Mad #392 (Nick Meglin and John Ficarra) - Ray and Gary Issue - April 2000

Although they are now mostly relegated to "The Fundalini Pages", there was a time when Ray Alma and Gary Hallgren drew full-blown Mad parodies.  In this issue, Mort Drucker and Angelo Torres were nowhere to be found.  So, the Mad editors brought in the second string and they did a great job.  Alma drew Josh Gordon's "Dudson's Geeks" which is a parody of Dawson's Creek that aired from 1998 to 2003 and I never saw a single episode.  Alma put editors Meglin and Ficarra in the double-splash-page asking questions about the show that they probably never watched either.  Officer Witter is writing Meglin a ticket for "amphibian love".  Dudson, wearing Gap clothes, is sitting in the leaky "S.S. Max Korn" that has a bandage on its side.  A female character is wearing a straight-jacket.  I do not know why.  Jody keeps jumping through the window while Veedee rows into the marina that also contains the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Loch Ness Monster.  Steven Spielberg has a cameo appearance.  Meanwhile, on the other end of the magazine, Hallgren drew Desmond Devlin's "Boobs Want to be a Millionaire" for six more pages than that game show deserved.  In the tradition of Elder and Wood, Hallgren filled the panels with chicken fat including Scrooge McDuck, Max Korn, a Cyclops cameraman, Bart Simpson, Badyear Tires, Mr. Natural, Flakey Foont, audience members with holes in their heads, and much more stuff including the hidden message ("It's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide").  Good work, Ray and Gary!  [JAM 11/16/2013]

Departments:
Teen Eyed Monster - Dudson's Geeks
The Maul of the Wild - A Mad Peek Behind the Scene at the Discovery Channel
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at the Courts
Emote Control - The Logic Behind Men's and Women's TV Viewing Choices
Tales From the Duck Side - Slithering Heights
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
The Schmucks Stop Here - Melvin and Jenkins' Guide to Hobbies
Big Beware - Mad's All-Purpose Cliche Script for VH1's Behind the Music
Angster's Paradise - Monroe & ... The Lawsuit
Berg's-Eye View - The Lighter Side
Truth Extraction - Half Fact/Whole Fact
Babez in the Sainthood - If Mother Teresa Was a Gangster Rapper  [Fake Department]
Behind the Educate Ball - What Really Goes on at Those Teachers Conferences
An Embarrassment of Richard's - Telecon-USA
Q & A-Holes - Boobs Want to be a Millionaire
A Dolt's Education - The Spending Annex Spring Catalog
Grieving Las Vegas - Mad's Celebrity Cause-of-Death Betting Odds [Gwyneth Paltrow]

Fold-In - Computer User