MAD magazine to stop publishing new content after 67 years

MAD magazine is coming off newsstands after a 67-year run.

The famed satirical magazine featuring the freckled face of Alfred E. Neuman will stop publishing new material outside of its end-of-year specials, owner DC said in an email.

In a few weeks, the bimonthly publication will only feature vintage MAD content and be sold at comic book stores. The magazines will still be mailed to subscribers, and DC will continue to publish MAD books and special collections.

“Working at MAD was a childhood dream come true. MAD is an institution with such a rich history,” former editor Allie Goertz wrote on Twitter. “It informed just about every comedian and writer I (and probably you) look up to.”

It was one of the last satirical rags left in print. Spy, a monthly founded and edited by Graydon Carter and Kurt Anderson, closed in 1998. The Onion stopped printing in 2013, though it continues to entertain online and on social media.

“I am profoundly sad to hear that after 67 years, MAD Magazine is ceasing publication. I can’t begin to describe the impact it had on me as a young kid — it’s pretty much the reason I turned out weird,” tweeted comedian “Weird Al” Yankovic, who served as MAD’s first guest editor in 2015. “Goodbye to one of the all-time greatest American institutions.”

President Trump unfavorably compared Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg to geeky, gap-toothed Neuman in a May interview with Politico. In perhaps a sign of the magazine’s fading relevance, the 37-year-old mayor said he had no idea what Trump was talking about.

“I’ll be honest, I had to Google that,” he said. “I guess it’s just a generational thing. I didn’t get the reference.”

MAD magazine tweeted in response: “Who’s Pete Buttigieg? Must be a generational thing.”

Greifeld writes for Bloomberg