Mad #527 (John Ficarra) - Special Head of the Class Issue - June 2014

There is really nothing special about this issue but some of the articles are exceptional.  Buried in "The Fundalini Pages" is a terrific website parody written by Jeff Kruse ("AOL Start-Up Screens We'd Like To See").  Teaser titles like "Is Your Pancake Syrup Swimming with Virus" and "World's Youngest Baby Born" are exactly what we expect from these creative headline sites.  This article from Kruse deserved much more space than the half-page in the catch-all section.  Desmond Devlin and Tom Richmond gave us another wonderful seven-page movie parody ("The Slobbit: The Adaptation's A Slog").  This Hollywood expansion of a short novel was ripe for the Mad treatment.  Richmond found room for South Park, Batman, McDonalds, Popeye, Nessie, Sylvester, Scrooge McDuck and The Golden Girls in this one.  Kruse also teamed with Scott Bricher for one of his catalog parodies ("Sports Atrocity").  My favorites are the edible ski poles, the burlap teddy and the deer tick neutering kit.  John Caldwell's "When Delivery Drones Go Bad" is one his better and timelier ideas.  The future is here.  Tim Carvell's "Planet Tad!!!!!" was excellent as always.  How does he do it?????  I try not to encourage Teresa Burns Parkburst ("Mad's Common Sense Tips for First Aid") and what parts of "common sense" are these tips anyway?  For me, the biggest surprise of the issue is at end of "The Strip Club" of all places.  Keith Knight managed to draw a strip that borrowed joke lines from all of the other strips ("Father Flannity's Hot Tub Confessions with Shia LaBeouf".  This is a very clever concept that required much coordination with Mad editors.  Mr. Knight has won my Annual Mind Snack Cleverness Award that is being given now (in cyberspace only) for the first time.  All things considered, this was a superb issue even though it brought back the memories of the Hulk Hogan/Angela Lansbury match in the first season of WrestleMania.  [JAM 4/22/2014]

Departments:
Random Acts of Mindless - The Fundalini Pages [Celebrity Cause-of-Death Betting Odds - Lena Dunham]
Tolkien Gesture - The Slobbit: The Adaptation's a Slog
Nothing to Fear but Gear Itself - The Sports Atrocity
Ship Happens - When Delivery Drones Go Bad
Berg's Eye Askew - The Darker Side of ... The Lighter Side
In Blog We Trust - Planet Tad!!!!!
Pain And Simple - Mad's Common Sense Tips for First Aid
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Being Thrown Under the Syllabus - College Courses for the Lousy New Economy
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Legalized Marijuana
"Real Time" Waster - New Rules for Bill Maher
Rotten to the Encore - The Mad Vault
The Hurt Flocker - The 10 Most Common Shepherding Injuries  [fake department]
Pen And Stink - The Mad Strip Club
An Impressive Bodyslam of Work - Forgotten Moments from 30 Years of WrestleMania
Our Daily Dread - The Best of the Idiotical

Fold-In - Justin Bieber