Mad #386 (Nick Meglin and John Ficarra) - Pokemon Issue - October 1999

I am not a fan of Japanese cartoons: Speed Racer, Hello Kitty, etc.  Pokemon was created in 1996 as a Game Boy video game.  The name comes from (wait for it) ... Pocket Monsters.   The video game begat a card game that begat the television show and the first movie in 1998.  Sadly, the television show and annual movies continue to this date.  I have the greatest amount of sympathy for Mr. Desmond Devlin who had to watch enough Pokemon shows to develop a parody.  My guess is that he watched two.  Jmaes Warhola (cover), Gary Hallgren ("Hokeycon") and Amanda Conner ("Mad-sterpiece Theater Presents - The Pokemon Playhouse") took the bullets for all of the Mad artist gang members.  I hope that their brains were not damaged by these assignments.  I will withhold comments regarding their artwork.

The article I did like in this issue is "Mad's Stuck-In-Traffic, Second-by-Second Timetable" by Dave Croatto and Bob Staake.  I was there almost every weekday during the 36 years of my working life.  Thanks to artist Staake, I will never be able to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation without thinking about his drawing of Counselor Troi.  [JAM 10/24/2013]

Departments:
From Fad to Worse Part I - Hokeycon
Auto Race Profiling - The Mad NASCAR Primer
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Hollywood & Vines - Tarzany
Trials And Trivializations - Settling the Microsoft Lawsuit on Judge Judy
Behind the Ate Ball - Livin' to Feed Al Roker
Angster's Paradise - Monroe & ... The Motorbike
From Fad to Worse Part II - Mad-sterpiece Theater Presents - The Pokemon Playhouse
A Man's Ohm is His Hassle - Mr. Movie Surround Sound Home Theater System Operating Instructions
Cars And Effect - Mad's Stuck-in-Traffic, Second-by-Second Timetable
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Phones
Berg's-Eye View - The Lighter Side
Turning Geria-Tricks - You Know Your Grandmother's a Hooker When  [Fake Department]
Yecch, Baby! - A Mad Peek Behind the Scenes at the Making of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Grieving Las Vegas - Mad's Celebrity Cause-of-Death Betting Odds

Fold-In - Teacher