Mad #201

MAD #201 from September 1978 takes direct aim at the disco era, with cover artist Jack Rickard painting a brilliantly conceived gag: a white-suited Saturday Night Fever-style dancer repeated across four vertical panels — three of him striking the classic pose, and one panel sneaking in MAD's gap-toothed mascot Alfred E. Neuman in the same outfit, blending right in on the glittering dance floor. The headline promises to "burn up, scorch, broil, roast, and incinerate" targets including Saturday Night Fever, Teenage Tactics, Buffet Suppers, Disco Joints, and Eight Is Enough — a full smorgasbord of late-'70s pop culture getting the MAD treatment. At 60 cents ("cheap," as the cover helpfully notes), this is a wonderfully sharp time capsule of America's disco moment.