Mad Special [Mad Super Special] #17

In the satirical war parody "Catch-22," a pilot at an American air base in the Italian Theater during World War II spins through increasingly absurd schemes to escape the Army Air Force, all while chaos and madness unfold around him. The story’s sharp, typeset letters amplify the tone of bureaucratic absurdity in a world where logic is the first casualty.

In "Messy's Thanksgiving Day Parade," Mad takes a satirical swipe at the absurd spectacle of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade—its garish floats, over-the-top balloons, and the chaotic energy of the crowd, all filtered through the over-the-top lens of network TV coverage. With sharp, deadpan humor, the story captures the madness of the day without ever revealing how the chaos resolves.

In "Club Booby Trap," the Black Spy sets a cunning trap using a club positioned over a door, only to have the White Spy narrowly avoid the first strike—only to be caught off guard when a second club swings out from behind the door. The escalating slapstick tension between the two spies unfolds in a single, perfectly timed page of classic Mad humor.