A few weeks ago, we told you that someone unusual had joined the cast of the A&E reality TV show, Duck Dynasty. But who were we talking about?
As revealed on the official Duck Dynasty Facebook page, the cover of MAD #524 answers that question. Joining the Robertson family is MAD’s gap-toothed idiot mascot Alfred E. Neuman – sporting a red beard and duck bandana. To read the issue’s full interior parody of Duck Dynasty, head on over to ZAP2IT.
“Duck Dynasty’s amazing,” MAD editor John Ficarra revealed to POPMATTERS in a recent interview about the magazine’s new issue. “Years ago when reality TV first started—we do a thing in ‘(the) Fundalini (Pages)’ sometimes called ‘the Kitchen Sink,’ where we’ll take a premise and we’ll do 40, 50 lines about it—when reality TV first started, we did ‘Reality TV Shows We will Soon See.’ And we could have easily put Duck Dynasty in that, about a rich family who got rich making duck calls. And we can’t write that premise anymore, because we cannot go past where reality TV has gone. So it often makes the job here a lot harder because society seems to be continuing to unravel at a very good clip and continue being stupid at a very good clip. So it’s very hard for us to go past what’s happening in real life.”
For more exclusive previews of MAD #524 – including a parody of Man of Steel, Al Jaffee’s latest fold-in, and more – check out some of the issue’s interior content as debuted by POLITICO, CBS’ MAN CAVE, POPMATTERS, CONSUMERIST, JALOPNIK, GAMMMA SQUAD and COMIC VINE. To subscribe to MAD, click here! And be sure to do so quickly to get a FREE limited edition MAD print (hand numbered and suitable for framing!) with your order.
And while you’re at it, don’t forget to pre-order INSIDE MAD, which arrives in bookstores on October 29th! The follow-up to last year’s #1 New York Times bestseller, TOTALLY MAD, this new must-have collection provides a unique behind-the-scenes look at MAD’s irreverent and signature humor. Featuring an introduction by Judd Apatow and guest essays by 17 celebrities (including Roseanne Barr, Ken Burns, Dane Cook, Paul Feig, Whoopi Goldberg, Harry Hamlin, Tony Hawk, Ice-T, Penn Jillette, George Lopez, David Lynch, Todd McFarlane, Jeff Probst, John Slattery, John Stamos, Pendleton Ward and Matthew Weiner), INSIDE MAD finds MAD’s legendary writers, artists, and celebrity fans sharing and commenting on their favorite MAD spoofs of all time.