Mad's Dave Berg Looks at Things #T5070

Jo beams with delight over her new glasses, convinced they’ve transformed both her vision and her appearance—until the doctor reveals the frames are empty. A perfectly timed twist in Mad’s signature satirical style, this three-page gem from 1970 delivers a wry laugh with zero spoilers.

In "Auto Motives," a father and son browse a car lot where the boy dreams of flashy extras as symbols of cool, while the dad sees only a growing list of potential breakdowns. The humor lies in their wildly different takes on the same shiny new machine—no gadgets, no surprises, just two perspectives on what a car really is.

Richard’s coffee run turns into a corporate burden when every office coworker piles their orders on him—donuts, extra cream, no sugar—before he remembers he forgot to get one for himself.

In a deadpan satire from 1970, an inventor pitches a bomb that destroys only paper to the Pentagon—only to find the real challenge isn't the weapon, but the mountain of triplicate forms required to even discuss it.

In "Common Denominations," a witty four-page satire from Mad's Dave Berg Looks at Things #T5070 (1970), worshippers from various churches—each convinced their rituals are uniquely bizarre—express shock at the strange customs they observe in neighboring pews. The humor unfolds as their outrage dissolves into stunned silence when they realize, to their surprise, they’ve all been praying the same words. Letters are typeset.