Mad #395 (Nick Meglin and John Ficarra) - Bush vs. Gore Multi-Cover Issue - July 2000

This was the fourth issue that was published with multiple covers.  See also Mads numbered 359, 371 and 383.  At the same time as Mad was wringing more cash from devoted collectors, it was also criticizing TV Guide (with tongue in cheek) for doing the same thing ("Upcoming TV Guide Multi-Covers" by Desmond Devlin).  Five Mad artists (Drew Friedman, Rick Tulka, Hermann Mejia, Keith Seidel and John Caldwell) produced possible covers for Devlin's clever idea.  The best of the five was by Mejia showing the progression of William Shatner's hairline including an awful toupee in the fourth panel.  Mejia also nailed Shatner in an ad parody ("hypeline.com") written by editors Joe Raiola and David Shayne).  In addition, the issue includes two appearances by editor Meglin as Director "Max Korn" in "A Mad Peek Behind the Scenes on the Set of Sports Night", and as a graduate's father in Dave Berg's "Lighter Side". 

This issue also contains a joke in bad taste like none I have ever seen in Mad.  One year after the Columbine massacre, Berg made a joke (page 35) about a boy with a machine gun in a classroom.  I fail to see the humor.  What was he thinking?  Where were the Mad editors?  Did they just publish anything he sent?  Thirteen years later (Mad #521) they would censor an Al Jaffee fold-in statement re gun control that was not nearly as bad as Berg's bad joke.  [JAM 12/15/2013]

Writer Mike Snider was completely wrong with his assessment of Hillary Clinton in "Mad's Celebrity Cause-of-Death Betting Odds".  She did not file for divorce.  She did not lose the Senate race.  And, there were no "incriminating Whitewater documents" to be found.  Nice try, Mike.  Not!

Departments:
Wild Wild Chest - Errant Bra-On-Bitch
For Every Fling There is a Season - Your Summer Camp Romance is Doomed If
There Auto Be a Law - Driver's License Penalty Points We'd Like to See
Angster's Paradise - Monroe & ... The Doggy
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Star's Dreck - Hypeline.com
Throw Another Dialogue on the Fire - A Mad Peek Behind the Scenes on the Set of
The Theory of Devolution - The 13 Levels of Fading Celebrity Hell
Tales From the Duck Side - Of Human Bandage
Net-Works of Fiction - Novelizations of TV Shows as Written by Famous Authors
The Schmucks Stop Here - Melvin & Jenkins' Guide to Politics
The Gore of the Crowd - Early One Morning in Midtown Manhattan
Berg's-Eye View - The Lighter Side
The Tickle Finger of Fate - A Peek Inside the Dumpster Behind the Proctology Clinic  [Fake Department]
Ploys "R" Us - Upcoming TV Guide Multi-Covers
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Photography
Throw Another Catalog on the Fire - Sports Suction
Grieving Las Vegas - Mad's Celebrity Cause-of-Death Betting Odds  [Hillary Rodham Clinton]

Fold-In - Driving While Black