Mad #389 (Nick Meglin and John Ficarra) - Dumbest People 1999 Issue - January 2000

The "Dumbest" number five (of twenty) went on to become the POTUS as selected by the SCOTUS in spite of his "snow job" and Sandra Day O'Connor is surely the one that history will remember.  Ms. O'Connor deserves a prominent spot on the Dumbest 2000 for allowing Bush v. Gore to be decided against all states rights precedents when Florida had a bit of difficulty with its count.  Others on the 1999 list were almost as deserving (Jerry Falwell, Monica Lewinsky and Pamela Anderson) but the Mad editors missed boat when they rejected Britney Spears and Donald Trump.  Both continued to make dumbness throughout the decade.  Of the "Events and Things" on the 1999 list, the most memorable are the awful "Blair Witch" movie, the strange Star Wars alien (Jar-Jar) and the one that haunts this country every year: "Random Acts of Senseless Violence" (gun violence).  The best drawing in the 20 is "Post-Beanie Syndrome" Lisa Haney.  This was the second of only three drawings by Ms. Haney.  She is a free-lance artist who is better known for her contributions to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.  Mad #389 is one of the rare issues to contain two fold-ins by Al Jaffee.  The first is Mad's Dumbest number #19 (Pamela Anderson) and the second one is in the traditional inside-back-page location (Shaquille O'Neal). [JAM 11/7/2013]

Departments:
Guns 'N' Neurosis - The Supremos
Angster's Paradise - Monroe & ... Christmas
Tales From the Duck Side - Absurd Man of Alcatraz
The Mad 20 (Dumbest People, Events and Things of the Year)
Dead Man Working - The Sick Sense
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Parking
The Schmucks Stop Here - Melvin and Jenkins' Guide to the Millennium
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Oh Little Town of Washington - Mad's Political Christmas Carols
Born Oozers - It's a Pustule ... It's a Fever Blister ... It's a Canker Sore  [Fake Department]
Grieving Las Vegas - Mad's Celebrity Cause-of-Death Betting Odds  [Conan O'Brien]

Fold-In (s) - Shaquille O'Neal (and Pamela Anderson)