Looking back at 2007, there were a plethora of dumb things that took place.
It would be harder to limit yourself to just 20 when coming up with the “20 Dumbest People, Events & Things of 2007,” list. But the folks at Mad Magazine manage to do just that.
“Believe it or not the selecting process (for the 20 dumbest list) starts on January first,” said Mad editor John Ficarra. “Most days start in my office just talking about the events of the day and brainstorming, seeing what we might like to see in the pages of the magazine.
And if something happened, I’ll open up a file and type in a little bit about what that something is about.”
There are some steps that they take to streamline the process. Taking Brittney Spears’ year as a whole — for example — is a stroke of genius since she could populate the list all on her own.
Another aid is making sure that the entries have a visual impact.
“The Mad 20 is a little bit different from the usual magazine because we try to do what we call ‘high-impact visual pieces,’” said Ficarra. “And since we’re doing 20 things, if we did 2 pages on each we’d fill the magazine with that and we don’t want that.”
But some folks just had to get in.
“Michael Vick we had to get in, Larry Craig we had to get in. Um Brittney, Brittney Spear’s year and Paris Hilton, they were such big media stories we had to,” said Ficarra. “Other things were just, even though they weren’t a big news story like the Keith Richards thing, snorting his father’s ashes. It was just such a dumb thing we were like, ‘How can we not put this on the list.” If you’re snorting your father’s ashes, you deserve to be on this list.”
And of course, George W. Bush makes the list. The Commander-in-Chief nearly takes the No. 1 spot. According to Mad, president is on the verge of overtaking Ronald Reagan’s record for number of vacation days while in office. This pace would leave FDR in the dust. How can you not admire a man who can take more vacation time than Roosevelt in half the number of years in office? The number of vacation days is made even more impressive by the fact that we’re in the middle of a war. Picking up the magazine, you expect the laughs, but you may not expect the potent political commentary. If you haven’t seen it before now, you haven’t been reading Mad. The magazine has taken more of a political slant over the years.
“Part of it has been because me,” said Ficarra. “And a lot of my staff happen to be political junkies, but I think a greater reason is because politics is now covered in the media almost like entertainment. In fact, I would argue that it is covered as entertainment.
“Just like they give movie grosses now — politics with all the talking heads shows — it’s celebrity politics rather than substantive politics and Mad is reflecting that.”
And what else would you expect from a magazine that functions with the tenet, “Question authority.”
Mad magazine continues to be a reminder to do just that and it’s packed with laughs to boot.
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To read the transcript of the interview visit http//toontalk.freedomblogging.com.
Shawn Munguia does graphics and layout for the Valley Morning Star. He also maintains a blog about cartoons and comics at http://toontalk.freedomblogging.com/. Munguia can be reached at 956-421-9870 or you can e-mail him at shawnm@valleystar.com.
