Issue Details

Issue	#496
Published	December 2008
Cover Price	4.99 USD
Pages	52
Editing	John Ficarra
Notes	The tattoos on Alfred's arms are parts of the cover frames used for issues #24-30. ISSN 024 9319

Cover Details - "The Rise And Fall Of A Rap Star"

Characters	Alfred D. Neuman
Genre	humor
Pencils	Mark Fredrickson
Inks	Mark Fredrickson
Letters	typeset
Notes	The tattoos on Alfred's arms are parts of the cover frames used for issues #24-30. ISSN 024 9319

1 page Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe advertisement "Think You Know All The Moves?"

Synopsis	Ad for book from Prima Games.
Letters	typeset
Notes	On inside front cover.

1 page Table of Contents foreword, introduction, preface, afterword "Departments"

Characters	Alfred E. Neuman; Monroe's dad; George W. Bush
Pencils	various
Inks	various
Letters	typeset
Notes	Art is from various places in the magazine. The feature "Feel Or No Feel? Department" is phony and does not actually appear in the issue.

1 page Dragon Ball Z advertisement "Dragon Ball Z Remastered"

Synopsis	Ad for November 11th 2008 DVD releases from Funimation and Toei Animation.
Letters	typeset
Notes	Occupies bottom halves of first 2 pages of letters pages.

1 page Letters And Tomatoes Department letters page "Random Samplings of Reader Mail"

Characters	Alfred E. Neuman
Synopsis	Letters, photos and fan art.
Script	John Ficarra; Nathaniel Ritter; Zachary Weiner; Josh Kerdell; Billy Hornby; Kevin Lagowski; John Stroud
Pencils	Bill Bramhall; ?; ? (photo)
Inks	Bill Bramhall; ?; ? (photo)
Letters	typeset

Half page credits

Letters

typeset

1 page MAD books promo (ad from the publisher) "It's Wall-to-Wall Stupidity!"

Characters	Alfred E. Neuman; Bill Clinton
Synopsis	House ad for MAD Magazine Poster Book and MAD About Politics pop-up book.
Letters	typeset

3 page Random Acts of Mindless Dept.; Control-Alt-Deleted Scenes From The Seinfeld Microsoft Ads; Least E-Mailed Articles; When The Going Gets Duff; Before And After Grocery Products;The Fast 5; Sutton For Punishment; Melvin & Jenkins; Celebrity Cause-of-Death B story "The Fundalini Pages"

Characters	Bill Gates; Jerry Seinfeld; Melvin; Jenkins; Lil Wayne
Synopsis	Various short satires of pop culture.
Genre	humor
Script	various
Pencils	various
Inks	various
Letters	typeset
Notes	Contributors (roles unknown) include: Charles Akins; Greg Benson; Dick DeBartolo; Desmond Devlin; J. C. Duffy; Darren Johnson; Jeff Kruse; Kevin Pope; Tom Lambert; Tom Richmond; Ward Sutton; Rick Tulka

Half page Spanking Shakespeare advertisement "Have You Spanked Shakespeare Today?"

Synopsis	Ad for book by Jake Wizner from Random House.
Pencils	? (photo)
Inks	? (photo)
Colors	? (photo)
Letters	typeset
Notes	On 2nd page of Fundalini Pages.

Half page Spy Vs. Spy advertisement "Spy Vs. Spy Gear And Gifts"

Characters	Black Spy; White Spy
Synopsis	Ad for merchandise from the International Spy Museum.
Pencils	? (photo)
Inks	? (photo)
Colors	? (photo)
Letters	typeset
Notes	On 4th page of Fundalini Pages.

4 page Hip Flop Artist Dept. story "The Rise And Fall Of A Rap Star"

Characters	Carl "Yung Carl" Pringle; Carl's parents; Carl's grandmother; Lil Wayne; Bill O'Reilly; Ja Rule; Weird Al Yankovic; Tupac; JMJ; Big Pun; Notorious B.I.G.
Synopsis	Satire on meteoric rise and fall of rap and hip hop music stars.
Genre	satire
Script	Desmond Devlin
Pencils	Hermann Mejia
Inks	Hermann Mejia
Letters	typeset

2 page Ruminations With A View Dept. story "What The Deal Or No Deal Models Are Thinking"

Characters	Deal Or No Deal Models
Synopsis	Phony captions of what the models are thinking when standing on stage.
Script	Ross Garmil; Matthew A. Cohen
Pencils	? (photo)
Inks	? (photo)
Colors	? (photo)
Letters	typeset

2 page The Beast And The Brightest Dept.; MAD's Inspirational Animal Stories text story "The Horse That Knew The Way"

Characters	Cooter Smiff; Abner Smiff; Mr. Smiff; Zeus
Synopsis	Story of a Clydesdale racing horse and a family that duct-taped dead jockeys to him.
Genre	humor
Script	Brian McConnachie
Pencils	Leonardo Rodriguez
Inks	Leonardo Rodriguez
Letters	typeset
Notes	Fifth in a series of MAD's Inspirational Animal Stories.

4 page Serge-In General Dept. story "A MAD Look At Road Trips"

Synopsis	A look at some ridiculous things that could happen while traveling the country by car.
Genre	humor
Script	Sergio Aragones
Pencils	Sergio Aragones

4 page Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe advertisement "Which Side Will You Choose?"

Synopsis	Ad for game from Midway Amusement Games, LLC.
Letters	typeset
Notes	Title given is on page 2.

4 page Angster's Paradise Dept. story "Monroe and...The Natural Disaster"

Characters	Monroe; Monroe's mother; Monroe's father; Monroe's grandfather; Eugene
Synopsis	Monroe's family gets caught in a hurricane because they miss the evacuation notice, and their home is spared from destruction.
Genre	humor
Script	Anthony Barbieri
Pencils	Tom Fowler
Inks	Tom Fowler
Colors	Carl Peterson

1 page MAD books promo (ad from the publisher) "Millions of Trees Gave Their Lives For These Books"

Synopsis	Ad for the following MAD books: Spy Vs. Spy 2; MAD About Star Wars; The MAD War on Bush; The Completely MAD Don Martin.
Pencils	? (photo)
Inks	? (photo)
Colors	? (photo)
Letters	typeset

2 page Don't Phrase Me, Bro Dept. story "Comments You'll Never Hear No Matter How Long You Live"

Synopsis	Everyday quotes too honest for anyone to actually say.
Genre	humor
Script	Darren Johnson
Pencils	Tom Bunk
Inks	Tom Bunk
Letters	typeset

2 page Joke And Dagger Dept. story "Spy Vs. Spy"

Characters	Black Spy; White Spy
Synopsis	In the first cartoon, the Black Spy tricks the White Spy into a trap. In the second cartoon, the White Spy outsmarts the Black Spy with a fake rocket.
Genre	humor
Script	Peter Kuper
Pencils	Peter Kuper
Inks	Peter Kuper
Notes	Two cartoons.

2 page In Blog We Trust Dept. text story "Planet TAD!!!!!"

Characters	Tad; Mr. Davis; Zac Efron; Jodie Foster; Mrs. Winter; Aquaman; Sub-Mariner; Chuck; Beth
Synopsis	Tad joins the debate team and screws up his first (and last) debate by arguing for the opposing team.
Genre	humor
Script	Tim Carvell
Pencils	?; ? (photo)
Inks	?; ? (photo)
Colors	?; ? (photo)
Letters	typeset

3 page Berg's-Eye Askew Dept. story "The Darker Side of The Lighter Side"

Characters	Dave Berg; Roger Kaputnik
Synopsis	New gags written for Dave Berg's drawings.
Genre	humor
Script	Dave Berg (original); ? (revised)
Pencils	Dave Berg
Inks	Dave Berg
Letters	typeset
Notes	The new gag writer is not credited.
Reprinted	From Mad (EC, 1952 Series) #?

7 page And A Child Shall Read Them Dept. story "Using Kid's Books To Explain The Awful Bush Years"

Characters	George Bush; Brownie
Synopsis	Events of the Bush administration explained as parodies of children's books.
Genre	satire
Script	David Shayne
Pencils	Gary Hallgren
Inks	Gary Hallgren
Letters	typeset
Notes	Three books: The Talking Tree (by Smell Silverstein), The Little Engineer That Couldn't (by Snotty Griper), Failing Up (by Smell Silverstein). Several other books mentioned.

1 page Bleach; Deathnote; Dragon Ball Z advertisement "Go Big With Viz Media This Holiday Season"

Synopsis	Ad for manga books from Viz Media.
Pencils	? (photo)
Inks	? (photo)
Colors	? (photo)
Letters	typeset

1 page Mad Fold-In activity "What's Quickly Becoming The Hottest Destination For Many Teenagers?"

Synopsis	Answer is: maternity ward.
Genre	humor
Script	Al Jaffee (signed)
Pencils	Al Jaffee (signed)
Inks	Al Jaffee (signed)
Letters	typeset
Notes	Inside back cover.

Marginal Thinking Dept. filler "Drawn-Out Dramas"

Genre	gags
Script	Sergio Aragones
Pencils	Sergio Aragones
Inks	Sergio Aragones
Notes	Gags appear on 20 different pages.

1 page TNA Impact! advertisement "Wrestling So Real You Feel Pain"

Synopsis	Ad for game from Midway Studios.
Pencils	? (photo)
Inks	? (photo)
Colors	? (photo)
Letters	typeset
Notes	Back cover.