Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Mini-Ep #66: Gilbert and Frank Go "Mad"!

Episode Date: June 30, 2016

Each week, comedian Gilbert Gottfried and comedy writer Frank Santopadre share their appreciation of lesser-known films, underrated TV shows and hopelessly obscure character actors -- discussing, dissecting and (occasionally) defending their handpicked guilty pleasures and buried treasures. This week: The genius of Frank Jacobs! The legend of William M. Gaines! Deconstructing the MAD Fold-in! And the strange history of Alfred E. Neuman! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Io Debrey, and Maddie Matheson is ready to heat up screens once again. All new episodes of FX's The Bear are streaming June 27, only on Disney+. Hi, I'm Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert and Frank's amazing colossal obsession with Frank Santopadre. I forgot your name already. That's fine. And we're once again at Nutmeg.

With Frank Ferdarosa. Yes. And let's see if I remember these two names. Not a chance. Devlin. Are you all right? Desmond. Devlin.

Switch them. Devlin Desmond.lin Devlin Desmond The other one? Okay Long time Mad Magazine writer Desmond Devlin Desmond Devlin

Now let me see What is his job? He's the senior editor Senior editor of Mad Magazine Okay wait a second Joe Rayola? Nice, Joe! I'm so upset that you got

my name right. That's a grace. Would you please mispronounce it? Well, this has been Gilbert and Frank's Butcher My Name. I'm warning you to butcher my name so badly. Well, Joe and Desmond were here. We just, Gilbert and I just recorded with the legends Dick DiBartolo and the wonderful, ageless Al Jaffe.

And Desmond and Joe were nice enough to come. In fact, Joe set up and coordinated that episode with Dick and Al, which when this airs, you won't have heard yet. But they decided to stay. Actually, we hijacked them at the elevator and said, come on, guys, stick around and do a little mini-episode with us, and here they are to talk about...

Now, we were talking about Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy. Yes, which was a severe piece of shit, I think, the New York Times called it. I believe that's a direct quote. Vincent Canby had that Times called it. I believe that's a direct quote. Vincent Canby had that in the headlines.

I believe that's a direct quote. Now, we were talking on the show that... With Alan Dick. Yeah. Why are you torturing us with this? Why do you keep bringing this up? We're not responsible for this, Roman.

You enjoy that it failed. Yes! We talk about bombs on this. Up the Academy was such a piece of shit that the star of it, Ron Liebman, had his name removed from the credits. But you understand. And here you are today.

You do understand that Mad Writers had nothing to do with that piece of shit. It wasn't written by Mad Writers. Mad editors weren't involved in it. It wasn't written by mad writers. Mad editors weren't involved in it. It wasn't viewed by mad writers. It wasn't viewed by them. And they said it was looked upon, if you call it

mad, then we could make it like Lampoon. You'll have a whole chain. I'm sure that's what they were after because you had National Lampoon's Animal House. And they still seem to be coming out with National Lampoon things that show up on cable at four in the morning. Yeah, now it's all cable

fodder. Yeah. And less and less of it. So you want to talk about what Mad's done wrong over at 60? Yes. I think it's just a continuation. It's dark and sour. They said that Gaines had his name and med removed.

Oh, and that the statue, they had a statue of Alfred E. Newman. They had to cut that out of the movie. He paid $50,000 to have the statue of Alfred removed, I believe, from the DVD print of the movie. That's what a piece of shit that is. Yes, that's exactly right. He also made the statue. You want the 15 people who saw this movie to know. Yes.

Yes. Now, I will tell you something about Gaines. Go ahead. Yes. Before... Tell us how long you've been at Mad Magazine. No, I've been at Mad for 32 years. 32 years.

And Bill died in 92, I think. Bless your heart, yes. So I... He died a week after meeting me, I'd like to point out. A week after meeting me. Well, maybe those two things are related in some way. I once rode on an elevator with George Gaines.

Bill Gaines. George Gaines was the guy from Police Academy. George was a wonderful guy. George Gaines was his good-for-nothing cousin. You know? And his wife, Barbara Gaines. I never met. I never met.

Oh, Barbara Baines I met. Excuse me. George was a fuck-up, totally. I think he wrote up the Academy. No, I was on an elevator with Bill Gaines. And I just remember, I didn't see him behind me. And I was standing on the elevator, crowded elevator

and all I could hear was He had health problems. Yeah. And I turned around and there he was. You're talking about George or Bill? No, George had already gone on vacation. Now, I'll tell you about Bill.

Actually, if I can interject, back at EC Comics days, one of the office guys they hired wasn't too bright. And so Bill Gaines had this idea. He basically took rubber cement and made it a scar and put it on his face and pretended to be his own evil brother. Oh, Gilbert's done that. And he would storm into the office and start screaming at people. And he'd go through Bill Gaines' own desk and pretend to steal money from his brother. Oh, Gilbert's done that. And he would storm into the office and start screaming at people and he'd go through Bill Gates' own desk and pretend to steal money from his brother. Just for the purpose of terrifying this person in the office. That's good. I like that one. So you've been with the magazine 32 years and you knew Bill well.

Before he died, quite a while before he died, he said to me that he was going to haunt me in my dreams. And it's just true. He said he was going to haunt me because we didn't get along in a lot of ways. I mean, we loved each other, but we didn't get along because we're very different people. You know, me being a vegetarian and Bill would eat animals while they were still walking. So I had a gains dream. I actually had a gains dream. And here Gaines dream. I actually had a Gaines dream.

And here's the dream. I'm standing in the doorway at my office, and Gaines was walking down the hall. And I can't believe it's Bill. And I say, Bill, I can't believe it. You're alive. And he says to me, no, I'm not. I'm dead.

And I say, but you're here. You're standing. You're alive! And he says to me, no, I'm not. I'm dead. And I say, but you're here. You're standing. You're walking. He said, what, you never heard of the walking dead? Then he walks into the office, and he's talking to another editor, and another editor sees him and says, hey, Bill, you look like you lost weight since you died. And then Gaines and I start walking around the office. And I'm showing him the office and he stops. He grabs me by the shoulders. He turns me to him and he says the following.

And I quote, I hate to break it to you, but all this is a waste of time. You should enjoy it. It's very nice, but it's all a waste of time. And then he dies again. Wow. Wow. That's profound and waste of time. And then he dies again. Wow. Wow. That's profound and disturbing and terrifying. Yes.

And I'm very upset. Don't talk for the rest of this interview. And it was exactly in his voice. You guys should take that advice to heart. All this is very nice and you should enjoy it but it's a waste of time. Of course. Trust me.

What are you, breaking news here? You've obviously heard this podcast. I think maybe Gaines has heard the podcast. My entire career is a waste of time. Now, one thing I have to say about those fold-ins, there were some fold-ins that even as a kid I said oh come on where I'd go like how come that guy's ear looks like a car

and why does that guy's nose look like the Statue of Liberty did you ever try drawing a fold-in Gilbert I mean look did you ever try drawing Folden, Gilbert? I mean, look, you know, as a kid Did you ever try, you know, Al's not here or he says that after Al leaves.

No, as a kid I did, I would try to do those and I mean it is impossible. Well, that's because he's an engineer at heart. Oh, yeah. That he's able to actually pull those things off. No, those those were, I mean, he's brilliant. They were based, you know,

Al did not mention this in the episode. No, I didn't want to ask him about it because he'd ask so often. But actually, I think they were inspired by the Playboy centerfold. Right. By the, you know, Playboy would fold out. That was the whole thing.

Oh, Life Magazine had the four-page spread that would open up. That was the whole thing. Life Magazine had the four-page spread. So Al Jaffe, because Playboy would fold out, he decided to make it fold in. Part of his genius. Wow. Isn't that great? He's amazing.

And nobody's done it. I mean, it's been parodied, but nobody, I don't think anybody can do it for him. It's bad, mostly. You can see the acceleration of him when you see the bad parodies. Yeah, absolutely. It's truly amazing that something like that has stood the test of time. Al is like the Neil Young of cartoonists. He's always hip.

You know, he never goes out of style. No, and it's so cool that The Daily Show and Colbert and this whole other generation, this cool generation of satirists and humorists revere him. Yeah, well. I won't put Gilbert and I in that category. But he is as hip and as au courant as ever. At 95. At 95.

And he told us before, and this, again, the episode hasn't posted yet, that he did his best fold-in ever recently. After, what, 50, 54 years of doing them? Or 50, 51 years? He finally got it. You know, Al gets a standing ovation when he walks into the room. Yeah. Because people are so happy to see him. Well, people on social media said, you know, please get Al Jaffe for the show.

And so we're glad we did. And also the thing about the Folding to remember is Al, these are not computer generated. I know. These are not things that Al creates on the computer and emails into the office. He actually sits at the board and he illustrates them. And he goes through that process and he brings them in a portfolio the way he would have years ago. He said he never sees the finished picture until it's printed in the magazine himself because he does it on a hard board. So in his head, he knows what's supposed to happen. He works it all out, but he literally doesn't see the picture any sooner than anyone else.

Well, and I read that he tries to deceive the reader as long as he can. He tries to do a little subterfuge. Oh, yeah. Because that's part of the mastery of the planner. And I asked Al to sign a magazine for me, a mad magazine. And, you know, it was funny because his hand wasn't steady. You know, it's got like kind of a twitch in it. And it took him a while. And I said, how are you able to do those drawings in the back?

I mean, when you have so much. And he said he just loves it so much. And he spends a lot of time on them, too. It isn't like he creates a folder in five minutes. It probably takes weeks and weeks. I don't think it takes weeks and weeks, but it takes him. His pace of drawing has slowed down a lot. He's 95.

Yeah. So tell us, we touched on the episode, the full-length episode, on some of the other legendary mad artists. Gilbert brought up Proheus and Aragonus, and we talked about Jack Davis and Drucker. Any specific memories or stories that you guys have? I mean, some of these guys must have illustrated your pieces over the years. You've been in the magazine so long.

When I first started, Matt, I was actually in high school when I actually cut class to come into the office and meet the guys and show them my stuff. I sold slowly, but I sold something I think I was about 18 or 19. But the first person who drew my article was George Woodbridge, who was a great artist. I don't think he's quite as well-known to the public as Don Martin or Al Jaffe, people like that, but he was wonderful. Paul Coker drew a very early one of mine. Jack Davis, Don Martin.

I was getting just the murderer's row for my first series. It was unbelievable. Coker did my first piece in the magazine, which was a thrill. Would you help me sell? You were very patient back in 92. You'll never remember the piece, but it was Coker.

And it was such a thrill for me to get into the magazine, but also illustrated by one of the classic guys. You see, for me, when I was a mad reader, I guess this is somewhat unusual. It was the writers, not the illustrators.

That's not interesting. I went to art school. Because for me, it was Frank Jacobs. Right, right. And, you know, Jacobs specialized in writing, of course,

mad song parodies. And I remember, off we go into the lunchroom, yonder, shoving girls out of the way. Come on, boys. You know, he did all the song powering.

That's the stuff I remember. And I used to sing that stuff. And that's the stuff that drew me into Mad first. And, okay, I remember Mad Magazine used to have, like, this flying machine that would pop up. Oh, the Mad Zeppelin? Yes. The Zeppelin. Yeah, and it would pop up on different pages.

The story is that Bill Gates loved Zeppelins. That was it. That's right. As they start drawing one of the pages. He was a Zeppelin freak. I was in his office, you know, when I sold the first piece, and you brought me in. So you were in the old office. I was in the old office.

You probably have no memory of this. The Coker piece was called Practical Joke Items for People Who Hate Pets. And Coker did it, and I came up to the office, I guess, to get a check. And you said, do you want to meet Bill? And of course I did. And I don't think I've told Gilbert this. And I went in, and there were the Zeppelins hanging in the office. Four air conditioners running, probably in the middle of February.

And he pulled a bogey line on me. He said, here's to the beginning of a beautiful friendship. That's what he said. I was very touched. And then you called me about two weeks later, three weeks later, and you were kind of stunned. You were in a state of shock as he just passed. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I was surprised, but in a way wasn't surprised. I mean, think about Bill. I would say this. Bill was probably the unhealthiest man I've ever met in my life and the happiest. He really lived life on his own terms. And that was the thing about him that I really love so much. And it's funny, you have that memory of what he said to you? I remember what he said to me when he first hired me and my pal, Charlie Cato, because we were hired at the same time. He said, John and Nick, the other, you know,

John Ficarra and Nick Megal, the other editors, John and Nick tell me that you boys are very talented. I don't believe them. And then he said, I propose to pay you as little as possible. That's

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please go to connexontario.ca. That stopped with me. And he was not lying. He proposed to pay me as little as possible. And he meant it. Hilarious. That was the whole thing about Matt being cheap and all that. And Bill really was cheap, you know. Bill, talk about the trips and all that.. Hilarious. That was the whole thing about MAD being cheap and all that. And Bill really was cheap, you know.

Bill, talk about the trips and all that. He was very generous taking the MAD staff around the world. But he wouldn't allow people to subscribe with a credit card. He wouldn't have a bill me option. You had to pay to subscribe to MAD. He wouldn't spring for spring water. He had an old-fashioned fountain. He didn't want to pay for the water.

I remember when he found out, we had typewriters in the 80s. When he found out that I was using an electronic typewriter, non-reusable typewriter ribbons, he made me spend days finding cartridges that were reusable. That's great. There's some stuff like that in Dick's book. So that he wouldn't have to get bills every

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I remember a mad magazine that started out, I don't know if it was on the cover of the front page, where they'd say there was some kind of like, from a tropical country, these flat cockroaches. Oh, I think they did that for a couple pages throughout the issue. Yeah, so I was the explanation. I think they just started popping up in the margins. Yeah, so when you turned each page, they would have these throughout the page. And they're perfectly flat, and you couldn't remove them from the paper, but they were alive. That was the idea.

Yeah, yeah. I don't remember that. That was the 70s? I'm forgetting the article. I think it might be an Al Jaffe piece or something. But what they did was they sort of like parceled it out. So you turn the page. They talk about these cockroaches.

You turn it like two pages later, there's one on the page. And then two pages after that, there's like three of them. And it's like mounting and growing. And so you feel your whole magazine is infested with cockroaches. The strangest things you remember. I mean, they're almost 65 years of issues. 65 years. It's hard to remember this stuff.

And what happens invariably to me when I'm on the road, there's always someone at every show who will come up to me and say, you know, I got to tell you, I love the yearbook parody. And, you know, of course, they're talking about the National Amphibious. Of course. They're trying. They're trying. They're giving it their best shot.

Sergio Argonaz, he spent his whole life. People come up to him, oh, I love your work. Spy vs. Spy is great. And of course, he doesn't do Spy vs. Spy. Right, right, right. Did either of you know Mingo? Norman Mingo? No.

Oh, my God. There's a name. Norman Mingo died about 1980, didn't he? Okay. So I would have been in high school. Norman Mingo fought in 1980, didn't he? Okay. So I would have been in high school. Norman Mingo fought in World War I. He's the only World War I veteran

in bad history. I did not realize he passed that. Well, I can cut that part out of the show. It's like asking me if I knew Kelly Frears. I think Frears was younger than Mingo. Did you know Wally Wood? Did I know Wally Wood? Did I know Wally Wood?

He sold him the gun. No, Norman Mingo was retired. He was an illustrator, had his career. He was basically more or less retired, and they put this ad in MAD when Kelly Freus left. They were looking for—actually, it was before Freus left. They wanted somebody to do a cover. And so he came in, and then he found MAD, and it was beneath him at that point. He was a very respected professional artist.

And somehow they got him to draw the first cover illustration of Alfred E. Newman. That was issue number 30, believe it or not. And that somehow led, basically he unretired more or less from Mayotte exclusively. I did not know any of this. Here's something that I've never had a clear answer on. Is it related to what we're talking about? Not at all. No, no.

Doesn't involve George Gaines. When was Lionel Atwell born? Every show has a Lionel Atwell. I warn you. I didn't think it was going to be related to the discussion here. I don't know why. Where did Alfred E. Newman come from? Oh, that's the perennial. Yeah. What are we going to be related to the discussion here. I don't know why. Where did Alfred E. Newman come from? Oh, that's the perennial...

What are we going to say about this? Alfred E. Newman was named after... I used to think it was Randy Newman's son, but it's actually, I believe... Randy Newman's father. Randy Newman's uncle was Alfred Newman.

A film composer. The character has been traced back to various sources. It was an advertisement for a dentist in Topeka, Kansas. The What Me Worry, painless dentistry. So they pulled the tooth and it didn't hurt. They used to run in political campaigns like, this guy voted for the opponent, the one you didn't like, that kind of thing. So this moron, don't be like him.

There's a face floating around. No one really knows exactly where the idiot gap tooth character, where that idiot gap tooth kid came from. Well, that's actually why they hired Norman Mingo because because all they had was sort of these old, sort of faded 1890, 1920 pictures of Alfred Newman, and they were kind of grainy and worn out, and they wanted to make Mad a more professional-looking magazine. They said, we need somebody to paint a good picture of this guy

that we can reuse. And that was the assignment they put in the paper, and Mingo ended up being the job. I knew none of this. I thought I knew Mad history, and I knew none of this Mingo history. And the thing about Alfred, of course, he's the archetypal fool. And, you know, as Blake famously said, a fool who persists in his folly shall become wise. So there's a certain, you know, you can play Alfred either way. On one level, he's just an idiot, just a total idiot, and it can go that way.

But on the other hand, there is something about Alfred that speaks to a certain wisdom. So I think of that like in a tarot deck. The fool dances on the edge of the cliff and is about to fall off the cliff, but the dog barks to kind of warn the fool that he's in trouble. So the fool is an intuitive character in a sense. So there is a certain something there depending on how you play it. I want to give a shout-out, too, just since we've mentioned so many artists in this episode and the other episode. One of my favorites as a kid was Bob Clark.

Oh, well, Bob Clark, yeah. Jack Rickard. Bob Clark was beloved in the office. Was it Jack Rickard? I never knew how to say it. Jack Rickard. Those are guys who could do all different kinds of articles. Because a lot of the artists had their specialty, obviously, like Proheus did Spy vs. Spy,

more or less exclusively with a few extra articles here and there. I love those guys. And Sergio did Sarah Gunn's The Emergence. But Clark and Ricard were really like the, you wouldn't call them bench guys, but basically they could do a movie, they could do ads, they could do gag cartoons. And just invaluable to have when you have to put out a 48-page magazine. They're both gone, aren't they?

Yeah. Yeah, and Paul Coker's still around. Paul Coker's with us. Paul is one of several guys who's been working with Mad for over half a century. Yeah, and Paul Coker's designs were used by Rankin-Bass in the 1960s on Frosty the Snowman. Now, you see, that's the kind of stuff in your brain. Yeah.

That's the kind of stuff in your brain. If you go and you look at those cartoons, you will see Paul Coker's art. You will see Paul Coker's designs. I wrote an article about two or three years ago about global warming, and Paul Coker drew it, and in the pages, he drew Frosty the Snowman sweating to death from global warming. Love it. Which is his own character. Love it. Which is his own character. Love it. I remember National Lampoon did a takeoff on Mad Magazine.

And one of them was snappy answers for stupid questions. And it was like stuff like, hey, is this where the bus stops? And the other guy goes, fuck you. Is this where the bus stops and the other guy goes, fuck you? Well, actually, the most infamous spoof of Mad, not many people know this, was done by Al Goldstein in Screw. Oh, yes. I did know it. Al Goldstein.

He's come up on this show. Goldstein did an actually filthy spoof of Mads. Filthy. With Alfred E. Newman and fellatio and I don't remember all of it, but it was completely graphic and tasteless with that very low quality screw photoshopping. Now, understand this, that Goldstein and Gaines. They were buddies. They were friends. Yeah, yeah.

They were friends. But here's Goldstein using these copyrighted characters. He does stuff with the lighter side. You know, filthy, just completely filthy. So Gaines has to cover his ass. So Bill writes Al a letter that says, Dear Mr. Goldstein, as the publisher of Mad Magazine, I am absolutely outraged that you are doing this.

And furthermore, I demand that you remove your newspapers from the newsstands by such and such a date or you will be sued. And the screw was a weekly, and Gaines gave him a date by which he knew that the issue would be off the stands. That's great. That's a great story. the issue would be off the stands. That's great.

That's a great story. I also remember there was like one phony ad that had Bill Gaines in it. More than Bill? Oh, he had more than one. But there was that one with, it was like that kind of- The Belgian belly buster. Yes, yes. The Belgian belly buster. It was Bill and who are the others?

That's Al Goldstein. Al Goldstein, I thought so. And Lyle Stewart. Yeah, because I remember thinking, you know, like when we were talking about Al Goldstein, I thought I remember them both in that ad. You reminded me of something. Someone convinced, I guess maybe Bill's wife Annie at the time,

they convinced Bill to go to a fat farm. It's true. He was going to a Pritikin place to go on a diet for a week. And when he went there, he had people mail salami to him to break the rules while he was there. He actually smuggled meat, luncheon meat, into the Pritikin program, which was just – that was Gaines. That is good stuff. That was – you know, he –

All the bad guys would do these silly photos. Any time they need to photo someone, it's somebody who writes or draws or edits the magazine all the time. So Bill Gaines and his other old obese friends just take their shirts off and look ridiculous in the picture. They called me in for one once. We were doing a catalog of various courses or something.

And they said, come in, and you have to wear a suit because you're a successful businessman in this photo. I said, I'll show up on Wednesday dressed nicely. They said, okay, fine. So I show up there. I said, oh, okay, on Wednesday dressed nicely. I said, okay, fine. So I show up there. I said, oh, okay, we switched some things around. Because you're not a businessman anymore, you're going to be a psychotic dwarf.

I said, okay. Joe, you've been appearing in the magazine forever. You do the guy with the shirt, the pants pulled up and the suspenders. Who is that? Does that character have a name? You're going back now decades. But you've appeared a lot.

I appeared as a wrestling spoof. I was called Harold the Killer Accountant. Right, but you've appeared more than once. I've appeared a bunch of times in the magazine. Dressed as a giant lobster. You're a lobster. In a wedding dress. That's where the wedding dress is famous.

In a wedding dress. The wedding dress is famous. My favorite is as a nun playing basketball with an inflatable penguin. That's probably my favorite. We can't afford models. Right. We can't afford models. That's why when I write a piece, it's for Photoshop. It's easier.

You know, and listen, you know, your great piece in the magazine, which has been reprised recently, is the banana Republican piece. You're too kind. Oh, you have to be kind. I wrote something similar once at one point, and they wrote back to me and they said, look at Frank's article and try to make it in that vein. That's really serious. You flatter and embarrass me at the same time, boys. Yes, I was proud of the way those pieces. What was the connection or opinion of MADtv?

We like MADtv. Yeah? We like MADtv. I mean, it was very successful. It ran. It's coming back. Is that true? Carol Leaver just posted uh

yesterday that she's going to be one of the writers no kidding yeah it's coming i think it's coming back for eight episodes or 11 episodes but carol on here it ran for a long time it ran for 11 years or 13 years and it it um it really didn't reflect the magazine i would say all that well it was a different style of humor. The Mad Cartoon Show, Mad on the Cartoon Network, really had more of the magazine sensibilities than Mad TV did. But I think Mad TV was really good for Mad. It introduced us to a whole new audience.

So, I liked it. I liked it, too. Yeah, I mean, it really wasn't the magazine. No. But it was... Quincy Jones. It was more like a Saturday Night Live. Yeah, but it didn't embarrass the magazine in any way.

No, and it wasn't... Unlike Up the Academy. To bring it full circle. Lest we forget. I said, Rod Lieben did something to take his name off that movie? Oh, yeah. Somebody heard. I was asking Des through the glass before.

I think it was Robert Downey Sr. I think it was. I mean, the guy made two terrific satires. I couldn't communicate my, I believe that's true, but I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure it's true. The other thing I will say. Director of Putney Swope. That I know is true.

Mad TV came out of the West Coast. I think of the magazines as having really New York sensibilities. Of course. It really has New York sensibilities. And it terrified me when I thought you guys were going to leave. Terrified you? Yeah. He's employed there.

You're employed there. I'm glad you stuck around. You want to throw in any plugs, any mad plugs or any personal plugs? You've got a radio show. You want to throw in any plugs, any mad plugs or any personal plugs? You've got a radio show. Oh, it's a WDST at Woodstock on Sunday mornings. Gilbert and I have been on the show.

You guys have been on. We do a good show called the Woodstock Roundtable every Sunday morning on WDST.com. But more importantly, you can subscribe to Mad and go to MadMag.com and you can subscribe to Mad or get the digital version of Mad. And we're also, we have now available on Zazzle, our Trump poster, Make America Dumb Again. I love it. With basically Alfred E. Newman on a spring popping out of Trump's head, Trump's been very good for mad and for comedy in general. Yeah, it's the old question. What do you do when life becomes weirder and darker and sillier than anything you can actually satirize? With him, it's arrived.

There's an issue in the article in the new issue that I wrote, basically taking Bible quotes and Trump quotes and putting them side by side. Trump said the Bible's his favorite book, so putting his own quotes to the test. I don't want to spoil the surprise. It's a double-edged sword. It's kind of, how do you top the ridiculousness of this guy, and at the same time

he's kind of a gift. It's true of a lot of people. It's true of Ted Cruz and it's true of Bush. You know. Des, you have anything to plug? I believe Up the Academy is on DVD.

You doing a commentary? You know, I heard that that was so bad that man actually paid to take out somewhere between $10,000 and $50,000. In fact, I don't know if I've said this. Ron Lehman had his name. In fact, I don't know if I've said this.

Ron Lehman had his name taken off it. I don't know if I meant that. And I want to shout out, since you brought all those writers up, the great mad writers that we grew up on, and some of them are gone, but Larry Siegel and Stan Hart and Dick DiBartolo, who we had here, and Frank Jacobs, and am I leaving anybody out? Arnie Kogan. Arnie Kogan, who's still around.

He still writes for Mad from time to time. Yes, Arnie Kogan's still around. Who am I leaving anybody out? Arnie Kogan. Arnie Kogan, who's still around. He still writes for Mad from time to time. Yes, Arnie Kogan's still around. Who am I leaving out? I said Larry Siegel. Let's see. Lou Silverstone. The great Lou Silverstone, sure. These guys deserve a mention.

And they just got one. Yeah. And more than that. And it's strange. I grew up to the artists. I wasn't a comedy writer then. I was going to be an illustrator. So I was into Bob Clark and I was into Ricard and Woodbridge.

Yeah, I couldn't have named who those guys were at the time. I wrote an article maybe 20 years ago. I'm trying to think. Basically, the premise was taking adult-themed movies and turning them into Disney movies. So it was like Pulp Fiction if Disney did it and like the John Wayne Bobbitt porn film if Disney did it. Right. And basically I wrote the whole thing and

Disney song parodies in the middle of it and they called me and said, we like the article. Would you mind if we gave it to Frank Jacobs to take a look at it? I was like, no, I wouldn't mind that at all because Frank Jacobs is the master of that stuff. And basically he just went over it and added a few things and so it ended up being like a co-creditor like I was by me with you know additional material from him and it was like a class in comedy writing because

I took a look at the thing and so great and I'm looking saw my song what I wrote and said oh look here he completely threw my thing out and wrote this and it's much better and then some of them he said he left mine alone it's like oh my god he liked it. And then some of them he said he left mine alone. I was like, oh my God, he liked it. And then some of them were like half and half. He took like what I wrote and just added lines here and there. And of course, every one of his lines improved it. He's still a master. Like the John Wayne Bobbitt one.

One of the ones I wrote was a parody of Zippity Dooda, the song. So it was like when he's getting his penis cut off, it's like snippity ooh-ah. So it's like snippity ooh-ah, snippity yay. And then Frank's the one who wrote, it's aye-aye-aye,ety-ay and then Frank's the one who writes aye-aye-aye not to mention oy-vey

that's great that's Frank Jacobs and I remember the same Jacobs song you did isn't that strange? yeah there were a whole bunch of them you know Weird Al cites Frank we had Weird Al on the show and we talked a little about that

you know big mad fan. These guys are influences, you know, and they deserve a mention in March. I don't know if you should try this without preparation. At a Christmas party, Joe and I once sang a Frank Jacobs song, the Christmas song, Sticking Out Their Greedy Little Hands. Do you remember this at all? Doorbells Ring? Yep.

Do you guys want to hear a Frank Jacobs Christmas song? Not really. Thank you. I mentioned it. It was not my idea. He starts singing it. Give us a couple of bars. You remember it?

Sure, I remember it. Go quick. Doorbells ring, it's the season, and you know what's the reason. There's someone out there who's after his share Sticking out his greedy little hand First to come Is the doorman He'll explain He's a poor man

The janitor's next On some weak pretext Sticking out his greedy little hand I like it. Ah! Okay. I guess I guess

If that's not a cue To wrap up the show It's not a cue To wrap the show Four minutes ago. Jacob's a still a genius. the show. Not a cue to wrap the show. Four minutes ago. Jacob's a still a genius. Yeah, I'm a very talented person. I'm sorry I got talked into that.

Do you want to plug any of the Lennon shows or any of that stuff? Well, given that the next... You know what? We have a Bob Dylan... Plug it, brother. Positively Bob Dylan, volume two. Right. I'm producing.

That's at City Winery here in New York on August 3rd. Okay. And tickets are available at citywinery.com. This will definitely be up before August 3rd. That'll be a great show with Anais Mitchell and Steve Forbert and Nellie McKay. Okay. Get tickets and come. It'll be great.

Fantastic. Okay. So from Mad Magazine, we've been talking to Joe Ravioli and Desmond Tutu. talking to Joe Raffioli and Desmond Tutu. Well, those are like mad names. That's in the spirit of the magazine, wouldn't you say? Thank you, Gilbert Gottlieb.

Thank you, guys. Thanks for sticking around. And it has been Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Obsessions. Gilbert and Frank's Colossal obsessions Colossal obsessions