Mad #509 (John Ficarra) - Facebook Issue - June 2011

Mad's satires and parodies of modern culture as only as good as the modern culture.  This issue proves that the idiosyncrasies of mainstream media in 2011 are rather shallow.  For example, this issue's foci on Charlie Sheen, Spiderman - the play, daffy Qaddafi, Kanye West, Taco Bell, yet-to-be-released Thor, hoarders, DWTS, and something called "Angry Birds" were of little interest.  The best drawings in the issue were by Tom Richmond ("Muddled Family") and Bob Staake ("The 50 Worst Things About Facebook").  Also, artist Hermann Mejia reprised a great scene on page 42 from a previous parody of Star Trek from the cover of Mad #186 by Jack Rickard (1932-1983).

The editors of Mad gave equal jabs to Keith Olbermann (page 7) who tells the truth as they did to Bill O'Reilly (page 8) who does not. [JAM 4/24/2011]

Departments:  
See B.S. - $#*! My Son Says
Random Acts of Mindless - The Fundalini Pages
Funny or Diatribe - Mad Libyan
Relatives' Stupidity - Muddled Family
Characters Flawed - Kanye West's Most Moronic Tweets
Pen And Stink - The Mad Strip Club
A Hardened Dictator - What If Qaddafi Took Viagra? [fake department]
Filler-Busted - A Letter From Taco Bell
The Sick Sense - Signs That Your Hypochrondria is Out of Control
In Blog We Trust - Planet Tad!!!!!
Beating a Dead Norse - Mad's Thor-oughly Stupid Thor Outtakes
The Plie's the Thing - Mad's 11 Little-Known, Practical, Real Life Uses for Ballet
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Lame - Don Martin Beats the High Cost of Gasoline
R2-D2-Step - Dancing With the Star Wars
Porn Family Game Night - Sheen It?
Split Happens - Things You Don't Want to Hear from a Marriage Counselor
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Hoarders
Theatres of the Absurd - Similarities and Differences Between the Spider-Man Musical and the War in Afghanistan
Zuckerberg's-Eye View - The 50 Worst Things About Facebook
Underage Thinking - One Fine Day on Main Street

Fold-In - Spiderman