Mad #434 (Nick Meglin and John Ficarra) - 52 Least Wanted Americans Issue - October 2003

After war mongers in the White House started a preemptive war against the sovereign country of Iraq in March 2003 based on faulty intelligence and/or blatant lies, it must have been a conflicted time for Mad editors and writers.  How can one find humor during these awful times?  It was certainly impossible for the editorial staff to ignore this giant elephant of a news story in the room.  Issue #434 began with a jab at the deck of cards featuring most-wanted Iraqis with "Mad's Deck of Least Wanted Americans" by two Mad writers and four Mad artists.  Rumsfeld, Cheney, George Tenet and George W. deserved their place in the deck as well as their cheerleading section that included Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and U.S. Senate enabler Hillary Clinton.  Tenet was the only one cited for failure to find those elusive "weapons of mass destruction".  Artist John Caldwell inked a really tacky joke ("An Iraqi Scene We'd Like to See") by writer Chris Allen that located the WMDs in the graves of Saddam Hussein's sons, Udai and Qusai.  Writer Desmond Devlin also tried to explain this war ("Using Kiddie TV to Explain the War on Terrorism") with the help of various cartoon characters.  I always wondered what happened to The Rugrats.  Finally, Al Jaffee expressed his displeasure with the Bush administration with his fold-in that showed a few patriotic Americans trying to find those elusive "hidden spies".  After the initial invasion, the long occupation of the country has begun.  It is interesting to search for the attempts at humor in Mad while the death tolls mount.  [JAM 5/24/2014]

Color Pages: 34 of 60 pages (57%)
Humorous Content: 49 of 60 pages (82%)

Departments:
An Embarrassment of Richard's - Chef Widget
52 Schtick-Up - Mad's Deck of Least Wanted Americans
Claiming Your Playstation in Life - When Hardcore Gamers Take Their Place in Society
Three-Bling Circus - Mad's All-Access Pass to the MTV Video Music Awards Part Two
Angster's Paradise - Monroe and ... Back to Skool
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Trying out for the Team
This Old Haunted House - More Mr. Fix-It Tackles Your Occult and Paranormal Home Repair Problems
Let the Games Be Gone - Without Sports
A Marriage Made in 7-11 - The Telltale Signs of a White Trash Wedding
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Dungeons And Dagwoods - Torture Techniques for Comic Strip Characters  [fake department]
Six Feet Blunder - An Iraqi Scene We'd Like to See
Adding Result to Injury - Self-Defeating Consequences in Modern American Life
Tot's Entertainment! - Using Kiddie TV to Explain the War on Terrorism
Postulation Explosion - Mad's Twisted Truisms, Axioms & Theories
A Ritter Runs Through It - 8 Simple Rules for Writing a Mad Spoof of a Dopey ABC-TV Sitcom

Fold-In - Crying Job Seeker