Mad #453 (John Ficarra) - Jacob Lambert Issue - May 2005

On behalf of all of us wannabe humor writers, I dedicate this issue review to Jacob Lambert who served a six-week term as Mad intern and then returned to be a Mad writer and an Associate Editor for the magazine.  As this is written, our hero has garnered 113 (mostly writing) credits and has moved into 49th place on the all-time Mad contributor list.  In Mad #453, Mr. Lambert wrote two excellent articles: "9 Surefire Ways to Improve the NBA's Lousy Image" and "Signs We Need in Post 9/11 America".  Paul Coker and Nathan Fox added the drawings for the respective articles.  Also in the issue is the great graphic novel parody ("The X-Custodians") by Desmond Devlin, the Shayne Drucker parody of Desperate Housewives ("Disparate No-Lives") and the DeBartolo/Richmond parody of the television show Lost ("Lots"), that basically turned into a parody of itself during seven very confusing seasons.  I like the inclusion of Tom Hanks, Peter Graves, Gilligan, Herve Villachaize, Wilson the Volleyball, Don Martin's islander, and Yogi Bear among the Lost gang.  [JAM 8/14/2014]

Color Pages: 48 of 60 pages (80%)
Humorous Content: 46 of 60 pages (77%)

Departments:  
Random Acts of Mindless - The Fundalini Pages 
Plane Nonsense - Lots
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Court Reform - 9 Surefire Ways to Improve the NBA's Lousy Image
On the Ink of Disaster - When Tattoo Artists Go Bad
Angster's Paradise - Monroe and ... Paintball
Plays of the Weak - The 25 Least Powerful People in Sports
Heaven Can Weightlift - What if Priests Used Steroids  [fake department]
That's Rall, Folks! - 7 Periods Closer to Death
Getting Canned Laughter - ... Donald Trump, You're Fired!
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Paintball
Poster Chide - Signs We Need in Post 9/11 America
Down the Hatcher - Disparate No-Lives
Help Is on the Wane - 13 Things You Never Want to Hear from a Computer Support Guy

Fold-In - Ashlee Simpson