Mad #233 (Albert Feldstein) - Pac-Man Issue - September 1982

With its Time magazine parody cover, Mad finally recognized the Japanese video game craze that began in 1980.  The Pac-Man characters spread throughout the issue gobbling up various pieces of text and graphics.  I counted 34 Pac-Men but I may have missed a few.  I did not count any from the Mort Drucker double-splash page of Chris Hart's video arcade.  The name Pac-Man was cleverly derived from the Japanese term, "pakku-pakku" meaning the sound that the mouth makes when opening and closing.

Mad writers Stan Hart and Lou Silverstone echoed the left-wing moonbat within me with their articles about right-wing politics and nuclear power plants.  Hart took the first big swing at President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) in the second year of his presidency with "Now Starring at the White House."  Former-actor Reagan was shown playing roles as Hamlet, Godfather, Don Quixote, Robin Hood, Peter Pan, Exorcist, Moses, Merlin, Ebenezer Scrooge, Simon Legree, Jekyll, Hyde and Alfred E. Neuman in a dozen parodies of his administration's policies.  Mort Drucker may be the only Mad artists who could have followed all of these changes without a flaw.  Silverstone sent the Sixty Minutes crew to interview some nuclear industry employees who all apparently recently escaped from Alice in Wonderland.  Jack Davis drew the Wonderland characters that he first drew for Mad in issue #18 (December 1954). [JAM 12/11/2010]

Look for Popeye in "A 21st Century Guide to American Wildlife" and "The Brawl Guy." 

I think I saw Mad Publisher Gaines on page 28 and Mad Senior Editor Meglin on page 44.

Departments:
Caught in the Acts - Ronald Reagan ... Now Starring in the White House
Don Martin - Last Year at the Freenville Marathon; Last Week at a Freenville Diner; Yesterday in Downtown Freenville
Acclaim Jumping - The Second Edition of Mad's Over-Rated Under-Rated Book
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Good Ol' Noise - Mad's Do-It-Yourself Country-Western Song
Berg's-Eye View - The Lighter Side
Future Flock - A 21st Century Guide to American Wildlife
Out to Launch - Missile Alert
Two Sides of the Con - Isn't It Suspicious ...?
Pranks-Giving - Mad's Updated Practical Joke Catalogue
Gone Fission - "Six Minutes" Looks at Nuclear Power
Err Apparent - What's Wrong with This Picture of a Video Game Center?
Claws And Effect - A Mad Look at Other Uses for Live Lobsters
Crashing Bore - The Brawl Guy

Fold-In - Jackass