Mad #199

Mad #199 (June 1978) delivers the magazine's signature mix of pop-culture skewering, taking aim at The Spy Who Loved Me, punk rock, What's Happening?, television commercials, and — perhaps most delightfully — Donny & Marie. Al Jaffee's cover sets the tone perfectly: a scowling, fur-coated woman dangles a leash ring threateningly over a drooling, bandaged bulldog, while a gap-toothed, grinning Alfred E. Neuman holds the other end of the leash with his usual blissful indifference. It's a wonderfully absurd snapshot of 1978 Mad at its most cheerfully combative.