Mad Magazine's War on Bush collection

Mad Magazine's "The Mad War on Bush" gathers a truly superlative collection of parodical and satirical material from eight years' worth of Mad lampoons between a single set of covers. As Jimmy Kimmel notes in his introduction to the book, there are many things to hate about the Bush regime, but it has been very, very kind to political satirists of all description.

Mad Magazine has had a glorious eight years with this presidency -- see, for example, the Gulf Wars Episode II poster (included as a full-size pullout, suitable for framing -- apparently the White House completely missed the joke here and used the poster internally as a morale booster; Sean Hannity showed it on his Fox "News" show!); the absolutely brilliant Dick Cheney shotgun accident cover, the NSA warrantless wiretapping poster (also included as a pull-out full-size item) and the bang-on "Bush campaign commercial if he was running against Jesus.

Mad's already warming up to have some fun with Obama, but at the end of the day, he's just not mush-mouthed, uncoordinated, and goofy to adequately serve the nation's satirists. Poor bastards. The Mad War on Bush

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Gabriel C.

I totally heart MAD.

Cory, I don’t think “parodical” is a word. Parodic, perhaps? :)
Troy

“Mad’s already warming up to have some fun with Obama, but at the end of the day, he’s just not mush-mouthed, uncoordinated, and goofy to adequately serve the nation’s satirists. Poor bastards.”

Step away from the Kool-Aid dispenser. Obama makes Bush sound like Reagan. When he’s away from the teleprompter — his aura disappears.

And how can you — a libertarian (or seems to be libertarian-ish) love someone who talks incessantly about what the government will do for you? Egads!
dccarles

I was lucky enough to have a MAD subscription in the 80s.

I figured now I was a growedup, it was time to put away such childish things[1]. But now I’m wondering when, exactly, did MAD get this good? And why do I keep browsing Cracked.com?

–Devin

[1] When I wrote that originally, I typoed ‘put aay suck childish thongs.’[2]

[2] Sometimes I wonder about my fingers.
DWittSF

What about McCain? He makes Alzheimer’s Raygun sound like Clinton. Lots ‘o Senior Memories fun to be had there! Hope McCain’s got his Depends on!
MarkHB

Ooohh my gh0d the expression on the Cheney cover is just *priceless*. When I grow up, I wanna draw that good.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Troy @4, if you didn’t have history here, I’d take that for astroturf. As it is, I have to tell you that you’re getting your information from bad sources. Obama is an articulate and well-informed speaker, whether he’s working from a prepared speech or speaking extempore.

George W. Bush is the one whose handlers don’t dare let him loose with a live mike. His goofs, fluffs, and howlers are the marvel of the sentient world. There’s a minor industry of sites and publications that collect them. Here are just a few:

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushdumbquotes.htm
http://www.dubyaspeak.com/
http://www.thetruthaboutgeorge.com/bushisms/index.html
http://www.unoriginal.co.uk/specialbushaudio.html
http://www.woopidoo.com/business_quotes/authors/george-w-bush/bushisms.htm
http://www.slate.com/id/76886/
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_W._Bush

DWittSF @9, you’ve also been getting your info from bad sources. McCain is no spring chicken, but he’s nowhere near as “disengaged” (the media’s preferred euphemism at the time) as Ronald Reagan was during his last years as President. The Depends joke is completely unwarranted.
Ugly Canuck

Hey Gabriel maybe it should be “parodisiacal”…parody, periodical, paradise, paradisiacal….parasitical?
The Blow Leprechaun

As a Canadian, I somehow doubt Cory thinks much about what our government will do for him.
Xopher

Mad is a parodic periodical, but I wouldn’t form a portmanteau of the two words so readily!

Comedians are already starting to experience a shakeout due to the fact that making fun of Bush is now seen as tired and obvious. It’s just too easy. This was a boom for the comedy industry, and it’s about to go bust. Even John McCain isn’t as ridiculous as Dubya. On NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, I heard the following dialogue:

Peter Sagal: Seriously, won’t we miss him? I mean—

Paula Poundstone: WE’LL GET OVER IT!!!

Also, Mad understates dramatically by calling George WPE Bush the worst President of the 21st Century. He is, and I hope will always be, the worst POTUS ever, past or future.
Ugly Canuck

Politically parositical periodical?
Ugly Canuck

Lol.
Mingross

Does this book include any material by Sergio Aragones? I enjoy his MAD work a lot, and I also like Groo and his other comic books a lot.
Jesse M.

This collection looks great…and speaking of MAD, I just want to remind everyone that you can get scans of every issue from 1952-2006 on DVD-ROM–I just picked it up recently, it’s awesome!