And she’s more than ready to try her jokes on all of us. (Honestly, what is Prince Albert in a Can?) All the same, she’s riveted. As she reads, she stumbles over references to a daily life that looks nothing like her own: Finns fighting Russians, trains and harbors, rotary dials, Prince Albert in a Can. Coyote catching fire, or, if this reference is lost on you, Ren slapping Stimpy, or a Minion saying “bottom.”īut my daughter’s slow-uptake reminds me of myself at her age-knowing that words or pokes are supposed to be funny, but not understanding why. Some are even a little wicked-the literary equivalent of Wile E. Often, the book instructs you to injure your friends. Culled from a century of American folk humor, the book’s chestnuts range from droll to vaudevillian.

I taught her the joke, which I’d forgotten until I unearthed my copy of Tomfoolery: Trickery and Foolery with Wordsby Alvin Schwartz. Now, for the first time, she actually understands it. Joker: “Okay, Pete and Repeat sat on a log…”įor days, my daughter has told this joke to anyone within earshot. My daughter says this a week after she’s been told the classic “Pete and Repeat” joke. You know this, right? ‘Repeat’ is the name of the other boy, but when you say his name, you’re also asking me to say the joke again.” ‘Pete’ is the name of the boy who falls off the log.

He also anticipated peelable stamps, multiblade razors and self-extinguishing cigarettes.“Oh, I get it. His parodies of advertisements included such future real-life products as automatic redialing for a telephone, a computer spell checker and graffiti-proof surfaces. Jaffee didn't just satirize the culture he helped change it. 'No,' he says, 'I'm going to jump into the water and marry the gorgeous thing.' 'Are you going to reel in the fish?' his wife asks. A comic from 1980 showed a man on a fishing boat with a noticeably bent reel. Jaffee was also known for 'Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,' which delivered exactly what the title promised. 'It couldn't just be bringing someone from the left to kiss someone on the right.' SJ4827K7g9- one really set the tone for what the cleverness of the Fold-Ins has to be,' Jaffee told the Boston Phoenix in 2010. Al was MAD Magazine’s longest running contributor, creator of the MAD Fold-In, and a charter member of “The Usual Gang of Idiots.” His signature style and wit will be MADly missed. WATCH | Al Jaffee on the origins, process behind the Mad Fold-In:ĭC and the staff at MAD Magazine are heartbroken by the passing of the legendary artist Al Jaffee. Spy' and Dave Berg's 'The Lighter Side.' The premise, originally a spoof of the old Sports Illustrated and Playboy magazine foldouts, was that you started with a full-page drawing and question on top, folded two designated points toward the middle and produced a new and surprising image, along with the answer.

Readers savoured his Fold-Ins like dessert, turning to them on the inside back cover after looking through such other favourites as Antonio Prohias' 'Spy vs. His collected Fold-Ins, taking on everyone in his unmistakably broad visual style from the Beatles to TMZ, was enough for a four-volume box set published in 2011. Few of the magazine's self-billed 'Usual Gang of Idiots' contributed as much - and as dependably - as the impish, bearded cartoonist Jaffee.įor decades, virtually every issue featured new material by Jaffee. Mad magazine, with its wry, sometimes pointed send-ups of politics and culture, was essential reading for teens and preteens during the baby-boom era and inspiration for countless future comedians. Jaffee died Monday in Manhattan from multiple organ failure, according to his granddaughter, Fani Thomson. Al Jaffee, Mad magazine's award-winning cartoonist and ageless wise guy who delighted millions of kids with the sneaky fun of the Fold-In and the snark of 'Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,' has died.

Snappy answers to stupid questions book