Mad #278

Mad's April 1988 issue puts Alfred E. Neuman front and center in a wonderfully absurd makeover — the gap-toothed mascot sports oversized dark sunglasses and a rakish black fedora, doing his best to look street-cool while the cover itself delivers a full rap poem cheerfully warning you not to buy it. Richard Williams's cover portrait captures Alfred's signature dopey grin with sharp, polished detail that makes the self-deprecating joke land perfectly. Inside, Don Edwing and Bob Clarke tackle Dirty Dancing in a parody titled "Dorky Dancing," and the cover teases movie spoofs, "Mad Pardons the President," and the usual gleeful parade of cultural skewering that made this magazine essential reading in 1988.