Mad #526 (John Ficarra) - LEGO Issue - April 2014

The LEGO Movie grossed $144 million in its first two weeks on screen and will easily be the highest grossing movie of February 2014.  With Lego Alfred on its cover, the Mad editorial staff scored a timely sales image.  I have not seen the movie but I am sure that it is ripe for a Mad-style movie parody.  But alas, no such parody could be found.  In addition to the Mark Fredrickson cover drawing: Jay Rath and Chris Houghton offered the "Highs and Lows in the Life of the Lego Brick" (plastic surgery rumors) on one-third of a Fundalini page; Mike Morse and Scott Bricher produced the two-page "Why the LEGO Man Was Made for Hollywood" (he's mostly plastic); and, Scott Maiko and Hermann Mejia skillfully created the four-page "Tips and Cheats for Obscure LEGO Video Games" (make Winston buy some cat food).  None of these had anything to do with that blockbuster movie.  My guess is that these articles were written in the dark before any preview of The LEGO Movie was made available.  But still, it was a good editorial guess.  Instead of the great "BEGO", "PEGO" or "VEGO" movie parody, we get another batch of Hunger Games jokes ("The Hunger Pains: Getting Tired") with a really terrific double-splash-page by Tom Richmond.  The better article in the issue is "American GIRLS" by Maiko with four amazing sculptures by Kira Shaimanova.  Those four dolls will become the ultimate Mad collectibles unless the action-toy industry grabs them for mass production.  [JAM 2/19/2014]

Departments:
Random Acts of Mindless - The Fundalini Pages  [Celebrity Cause-of-Death Odds: Chris Matthews]
More Than One Way to Skin a Katniss - The Hunger Pains: Getting Tired
Rotten to the Encore - The Mad Vault
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Lights, Camera, Action Figure - Why the LEGO Man Was Made for Hollywood
In Blog We Trust - Planet Tad!!!!!
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Gravity
The Apes of Math - When Primates Learn Calculus [fake department]
A Portion Clinic - Mad's Guide to Proper All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Etiquette
Having a Bad Ray - Warning Signs of a Crappy Tanning Salon
Reading Disorders - Books for the Growing U.S. Obese Community
Dumb Assembly Required - Tips and Cheats for Obscure LEGO Video Games
Pen And Stink - The Mad Strip Club
Guise And Dolls - American Girls
Our Daily Dread - The Best of the Idiotical

Fold-In - Jay Leno