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To face a 21st-century newsstand and pick out the familiar gap-toothed mug of Alfred E. Neuman is to realise, with a jolt, that we live in a world where Gourmet magazine no longer exists but MAD sallies forth, its 505th issue currently on sale and taking aim, as it happens, at the gulf oil spill. The satirical magazine, now in its 58th year, recently announced that it will be increasing its annual frequency from four to six issues, and the Cartoon Network has also introduced plans for a MAD-based animated television show to premiere this fall. MAD, in other words, has not only survived these dark days of print media but appears to be thriving. Who knew?

David Hajdu, writing in the New York Times in 2008, characterised MAD as a “wild and wildly successful" magazine "for 14-year-old minds." This neatly sums up its tone and audience. Among the topics parodied in the most recent issue are Justin Bieber, the "Twilight" franchise and Sarah Palin: MAD has always been predictable in its targets and consistent in its approach.  read more »

A contributor to the Prospero blog has drawn up an unconventional competition, inspired by the recently published  “Oxford Book of Parodies” (reviewed in the The Economist last month). Readers are asked to suggest who is being parodied in eight verse excerpts. For example, which poet is being made fun of here?:

I wear a cobra’s black bonnet,
A granite
Grin.
 
With an acetylene
Tongue
Behind the row of headstones.
 
Don’t touch, Herr…
Just look.
Look. Look. Look. 

Impress yourself, amaze your friends: go ahead and play.

Selena McMahan’s life as an international clown began when she won the liberal-arts equivalent of an internship at Goldman Sachs: the Watson Fellowship, a no-strings-attached $25,000 grant to travel the world for a year pursuing, well, whatever. Soon after graduating from Bowdoin College in the summer of 2005, McMahan used her award to tour nine countries on four continents—putting on clown shows at every stop. (The Watson may offer little in terms of future earning power, but every year it gives some 40 students from America’s elite small colleges a lifetime’s worth of stories.)

Her Watson year marked the beginning of what has become a one-woman circus. Upon returning to New York City, where McMahan had lived before college, she began volunteering with the American chapter of Clowns Without Borders (CWB). McMahan’s first trip with the organisation was to the FEMA trailer parks of hurricane-devastated New Orleans in 2007. Most recently, she took her clown show on tour in Ethiopia. Shortly after returning from CWB's annual meeting of international chapters in Berlin, McMahan spoke with More Intelligent Life from her apartment in France, where she first studied the art of the clown and where she lives now. We discussed the perception and politics of clowning around the world.

More Intelligent Life: Is there a difference between the way clowns are viewed in America and Europe?  read more »

As a kid, brushing my teeth seemed infinitely more exciting when I employed
Pee-wee Herman's technique. As featured in the 1985 film "Pee-wee's Big
Adventure", starring Paul Reubens as the titular eccentric, this involves lathering chompers with a toothbrush the size of a spatula and growling "Mad
dog!"

Pee-wee's universe of souped-up bicycles, toast-toting pterodactyls and
prankster chewing-gum recently seduced a sell-out crowd to a screening at New York's Museum of Modern Art as part of their Tim Burton retrospective.
Not everyone knows to attribute this cheery cult classic to Burton, whose body of work skews much darker. Yet his hand can be seen in the quirky art direction and oddball details, as well as in the film's place in that murky space between gawky childhood and reluctant adulthood.

After a brief introduction by Burton, who mentioned the film's place on a number of "worst-of" lists, the adventure began with applause and appreciative yelps. The film was a surprise box-office hit when it opened, made for $6m but earning $45m in ticket sales. The screening at MoMA revealed its lasting appeal. The audience's jittery excitement was soon matched by the hysteric staccato of Danny Elfman's score, his second ever (and the start of a rich and longstanding partnership with Burton). If you haven't heard the Pee-wee theme, think of a circus marching band headed off a cliff.  read more »

At a time when everyone is fretting over the health of Steve Jobs, the Onion has decided to train its attention on something lighter: a laptop with no keyboard.  As one chap says about this fascinating new product: “I’ll buy anything if it’s shiny and made by Apple.”

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

True Apple devotees may also consider this product from the Onion's online store.