STAR BLECCH: THE NEXT DEGRADATION

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
1987-1994 SYNDICATION

STAR BLECCH: THE NEXT DEGREDATION
MAD #282, October 1988
w: Frank Jacobs
a: Mort Drucker

Sorry in advance if the outdated term here triggers anyone.

This series takes place a few decades ahead of the original series in a newer model of the Enterprise, with the Earth now a member of the United Federation of Planets. The crew is Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby), Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn), Data (Brent Spiner), Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), and Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton).

Sight gags included a Noid served on a pizza, the fact that Denise Crosby is Bing's granddaughter, and that Geordi's piano says “Ebony and Ivory”, a rederence to a Stevie Wonder/Paul McCartney song

This page makes references to Khan (Ricardo Montalban) from Star Trek II, Kor (John Colicos) from the original series, and Tribbles also from the original series.

In the first panel is Oliver North, who had been indicted in the Iran/Contra hearings. The story ends with George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Deforest Kelley, Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan, and William Shatner of the original series,

This was the cover for the German edition, after Whoopi Goldberg joined the cast.

STAR DREK: THE NEXT CANCELLATION
Cracked #235, May 1988
w & a: Bo Badman (Rurik Tyler)

The saboteurs are from Cracked's Spies and Saboteurs feature, their answer to MAD Marginals.

From #247, September 1989

They did a second parody
STAR WRECK: THE NEXT DEGENERATION
Cracked #271, May 1992
w: Lou Silverstone
a: John Severin

This was done after Whoopi Goldberg later joined as Guinan. There are appearances in the spread by Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Lt. Columbo, Ray Charles, and Walter Matthau.

Clarence Thomas, still on the Supreme Court now, was under scrutiny for sexual harassment when first vetted.

STAR DREK:THE LAST DEGREDATION
Cracked Blockbuster #8, Summer 1994
w: Steve Strangio
a: Walter Brogan

The cover is by Jeff Wong. I don't have room in the footnotes at the bottom.

The ship was occasionally visited by Q (John Delancie)

STAR TRACKS

STAR TREK
NBC 1966-1969

STAR TRACKS
Cracked #127, September 1975
a: John Severin

Welcome to part two of twelve days we look at parody versions of the Star Trek franchise. We start with The Original Series that the spinoffs and movies evolved from. Yesterday were parodies from MAD, Sick, and Muppetmagazines. Today here are the Cracked ones. There are even more series than the ones parodied in the two weeks ahead and there continue to be more as we speak.

The premise of the show is explained in the opening. It's basically the first week of first year nerdspeak at this point, though I may explain aspects as if nobody's ever heard of the show before. It took place three hundred years into the future aboard the Starship Enterprise, exploring and discovering new worlds. Part of the main crew mas Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), executive officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Doctor “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Lt. Commander Scotty (James Doohan), Lt. Sulu (George Takei). Klingons and Tribbles were frequent aliens that appeared on the show.

Nurse Chapel (Majel Barrett) and Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) are missing from this parody.

The last panel has Soupy Sales, Jonathan Winters, Bill Cosby, Don Rickles, Fess Parker, Jim Nabors, Joey Bishop, Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Dan Rowan, Robbie the Robot, and Phil Silvers.

From If the Fonz Guest Starred on Other Shows in #137, November 1976.

From If Michael Jackson Had Starred In... in #207, October 1984, art by John Severin.

Hurry-Ups in #228, July 1987, art by Rick Altergott.

From Cracked Collectors' Edition #103, July 1995

This was done in anticipation of the new series in #232, November 1987

The second panel features Daniel J. Travanti, Veronica Hamel, James B. Sikking, and Bruce Weitz of Hill Street Blues. The third is a refernce to Lost in Space.

The German humor magazine Kaputt reprinted the Cracked material and had a cover.

There have been several sketches on Saturday Night Live, most notably when William Shatner was at a convention telling fans to get a life. Here was there first.

SEPTEMBER UPDATES

In MAD's parody of The Music Man that I posted a few months ago, I went off on a tangent about how humor magazines parodied this hippie phenomenon, portraying them as a bunch of dirty kids who have sex all the time and do drugs and never take baths. Sick especially used them as a go-to target. I said then that it would be impossible for me to find every use of comedians not getting the counterculture, but I should put up more pages from issues of Sick.

The issue I had with 101 Hippie Jokes was missing a back cover, now that I've seen it, it continues the jokes from the inside.

Here's more hippie material from issue #58, February 1968.

Hippies made up the rumor about smoking bananas themselves. There's a part of Steal This Book that helped spread the hoax, saying the insides of bananas had hallucinatory properties. Donavan's Mellow Yellow was said to be about smoking bananas.

I've said Fred Wolfe is Paul Laikin. I believe this to be true because Paul Laikin has edited practically every MAD imitation in existence and used the same material in different magazines. Some of the recycled material has had both bylines.

Speaking of hippies, in 1991 there was a movie of The Doors directed by Oliver Stone, starring Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison. Cracked didn't do a parody of it, but did a poem about it in #263, September 1991.