Mad #417 (Nick Meglin and John Ficarra) - Britney & Justin Issue - May 2002

Stop the presses!  Two pop stars are dating.  Mad editors decided to take another stab at that teenage-popstar-groupie market.  However, those people are really not potential Mad readers.  Hermann Mejia provided some great drawings for "Britney Spears' & Justin Timberlake's Family Photo Album."  But seriously, who really cares if the triplets take their act to Super Bowl XLIII?  Two movie parodies: "A Booty-full Mind" and "The Royal Paininthebums" could not save this one.  Tom Richmond's caricatures of the Owens brothers et al. were the best in an otherwise mediocre issue.  TNN jumped the gun with their "50th Anniversary" message to Mad on page 5. [JAM 3/22/2014]

Color Pages: 37 of 56 pages (66%)
Humorous Content: 47 of 56 pages (84%)

Departments:
All Bidding Aside - Mad's Ecchbay Item of the Month
Crowe Figure - A Booty-full Mind
Snide And Prejudice - Unconscious Racists
Take Me Out of the Ball Game - 10 Once Loyal Baseball Fans
Grieving Las Vegas - Mad's Celebrity Cause-of-Death Betting Odds  [James Lipton]
Poem Schooling - Haiku Study Guides
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Taxis
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Berg's-Eye View - The Lighter Side
Fourscore And 7 & 5/8 Ago - What If Lincoln Wore a Fez?  [fake department]
Parlaying It on the Line - Mad's Handicapping Guide to the Kentucky Derby Freak Show
Kin Sync - Britney Spears' & Justin Timberlake's Family Photo Album
The Dreck Is in the Mail - Mad's Credit Card Bill Return Envelope
Angster's Paradise - Monroe and ... Babysitting Part II
Holy Jokes! - Duck Droppings: The Bible
The Dysfunctional Family Circus - The Royal Paininthebums

Fold-In - Cigar Smoker