mad crossed the two-million mark with an average 1973 circulation of 2,059,236, then improved to 2,132,655 in 1974.
Gaines reportedly kept a voodoo doll in his business office, into which he would stick pins labelled with each imitation of his magazine.

He would only remove a pin when the copycat had ceased publishing. At the time of Gaines' death in , only the pin for Cracked remained.
In 2005, the magazine published the first issue of Mad Kids, a spinoff publication aimed at a younger demographic.

Reminiscent of 's newsstand titles, it emphasizes current kids' entertainment (i.e. , , ), albeit with an impudent voice.

Mad Kids contains much reprinted Mad material that is in keeping with a grade schooler's mentality and interests. The quarterly magazine also includes newly-commissioned articles and cartoons, as well as puzzles, bonus inserts, a calendar, and the other activity-related content that is common to kids' magazines.
The editorial staff, notably , , and , also have dozens of articles under their own bylines, as well as substantial creative input into many, many others.

Mad is known for the stability and longevity of its talent roster, with several creators enjoying 30-, 40-, and even 50-year careers in the magazine's pages. However, about 600 people have received bylines in at least one issue. Among the contributors to be credited but a single time are , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and , who remains the only President credited with writing a Mad article.

Contributing just twice are such luminaries as , , , , and . Mr. da Vinci's check is still waiting in the Mad offices for him to pick it up.

(3 bylines), (11), (12), and (4) are among those to have appeared slightly more frequently. The magazine more commonly used outside "name" talent in its earliest years, often by illustrating their preexisting material, before amassing its own staff of regulars. More recently, Mad has run occasional guest articles in which celebrities from show business or comic books have participated.

Introductions to the paperback reprints have been written by such notables as , , and, again, .
Most magazines include ongoing, internal segments or domains, and Mad is no exception. An issue of Mad includes these "cluster" departments.

The first page of each issue lists all the articles to follow, including their "Department" headings, which are . For example, a parody of a pizza chain's menu appeared under "The Passion of the Crust Department," while an article entitled "William Shakespeare, Sports Commentator" was part of the "The Play-By-Play's the Thing Department." Long-running features had equally long-running headers: Spy vs.

Spy is filed under the "Joke and Dagger Department," 's "Lighter Side of...

" always ran within the "Berg's Eye View Department," and many of ' articles come under the "Frank on a Roll Department." Most of the magazine's other recurring features have had their own continuing "Department."
For several years, the Table of Contents has listed one article which does not actually exist, sometimes poking fun at some of the more formulaic articles the magazine has published.

Some of these imaginary listings have included "Santa Claus, Porn Star"; "When Goats Go Bad"; "What if Cap'n Crunch Was Brought Before a Military Tribunal?"; "If the Amish Used Zombies to Do Their Chores"; "The MAD Urinary Tract Infection Primer"; "Dick Cheney Electrocardiograms We'd Like to See"; "If Bobby Knight Coached the Special Olympics"; "Only the Assistant Undersecretary of Transportation Would Possibly Believe..

."; and "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions During the Bombing of Belgrade."
Each Table of Contents also includes a pithy quote or aphorism attributed to .

With a handful of exceptions, this is the only time the character ever "speaks."
An esoteric version of the standard "Letters to the Editors," this commonly runs three pages and includes correspondence from readers, reader drawings or craft projects, celebrity photos, references to Mad in other media, and so forth. All letters are typically answered in a snide and insulting manner.

There are also a few (very small) sub-departments that sometimes live within its pages:

"Antiques Freakshow with Hans Brickface" - in which readers send in photographs of their bizarre household items to have their values appraised by the slightly psychotic Hans.

"MAD Mumblings" - absurd one-sentence observations, typically , posted online by the readers.

"The Make a Dumb Wish Foundation" - in which the magazine promises to make readers' stupid requests come true, but usually doesn't (a parody of the ).

"The Nifty Fifty" "Mad Celebrity Snaps" - a reader who sends in a photo of a famous person posing with a copy of Mad gets a free three-year subscription (if the celebrity is touching the issue). Once a year, Mad puts out a kind of hit list called The Nifty Fifty: fifty famous people they'd like to see in Celebrity Snaps. The magazine was delighted to publish a photo of unwittingly holding the "PROOFREADER WANTED" cover of Mad #355, on which the magazine's logo appeared as "MAAD.

" During a photo op in 1992, Quayle incorrectly "corrected" an elementary school student about how to spell the word "potato."

"The Two-Question Interview" - celebrity interviews which are essentially over before they begin, accomplishing nothing.

Beginning with its edition, Mad has led off its issues with this catch-all section of various bits, which are far shorter or smaller than normal Mad articles.

They often appear as many as 3 to 6 per page. Some of these pieces are produced in-house; others are the work of freelancers. All contributors for each month are credited en masse, as "Friends of Fundalini.

" For this reason, it is not always apparent which contributor is responsible for which item, particularly the writers. Most Fundalini features are one shot gags that never appear again, some have appeared multiple times, and a few have been regular features. Among the recurring elements in the Fundalini section are:

The Cover We DIDN'T Use, purporting to be the "second choice" for that issue's front cover;

The Fast 5, which is essentially half of a Letterman " ";

Foto News, in which topical photographs are given word balloons (similar to , though without that genre's narrative storyline aspect);

The Godfrey Report, a small 3x 3 grid showing three classes of objects and their current cultural status, which is arbitrarily rated as "In," "Five Minutes Ago," or "Out.

" (e.g. Stoolies: In, Squealers: Five Minutes Ago, Turncoats: Out);

Graphic Novel Review, written by , which analyzes fictional comic collections and graphic novels such as "The Anally Complete " or " in Fallujah";

The Kitchen Sink, a lengthy barrage of spoof titles for topics such as "Reality Shows Currently Under Development" or "Proposed Sequel Titles";

Magazine Corrections You May Have Missed, providing editorial commentary on other publications;

Monkeys Are Always Funny, by , showing famous news photographs with the image of a monkey Photoshopped in (e.

g. the raid on 's closet, or the explosion);

The NFL's Ref Report, written by , which illustrates a topic by using generic drawings of a referee's hand signals;

Pull My Cheney!, a one-panel gag by cartoonist ;

The President's Dog, a short comic strip by , in which George W.

Bush converses with Barney the Terrier;

The Puzzle Nook, a multiple choice fill-in-the-blank phrase;

Saddam Sez, which reused the same photograph of speaking at his 2006 trial. A random word balloon was added, making a random reference having nothing to do with Hussein or Iraq. The March 2007 issue of Mad contained a statement that "Due to circumstances beyond our control" the Saddam Sez feature would be put on "indefinite hiatus.

"

Vey to Go!, a one-panel gag by cartoonist .

A Wikipedia parody, first called "Wonkypedia," then "Wakipedia.

" Each entry features a convoluted assortment of unrelated facts, in the style of a vandalized Wikipedia page (e.g. the "article" on discusses 's surprise attack and how it led to the bombing of ).

is now an actual website.

Celebrity Cause of Death Betting Odds, written by , which ranks the hypothetical future demises of the famous by decreasing likelihood;

Melvin and Jenkins' Guide to..

., drawn by and written by , in which the upstanding Jenkins and the derelict Melvin illustrate good and improper behavior in various situations. However, it now consists of only two panels, instead of the two or three page article it was before.

Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions, written and drawn by , it now consists of one panel instead of three although it still shows three replies to each question.

An assortment of short gag comic strips drawn by various artists, it has appeared roughly every other month since its debut in the July 2005 issue. It typically runs 3 pages, and is a combination of one-shot gags and recurring features.

Among the repeated strip characters are an omnipotent superhero called Fantabulaman; a hero robot named Santon; Rob, the Evil Backstabbing Robot; and Father O'Flannity, a priest who conducts his business in a hot tub.
Further blurring the line between advertising and content was Go Fetch!, a list of newly-released media products such as videogames, DVD releases, music albums and books.

Each product listing had The Hype and The Snipe, in which its good and bad qualities were expounded. Each Go Fetch! also promoted "the Must Have", an idiosyncratic (but real) product which no Mad reader should be without, such as cold galvanizing spray, or a pneumatic jackhammer.

Go Fetch! was an odd cross between the wiseass Mad mentality and the sort of product ratings generally associated with . It was an overtly commercial feature, with some one-liners thrown in the apparent hope of making it more palatable.

As such, Go Fetch! was heavily criticized by many of the magazine's loyal readers as a betrayal of the magazine's original satiric mission.
In its year of existence, Go Fetch!

appeared in eight of twelve issues. But the feature has not appeared since the June 2006 issue and appears to be retired.
Since , in every January issue, Mad has commemorated the "20 Dumbest People, Events and Things" of the year.

These emphasize the visual motif above all else, parodying such things as movie posters, famous paintings, or fake magazine covers, though one or two text-heavier takeoffs are usually sprinkled into each year's assortment. The feature is reminiscent of the defunct 's "Spy 100" list, which purported to catalogue "Our Annual Census of the 100 Most Annoying, Alarming, and Appalling People, Places and Things."
Though the "20 Dumbest People, Events and Things" are numbered 1-20, the "rankings" appear to be essentially random.

The "20th dumbest" slot of 2001 was awarded to Mad itself for its "slide down the slippery slope of greedy commercialism" in finally permitting advertising in its pages.
Keeping in mind the indiscriminate positioning, these were the "#1" selections for the various years:

1998: "Starr Wars," a movie poster parody of the partisan investigation, depicting Starr as , and holding a cigar instead of a light saber;

1999: "Y2K Panic," a chaotic cartoon showing a crashing airplane displacing the New Year's Ball, sending it careening into a terror-stricken crowd;

2000: A rewritten Presidential oath of office. The issue went to press one week after the disputed ; the editors had thought they could plug in the winner, but were obliged to publish two versions of the image, one with being sworn in, the other depicting .

2001: "A.I. Asinine Ideology," a movie poster parody of the film "A.

I." highlighting 's placing blame on the on gays, feminists, abortionists and the ;

2002: "Martha Stewart Lying," a magazine spoof of 's insider trading scandal;

2003: "Term Eliminator," a movie poster parody of the third " " film mocking 's victory in the California recall election;

2004: "Donny Rumsfeld and the Prisoners of Abu Ghraib," a book cover in the style of the third jacket, .

2005: "Where's W?

", a book parody in the style of the " " series. The cover shows a tableau of the crowded, flooded streets of in the aftermath of , with completely impossible to find.

2006: "The Iraqi Quagmire Chess Set," in the style of a collectable.

Literal chess pieces were sculpted and photographed, depicting such figures as , , and .

The magazine has been involved in various legal actions over the decades, but none was bigger than , a case which was eventually brought before the . In 1961, a group of music publishers representing such songwriters as , and filed a $25 million lawsuit against Mad for copyright infringement following "Sing Along With Mad", a collection of parody lyrics "sung to the tune of" many popular songs.

The publishing group hoped to establish a legal precedent that only a song's composers retained the right to parody that same song. The U.S.

District Court ruled largely in favor of Mad in 1963, affirming its right to print 23 of the 25 song parodies under dispute. An exception was found in the cases of two parodies, "Always" (sung to the tune of "Always"), and "There's No Business Like No Business" (sung to the tune of "There's No Business Like Show Business"). Relying on the same verbal hooks ("always" and "business"), these were found to be overly similar to the originals.

The music publishers appealed the ruling. But the U.S.

Court of Appeals not only upheld the pro-Mad decision, it stripped the publishers of their limited victory regarding the two songs. The publishers again appealed, but the Supreme Court refused to hear it, thus allowing the decision to stand.
Within a few years of their court victory, Mad would return to "There's No Business Like Show Business" with a song parody titled "There're No Stories Like Poe Stories.

" It included the bridge, "If you like a tale that is appalling / One that will make you murmur, shriek and cry / One that has strange voices calling / And bodies falling / Then Poe's your guy...

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