Mad #457 (John Ficarra) - Teresa Burns Parkhurst Issue - September 2005

Teresa Burns Parkhurst is a professional cartoonist.  She is also an excellent humor writer.  She has a special, quirky, feminine sense of humor that sets her work apart from the male-dominated fare at Mad.  Her first article for the magazine was "The Jerry Springer Spaniel Show" in Mad #430.  In issue number 457, Ms. Burns Parkhurst displays her virtuosity first with "12 Ways to Make Divorce Easier on Kids" and later with "What's in Your Living Will?" as drawn by Tom Bunk.  It is too bad that Teresa was not allowed to draw the faces for the second article.  Divorce by itself is not so funny but wouldn't it be great if the children were given control of "behavior-modifying, electro-shock collars" around the necks of their custody parents.  As this is written, Teresa Burns Parkhurst has had 64 articles published.  I am sure that there are many more to come.

This issue also made much ado about video games ("Mad's 50 Worst Things About Video Games" and parts of "Go Fetch!").  I really do not care about any of that and have not played any of those games.  Many years ago, Pac-Man bored me after about five minutes.  After video poker (for money), my all-time favorite video game is Pong.  [JAM 8/28/2014]

Color Pages: 51 of 56 pages (91%)
Humorous Content: 45 of 56 pages (80%)

Departments:
Random Acts of Mindless - The Fundalini Pages  [Celebrity Cause-of-Death Betting Odds - Dave Chappelle]
Prose & Consoles - Mad's 50 Worst Things About Video Games
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Split Happens - 12 Ways to Make Divorce Easier on Kids
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Pets
Pen & Stink - The Strip Club
Just Say No to Thugs - Tell-Tale Signs that the Street Gang You're Joining Ain't That Tough
Instant Coma's Gonna Get You - What's in Your Living Will
Coming Detractions - Pre-Movie Screens We'd Like to See
Courtship of Fools - The Mad World of Dating
Angster's Paradise - Monroe and ... Summer School!
Queer Eye for the Hate Guy - More Neo-Nazi Makeovers We'd Like to See
License to Shill - Go Fetch!
The Wizard of Odd - Duke Bissell's Tales of Undisputed Interest
That's Amuse to Me - What Celebrities Laugh at

Fold-In - iPod