A-Z GUIDE TO MOVIES AND TV SHOWS PARODIED BY MAD, CRACKED, CRAZY, ETC. UP TO 1996. THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. SPOILERS AND OTHER NON-SEQUITURS, TOO. SOMETIMES THESE THINGS HAVE WORDS OR SITUATIONS WE DON'T USE ANYMORE. YOU KNOW, 'CAUSE THEY'RE OLD.
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MICKEY RODENT
MAD #19, January 1955
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Bill Elder
Parodies the Disney anthropomorphics genre as a whole. We're all familiar with the Disney universe from early indocrination, so no need for me to really explain anything. Mickey currently exists more as a symbol than anything else, and unless copyright laws are extended yet again in the next two years, some of the earliest sound cartoons will become public domain.
Horace Horseneck was one of the minor Disney characters. The gloves most of the characters wore evolved from minstrel shows. The TV screen Mickey is carrying comes from the Howdy Doody parody in the previous issue.
Mark Trail was a well known environmentalist comic strip that still exists somewhere. This may have been the first use of the old joke of “If Pluto and Goofy are both dogs how come one acts like a real dog and one doesn't?”
IF “MARDY” WERE MADE IN HOLLYWOOD TODAY
MAD #78, April 1963
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker
Based on a play about a single guy (Ernest Borgnine) in the Bronx hanging out with his friends and his mother wanting him to settle down to get married. Most people only know about “What do you wanna do, Marty?”/”I dunno. Whatchoo wanna do?” That's all I know, and that's all you really need too.
The angle here is about how movies used to be simply made on a simple budget. Paddy Chayefsky was a famous screenwriter known for The Hospital, Network, Altered States, and many others. He was one of the few screenwriters where his name was usually the bigger draw than the director or actors.
Movies are seen as all big-budget releases now (now being 1963), though big budget epics have been around as long as there's been a Hollywood.
The butcher here is Phil Silvers. The subway race is based on the chariot race in Ben-Hur (again a big budget epic remade countless times before 1963) driven by Tony Curtis, with Heston racing Kirk Douglas, their appearances being a reference to Spartacus.
Burt Lancaster (who co-incidentally co-produced Marty) and Marlon Brando are in the second panel. Brigitte Bardot and Yul Brynner are in the third. The last panel is a reference to Exodus.
Not sure if Marlon Brando as Mr. Christian or Kirk Douglas in the second panel are supposed to be the same characters.
From MAD #33, June 1957. Art by Wally Wood.
From If Famous Authors Wrote For the Comics by Frank Jacobs and Wally Wood, in MAD #46, April 1959.
ARTIE
Riot #4, February 1956
w: Stan Lee
a: Howie Post
DUCKTALES
1987-1990 SYNDICATED
YUCKTALES
Cracked #236, July 1988
w: John Arcudi
a: Gary Fields
From the animated series of Uncle Scrooge and his adventures with Donald Duck's nephews Huey, Duey, and Louie, influenced by the comic book stories of Carl Barks. They flew in a helicopter operated by Launchpad McQuack.
Scrooge's arch-enemies were Flintheart Glomgold and the Beagle Boys. Here the Beagle Boys are conflated with rap group The Beastie Boys.
Daffy Duck had done a short recently called The Duxorcist.
