What?! Me Worried!

In case you haven't heard (and if you're reading this, you most likely have already), MAD Magazine is grinding to a halt after sixty-seven years of publication. I've heard some people sniff that the magazine was "quaint" and "behind the times," but its style of cutting, rapid-fire humor was right up my alley. Evidently, it also resonated with dozens of successful pop culture satirists, ranging from Weird Al Yankovic to the writers of shows like The Simpsons and The Critic. 

Sophisticated MAD wasn't, but it was smarter and more insightful than people give it credit. Take for instance their feature on Brand Name Onomatopoeia, which illustrated the chemical leak of a drain pipe with the steady drip of "Du-pont, du-pont!" Years later, the staff observed that the reboot of Beavis and Butthead failed because the show about two braindead teenagers who pass the time with frog baseball had become too highbrow for MTV's audience. 

The beady-eyed mascot and the frequent slapstick may have suggested otherwise, but MAD was valuable as a clear, concise chronicle of current events. Pick up a copy from 1987, or 1995, or 2009, and it would tell you at least as much about the cultural climate of the time as Newsweek... and you'd have a lot more fun learning about it. My condolences to the children of the future, who will be cheated out of the same opportunity to see the world around them without blinders.

Off that subject (which admittedly has nothing to do with video games, but it's my blog, so there), I just purchased a laptop to replace my creaky old Acer from 2010. It's not new either, but if the specs and benchmarks are to be believed, it's going to be a heck of a lot faster than this old beater. Maybe it'll even sort of kind of run games! I guess I'll find out in a week when it finally arrives. Wish me luck.