Mad #529 (John Ficarra) - 50 Worst Things About Food Issue - October 2014

Desmond Devlin hit the nail on the head with his food fifty.  It took four artists (Peter Kuper, Josh Mecouch, Justin Peterson and Rich Powell) to ink the seven-page feature article.  The best of the 50 are chicken fingers, hot pockets, easter egg, twinkie, keyboard granola bar, junk food R&D and the Hard Rock burger.  Devlin's description of "picnic" is the ultimate truth.  In addition to the 50, Scott Bricher's "Perfect Bacon Bed" makes this the classic food issue.  With these eating habits, how do we live as long as we do?  Also in this issue, artist Tom Richmond takes caricature to a new level with eleven dead inventors on the double-splash for "Snark Tank".  In addition, he draws writer Dick DeBartolo as a "Wizard Breakfast Maker", and himself and spouse Anna as the inventors of "Great Granny's Great Fruitcake".  I also enjoyed seeing Mad editor Ficarra (aka "J.Prete") as the press representative for "the nutty fringe publication" in John Caldwell's "A Disgraced Politician's Guide to the Do's and Dont's [sic] at a Hastily Called Press Conference".  [JAM 8/8/2014]

Departments:
Random Acts of Mindless - The Fundalini Pages  [Celebrity Cause-of-Death Betting Odds - Jeff Bezos]
Soo-eet Dreams - Perfect Bacon Bed
Venture Time - Snark Tank
Circle of Strife - Your Parents Say to You ... One Day You'll Say to Them
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Q And A-Hole - Questions We'd Like to Ask Justin Bieber
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Grilling
Bio-Curious - What Has Luke Skywalker Been up to for the Last 30 Years
The Jet Offensive - The Worst People to Sit Near on a Plane
Pails in Comparison - Mad's Consumer Guide to Buying a Garbage Can  [fake department]
Specs Offenders - A Google Glass Wearer's Photo Album
Rotten to the Encore - The Mad Vault
The Funny Side of the Tweet - When Twitter's Maximum Character Rule Saves People from Saying Too Much
Spinning And Losing - A Disgraced Politician's Guide to the Do's and Don'ts at a Hastily Called Press Conference
Pen And Stink - The Mad Strip Club
Where Eats Meets Jest - The 50 Worst Things About Food
Our Daily Dread - The Best of the Idiotical

Fold-In - Uncle Sam and bear