Mad #474 (John Ficarra) - Foolastic Book Club Issue - February 2007

Britney, what is wrong with you?  Mad artist Mark Fredrickson reproduced an unfortunate photo of Ms. Spears with a slight alteration.  I imagine that the Britney fans who bought this issue were quite disappointed when they discovered that their fave was not even mentioned in the 48 pages that followed the gotcha cover.

Mad writer and associate editor Dave Croatto made this a special issue with his four-page parody of Scholastic Book Club ("Foolastic Book Club") illustrated by Scott Bricher and Gary Hallgren.  With over 60 book titles, the ad parody could easily be mistaken for the real thing until you read the fine print.  Book club members are often allowed to "pay more" than the cover price for popular books.  The Foolastic editor promises "most pages are numbered!", "great for burning!", "expensive!", "perfect for nerds!" and of course "all sales final!"  Be sure to read the "Order Form" that does not list any of the books in the catalog.

It should be noted that this issue included only three pages of outside advertisements.  Sorry, Britney.   [JAM 10/28/2014]

Departments:
Random Acts of Mindless - The Fundalini Pages
Red Man Walking - Gap Celebrity Ads You May Have Missed
Rebels Without a Clause - War Cliches: Completing the Sentences
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at The Amazing Race
The Beast and the Brightest - Mad's Inspirational Animal Stories
The Minds Is a Terrible Thing to Waste - The Multifaceted Upside of Having a Multiple Personality Disorder in School
The Heat Shall Inherit the Earth - Other Inconvenient Truths About Global Warming That Al Gore Didn't Mention
The Timing of the Shrewd - Other Rules Inspired by the 5-Second Rule
Angster's Paradise - Monroe & ... The School Dance
Tyrannosaurus Hex - What if Dinosaurs Dabbled in Voodoo  [fake department]
Faking Amends - Mad's All-Inclusive, Do-It-Yourself Public Apology
Soda Popped - Practical Uses for the Diet Coke/Mentos Formula
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Pen And Stink - The Mad Strip Club
Take Me to Your Reader - The Foolastic Book Club

Fold-In - Al Jaffee