Wednesday, August 31, 2022

MACGIMMICK

MACGYVER
1985-1992 ABC

MACGIMMICK
MAD #302, April 1991
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Angelo Torres

Angus MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) was a bomb technician and special agent for the Phoenix Foundation of the government, using scientific solutions for problems with objects made from household items.
The last panel shows Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor as they looked in old age, referencing The Wild One and National Velvet.
Another Dan Quayle joke. Every Vice President goes through this kind of hazing.
And a letter of approval from the star.
Saturday Night Live Parodied the show as a recurring bit which they made into a feature film and TV series.

MOVIE SPOOF: IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967)
dir: Norman Jewison

MOVIE SPOOF: IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
Sick #60, May 1968
w: Bill Majeski

I was initially hesitant about posting this because of all the cotton picking and slave jokes but reading it again there weren't as many as I thought. I also figured I wasn't the one who made them so why not. Here this is.

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

JUDGEMENT AT NEUROSISBERG

JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961)
dir: Stanley Kramer

JUDGEMENT AT NEUROSISBERG
Sick #13, June 1962
writer uncredited

Monday, August 29, 2022

MA GHERKINS

MA PERKINS
NBC, CBS 1933-1960

MA GHERKINS-- SHE'S ALWAYS IN A PICKLE
Cracked #98, January 1972
a: Vic Martin

Ma Perkins was “America's mother of the air” similar to Mary Worth in the comics, a daily radio soap opera starring Virginia Payne.The term “soap opera” got its name from this because it was originally sponsor by Oxydol, a soap company.

Also parodied here is radio character Just Plain Bill. In the graffiti are characters Stella Dallas and Fibber McGee of Fibber McGee and Molly. I can't make quite out the graffiti in the last panel but it might say Elsie Beebe (LCBB), nickname for Life Can Be Beautiful.
There was a radio soap called Mary Noble, Backstage Wife probably better known for the Bob and Ray parody Mary Backstage, Noble Wife. Also referenced is Vic and Sade. Featured are comic strip characters Snuffy Smith, Luhweeze, and Jughaid from Snuffy Smith, Hairless Joe and Lonesome Polecat from Li'l Abner (who co-incidentally also did Oxydol ads), Little Orphan Annie, Henry, Fritz Katzenjammer, Happy Hooligan, and A. Mutt.

Sunday, August 28, 2022

ICE STATION ZEROX

ICE STATION ZEBRA (1968)
dir: John Sturges

ICE STATION ZEROX
Sick #73, February 1970
w: Fred Wolfe (Paul Laikin)
a: Bill Robinson

With Sick I often wonder if they had editorial meetings about what they thought the lowest-grossing movies of the year would be and decided those would be the movies to spoof. Or maybe someone on the staff made a list of movies they knew would flop as a practical joke. Can't figure out why they would do things like this, Downhill Racer, Me, Natalie or They Shoot Horses, Don't They?. MAD and Cracked had their share of misses too, but their predictions were at least based some possible box office draw. Sick was either tone deaf or chose what they had the most photographic reference for.

Some movies I can't see because I don't have access to, this I do but choose not to watch because it's not how I want to spend two and a half hours. (Yes, it's that long.)

A satellite re-enters the atmosphere and ejects a capsule, which parachutes to the Arctic, near a British scientific weather station moving with the ice pack named Drift Ice Station Zebra, approximately 500 kilometres (320 mi) northwest of Station Nord, Greenland in the Arctic Ocean ice pack. A person approaches, guided by a homing beacon, while a second person secretly watches from nearby.
Immediately afterwards distress calls begin to be broadcast from Ice Station Zebra. Little can be wrung from them beyond that there was a fire and casualties in some sort of disaster. Commander James Ferraday (Rock Hudson), captain of the American nuclear attack submarine USS Tigerfish stationed at Holy Loch, Scotland, is ordered by Admiral Garvey (Lloyd Nolan) of Naval Intelligence to rescue the survivors, outside the normal chain of command, with confirming orders through regular channels to follow. He is told only about the ice station incident. An imperious British intelligence agent, "Mr. Jones" (Patrick McGoohan), and a U.S. Marine platoon join the Tigerfish while in dock. After setting sail, Captain Anders (Jim Brown), a strict officer who takes command of the Marines, and Boris Vaslov (Ernest Borgnine), a Russian defector and spy, an old comrade of Jones', are delivered by helicopter. The submarine sails beneath the thick Arctic pack ice but is unable to break through with its conning tower. Ferraday instead orders a torpedo shot to fracture the ice. When the inner torpedo hatch is opened to load it, sea water rushes in, flooding the compartment. The extra weight forward causes the submarine to nose dive, which is only arrested before the boat reaches crushing depth. Jones asserts it was no accident and Ferraday discovers sabotage. Ferraday suspects Vaslov, while Jones points to Anders. After an area of thin ice is detected, the Tigerfish breaks through to the surface. Ferraday, Vaslov, Jones, and the marine platoon set out for the weather station in a blizzard. On arrival, they find the base almost completely destroyed. Jones and Vaslov start questioning a few hypothermic survivors about what happened.
It could be a coincidence, but “Atomic Gomer Pyle” might be a reference to the rumor that Rock Hudson was involved with Jim Nabors.

Jones reveals to Ferraday that he's looking for a canister of film with immense Cold War implications. It was shot by an advanced experimental camera designed by the British, which uses special film developed by the Americans, both of which technologies were stolen by the Soviets and sent into orbit to photograph locations of American missile silos. However, the satellite also recorded all the Soviet missile sites as well. Due to a malfunction, it ejected its film delivery capsule near Ice Station Zebra in the Arctic. Both Soviet and British agents were deployed to recover the capsule. Jones concludes the Soviet agent slew the British, with some scientists dying by gunfire before the fire was set to cover the agent's tracks.
After being summoned by Ferraday through a hole in the ice, the Tigerfish erupts immediately adjacent to the camp. Ferraday sets his crew to search for the capsule. Jones discovers a tracking device but is knocked out by Vaslov, a Soviet double-agent and the saboteur. Anders confronts Vaslov and the two men fight before the dazed Jones shoots and kills the American Captain. Ferraday enters the hut and is alarmed at discovering Jones bloodied and unconscious, Anders riddled with half a dozen gunshots, and Vaslov unharmed. He appears to accept the Russian's story that Anders had attacked Jones, who in turn shot him.
Tigerfish detects approaching Soviet aircraft. Ferraday has Vaslov use the tracker to locate the capsule, which is discovered buried in half a foot of ice. A large force of Soviet paratroopers arrive and demand the film. Its commander produces a detonator, and tells Ferraday he can explode the capsule, film and all, even inside the submarine, if the Americans try to leave with it. After Ferraday hands over an empty container, the deception is discovered and a brief firefight occurs. In the confusion, Vaslov tries to take the film but is wounded by Jones. Ferraday orders him to give the film to the Soviets. The canister is sent aloft by weather balloon for recovery by aircraft. Moments before it is taken, Ferraday activates a detonator he had found that had been cached with the tracking device, destroying the film and denying either side the locations of the other's missile silos. The Soviet colonel concedes that crucial parts of both his and Ferraday's missions are effectively accomplished, with no more of either yet attainable, and leaves.
Tigerfish completes the rescue of the civilians. A teletype machine reveals media headlines claiming that a joint US-Soviet rescue in the Arctic has been successful, and that the "humanitarian mission" stands as a sterling example of peaceful cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Ernest Borgnine was in a play/movie called Marty, the famous line being “I dunno, watcha wanna do tonight, Marty?”

Saturday, August 27, 2022

LOVER'S STORY

LOVE STORY (1970)
dir: Arthur Hiller

I think this is Robert Evans underneath the marker (her real-life husband and producer of the movie), but it's hard to tell with the defacement. Funny is still funny.
MAD #146, October 1971
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker

Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O'Neil) and Jenny Cavillieri (Ali McGraw) “meet cute” at the Radcliffe library. He is very rich and his family is a benefactor of Harvard while Jenny comes from a working class background. Harvard and Radcliffe were separate mens' and womens' colleges at one time.
Oliver invites Jenny to see him play hockey. Polish jokes were acceptable fifty years ago. There used to be polish joke books at the checkout aisles of grocery stores. And you thought smoking while shopping was bad.
In the foreground of the third panel is Erich Segal, author of the book Love Story is based on.

Let's hope “no blacks” is supposed to be something establishing the WASPiness of the couple and not something the reader is supposed to relate to. Even for 1970 that would have been a yikes.
Oliver invites Jenny to meet his parents (Ray Milland, Katherine Balfour) who don't approve of Jenny's lower status.
When Oliver and Jenny get married, his father disowns and disinherits him, so he has to make it on his own. Jenny's father (John Marley) hopes they'll have a Catholic wedding, but they have a secular one on campus.
They move to New York where he gets a job as a lawyer, they plan to have a baby, and he finds out from their doctor (Sydney Walker) that not own can they not conceive, but she's about to die.
It ends with a tearjerker.
LOATHE STORY
Cracked #94, August 1971
a: John Severin

Rod McKuen was an easy listening-type poet.
In the MAD parody, they leave out how he's told she's dying, he keeps it a secret from her.
from If Hit Movies Were Combined in Cracked # 131, March 1976, art by John Severin
MY HATE STORY
National Lampoon #31, October 1973
w & a: Ed Subitzky

Ed Subitzky was at National Lampoon from the beginning to the end and one of their most inconsistent contributors. Here's something that was probably a B.
MOVIE REVIEW: LOVE STORY
Sick #86, September 1971
w: Fred Wolfe (Paul Laikin)

Friday, August 26, 2022

MOVIE SPOOF: HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (1967)
dir: David Swift

MOVIE SPOOF: HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
Sick #56, November 1967
w: Bill Majeski
The movie is very much like Mad Men, that show obviously cast Robert Morse for that reason.

Thursday, August 25, 2022

LEAVE ME OR ME LEAVE

LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME (1955)
dir: Charles Vidor

LEAVE ME OR ME LEAVE
MAD #25, August-September 1955
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Will Elder

Biopic of Ruth Etting and her involvement with the mob starring Doris Day and James Cagney.

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

007- PLASTICEYE

GOLDENEYE (1995)
dir: Martin Campbell

IF JAMES BOND WERE UPDATED FOR THE POLITICALLY CORRECT 90S
MAD #340, October/November 1995
w: Mike Snider
a: Angelo Torres

This was done in anticipation of Pierce Brosnan becoming the new James Bond. I can't tell if this is supposed to be a liberal or conservative take. 'Politically correct' once being a self-mocking term, then taken seriously and co-opted by the right as a wedge issue to win elections, which is now still the same thing but called 'woke'.
“Pushy Galore” is a caricature of Barbara Streisand. 'Monkey Business' was the name of the boat where Senator Gary Hart was ruined by a sex scandal.

007- PLASTICEYE
Cracked #306, March 1996
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Walter Brogan

The prologue has Bond and fellow agent Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) destroying a Russian chemical weapons plant, and Bond escaping in time by commandeering a crashing plane
At a casino later, James Bond meets Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), She turns out to be head of the Janus crime syndicate and his assignment is to stop them from acquiring GoldenEye, a satellite system. They take over the French ship the Eurocopter Tiger.
Xenia kills men by crushing them between her thighs and seduces the admiral of the Tiger, then steals his ID and uniform. At Severanya, an outpost in Siberia, they are hacking into the Golden Eye system, aided by Boris (Alan Cumming) and Natalya (Izabella Scarupo). M (Judi Dench) briefs Bond on his new mission, and he accepts the fact that a woman is his superior. Q shows him the latest gadgets.
John Severin is a Cracked artist so they use his name for the name of the station.

At St. Petersburg, Bond meets CIA agent Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker) who has arranged his meeting with Russian gangster Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltraine) who arranges the meeting between Bond and Janus.
Xenia Onatopp tries unsuccessfully to seduce James Bond with rough sex play and former partner Trevelyan turns out to be the head of Janus. Natalya, the survivor of the Severanya destruction, has the info on the stolen GoldenEye and becomes Bond's love interest.
There is a chase leading to Cuba as Bond tries to get the GoldenEye to explode into space while the Russians try to destroy the Earth. Xenia tries one more time to end up killing Bond but ends up being caught in a tree by the rope she's holding onto.
At the base, Boris is forced to unlock the code that will explode the missiles onto the ground and illegally transfer bank funds (forgot that part) but Natalya has changed it. In the epilogue, Bond thinks he's alone with Natalya, but Jack Wade and several marines have been there hidden all along.