Mad #422

Mad Magazine's October 2002 issue takes dead aim at The Sopranos with a gleefully unflattering caricature cover by Drew Friedman, featuring five mob figures — the central heavyset man brazenly lifting his shirt to reveal an impressive gut and a cigar clenched in his teeth, flanked by scowling, shirt-tugging wiseguys of varying ages. The headline "Gangsters Gone Wild! A Peek Behind the Scenes at the Sopranos" promises exactly the kind of irreverent send-up Mad does best. It's a perfectly timed 2002 skewering of one of TV's biggest cultural obsessions.