Mad #428 (Nick Meglin and John Ficarra) - Spank the Academy Issue - April 2003

Four writers (Greg Leitman, Barry Liebmann, David Shayne and Mike Snider) and five artists (Drew Friedman, Harry North, Rick Tulka, Jack Syracuse and Tom Richmond) combined to skewer 18 actors and nine movies in advance of the 2003 Oscars.  The Mad gang found all 28 of them to be lacking.  For the record, the real winners were Adrian Brody (ignored by Mad writers), Nicole Kidman (her " ... prosthetic nose made her look like a cross between Big Bird and Martin Short") and Chicago ("... which allowed insecure straight males to feel far less 'gay' for watching a musical.").  Also in this issue was a classic parody of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by Desmond Devlin with 22 museum-quality paintings by Hermann Mejia.  Also drawing hobbits in the issue were Dale Stephanos (front cover) and Richmond (Page 50).  [JAM 5/3/2014]

Color Pages: 31 of 56 pages (55%)
Humorous Content: 47 of 56 pages (84%)

Departments: 
Breaking a Nasty Hobbit - Bored of the Rings: The Two+ Hours
Hire Education - The Employing Guise
We'd Like to Spank the Academy - Mad Sizes Up the 2003 Oscars
Angster's Paradise - Monroe and ... Discrimination
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Video Games
Prints Unharming - Disposable Camera Wedding Photos That Didn't Make the Album
Friar in the Hole! - When Clergymen Get Stuck Down Wells  [fake department]
An Embarrassment of Richard's - The Slo-Man's Advanced Home Security System
Getting a Stat Scan - Other Medical "Surveys" the Public Never Heard About
Blind Man's Fluff - Mad's Not So Daring Outtakes from Daredevil
Hoop-Blah - Your Team May Not Be Final Four Material If
Lights, Camels, Action! - MTV Making the Video: Osama bin Laden

Fold-In - Low-Riders