Lecture: John Ficarra
John Ficarra of MAD enlightens NYU Journalism students.
Photo: Megan Thompson.
RELATED:
MAD Magazine isn’t the goofball comedy publication you read as a kid. Well, it is, but it’s a whole lot more, explained Editor-in-chief John Ficarra, to a crowd of students and faculty at New York University’s Department of Journalism on February 21.
Ficarra discussed the lasting cultural impact of the 54-year-old magazine. For example, he noted, the composer Irving Berlin’s 1963 lawsuit against MAD helped guarantee free speech for satirists in the United States. Berlin insisted that the magazine owed him royalties, because it did a takeoff on his song, “Blue Skies.”
The way Ficarra told it, Judge Irving Kaufman ruled against Berlin, quipping, “Mr. Berlin, you do not own iambic pentameter.” The decision not only defended MAD’s right to mock with impunity, but set a legal precedent regarding what constitutes “parody,” one that still stands today.
Ficarra recounted the history of MAD, from the birth of the publication, a spin-off of EC comics. When the psychologist Dr. Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent (1954) launched a crusade against comic books and their allegedly corrupting influence, publishers such as EC (well-known for lurid horror titles such as Tales from the Crypt) agreed to the skin-saving measure of an industry-approved censor, the Comics Code Authority.
Ficarra also talked about the magazine’s ups and down under the quirky leadership of founder William Gaines, whose vision was uncompromising. Above all, Gaines insisted, the magazine had to be laid-back, silly, and untainted by corporate interests. It also had to offer writers complete creative freedom.
By the time Gaines died in 1992, though, the magazine wasn’t as edgy and culturally relevant as it had been, said Ficarra. This was due, in part, to Gaines’ rigid conception of MAD, he claimed. According to Ficarra, the long-term MAD staffers were losing touch. MAD’s once revolutionary and cutting-edge satire had become institutionalized and stale. Attempting to penetrate MAD’s old boys club was near impossible, so there was a severe shortage of new talent, and a paucity of new jokes.
Following Gaines’ death, then Associate Editor Nick Meglin and co-editor Ficarra were charged with revitalizing the magazine—turning it into something “less familiar, less safe,” in Ficarra’s words. The “20 Dumbest People, Events & Things of 2005” issue features Alfred E. Neuman wearing a FEMA hat, up to his eyeballs in water. Less safe, indeed.
When he took over as editor-in-chief in 2001, Ficarra made some controversial changes, among them introducing advertising into the magazine, a move he described as “a deal with the devil.” He also updated MAD’s look, adding glossy pages and color artwork. But the madcap sense of humor and the Yiddish-derived exclamations that have always distinguished MAD from well-behaved glossies remain intact, along with the gap-toothed visage of mascot Alfred E. Neuman.
The aspiring writers in the audience were heartened by the fact that, unlike many magazines, MAD pays its freelance writers on submission—a practice that is virtually unheard of in the world of freelance journalism. “You finish a script [for a comic], give it to me, and I have a check waiting for you in my desk,” said Ficarra.
Ficarra also spearheaded the creation of an internship program, which he dubbed the single most important thing that he has accomplished since joining the magazine. The program provides a constant flow of new talent, allowing MAD’s satirical take on pop culture and politics to stay current in the age of The Onion and John Stewart. In fact, said Ficarra, interns-turned-contributors are now responsible for 60-70 percent of the material in an issue.
During the question-and-answer period that followed Ficarra’s lecture, a student asked, “Mad is art, right?”
“MAD is a funhouse mirror to society,” said Ficarra. “We just hold up the mirror and let society see itself, and we make fun of extremes on both sides of the spectrum.”