Mad #93 (Albert Feldstein) - Poiuyt Issue - March 1965

Mort Drucker's talent dominated this excellent issue of Mad.  His caricatures of The Beatles (and Ed Sullivan) in "The Flying Ace" are absolutely perfect.  In addition, look for Mort's birds, Dumbo, zeppelins, Goldwater and other flyboys.  Mort turned an ordinary article into a classic.  Compare to "Black and Blue Hawks!" in Mad #5.

While zeppelins were still flying all about, Mad introduced yet another joke: "The Mad Poiuyt."  Fourteen poiuyts were found in various places, most of them obviously planted in final copy by the Mad editors.  One was even found in a Don Martin drawing.  However, I am sure that it was not drawn by Don.  Mad quickly retired the poiuyt after learning it was not original.  It did not return until Mad #97.

Over the years I have been compelled to write letters and send articles to Mad.  I never really expected to see any of them in print.  To my happy surprise, my letter about the poiuyt was printed in Mad #350.  I was inspired to write the letter after one of my annotating sessions.  Every time I typed "poiuyt" I discovered an unusual pattern to my hunt-and-peck.  I suddenly realized that "the usual gang of idiots" had selected a series of backwards typewriter keystrokes as the nonsense name for the optical illusion.  This may have been obvious to others, but I had never seen it before.  (I apologize to reader Bill Garrett who noted the origin of the name in Mad #95).

The Mad Zeppelin achieved a special position in the history of Mad in #93.  In this issue, the zeppelin was on the white spy's drawing board.  This was the first time that Antonio Prohias had ever participated in a running Mad joke. [MADlog #13]

Why do people love Mad?  The following series of e-mails explains it better than I could ever do.

How do you search for an old Mad magazine from about 25-30 years ago and find a cartoon that you were especially affected by when you don't remember the exact issue?  I'm looking to locate the issue that had a 2 or 3 page cartoon entitled "The Barber" where a man in a helicopter clips a small tree growing out of one of the presidents' noses on Mt. Rushmore.  Any ideas, sources, web-sites, etc. you can recommend?

I could not find this cartoon in the time period you mentioned.  I do remember it.  Are you sure of the dates?

I can't be sure of the dates.  It was a long time ago!  Probably between 25 and 30 years ago.  Wish I could tell you more.  I remember so few issues.  One issue that had to be about the same time period did a spoof on the movie "Incredible Voyage" (I think that's what it was called) with Stephen Boyd and Raquel Welch being shrunk down and injected into somebody's body in a small submarine.  In the Mad version they escape by being "sneezed" out of the "patient's" nose at the end.  I don't know if it would be the same issue though.  Appreciate your help in this most important of searches.

I found it!  "The Barber" by Don Martin appeared in Mad #93 (March 1965).  I have a used copy of this issue if you are interested.  Why were you looking for this one?

My brother and I have a special memory of my dad laughing hysterically at the dinner table once when I was younger as I described to him the cartoon.  He died of cancer 3 months ago and it is a way of treasuring that memory the 2 of us have of his laughter and sense of humor. [MADlog #13]

White spy is designing a zeppelin. (page 13)

Departments:
Double Scoop - A Child's View of Newspaper Headlines
Don Martin - The Official Barber; Another (Whew!) Visit to the Doctor's Office; The Question
Moppet Up - Mad Looks at a Typical TV Kiddie Show
Joke and Dagger - Spy Vs. Spy; Spy Vs. Spy Vs. Spy
Charlie Horsing Around - I Got All the Finks I Need
Watch the Doors Please - In a Las Vegas Hotel Lobby
Berg's-Eye View - The Lighter Side of Teenage Parties
All Editorial Systems Go - Space Magazines
Talk of the Towns - The Sights and Sounds of the U.S.A. (Miami Beach, Fla.)
Symbol-Minded - A Mad Look at Signs of the Times
Gridironies - Football Foto-Plays
Race Riot - The Finish
Singing the Booze - When They Advertise Liquor on TV
From Spad to Worse - Flying Ace

Fold-In - Trash Can