Mad #340 (Nick Meglin and John Ficarra) - Body Piercing Issue - October/November 1995

This issue contains everything that I hate: self-mutilation (body piercing), boring video games ("Bob Does Laundry," etc.), bad parodies of bad movies ("Die Hard with No Variance" and "Gasper"), soap operas ("Your Life vs. Life on Melrose Place/90210"), Madonna bashing, right-wing humor, rap music, angry Berg characters, beheadings (Jughead, etc.), political-correctness humor and a superhero concept that goes nowhere ("Superhero High").  I mark this issue as the beginning of Mad's dark period when the editors tried to appeal to the twisted minds of Generation X.  I think it was a mistake but then I have never published a successful, national humor magazine.  The issue was not completely awful.  Some good things were: Aragones airmail, Mad zeppelins, Flip with dead Elvis, Tulka's Madonna with McDonalds tattoo (although I hate permanent tattoos as well), coed dorms, the Mad office, dissecting Kermit,  Q gadgets and "Rotlung cigarets."  [JAM 7/25/2012]

Departments:
Willis Never End? - Die Hard with No Variance
Holier Than Ow! - The 10 Commandments of Body Piercing
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Joy Schtick - Video Games That Nintendo Rejected
My So-Called Afterlife - Gasper
Dull And Void - Your Life vs. Life on Melrose Place/90210
Restoring the Old Luster - How Madonna Revived Her Sagging Career
Tales From the Duck Side - The Momentous Medical Megillah
Newtwork Television - When Sesame Street Caves in to the Radical Right
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Back to College
Going Whack in Time - The Untold Story of Rap Music Through History
Berg's-Eye View - The Lighter Side
The Fantastic Four Years - Superhero High
P.C. Galore - If James Bond Were Updated for the Politically Correct '90s

Fold-In - Cell Phone