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Kapatsos remembers...one of my friends got this game one year and had a bunch of us come over to play it..I ... More »
Posted on 07/08/08
Manufacturer:
In the world of board games, there are winners and there are losers. But in the case of the Mad Magazine Game, the two are one in the same. In a game of reverse psychology and inverse proportions, the Mad Magazine game – a derivative of the popular pop satire magazine – appeared in a number of incarnations through the years, all of them paying homage to the mag’s tradition of zaniness.
In 1960, the first Mad Magazine Game made it’s unheralded appearance in stores as “Screwball, The Mad Mad Mad Game?” (Question mark included). Prizes littered the board in this beauty, ranging from Moon Maid Prunes to three-legged pantyhose. With a spinner determining fate, players earned these amazing items by either paying nothing, half, full, or double. The madness even made its way to the head offices as Screwball was, perhaps appropriately, unlicensed.
Nineteen years later, The Mad Magazine Game made a far more official foray into the board game world. With the Parker Brothers emblem lending it some credence, the Mad Magazine Game made winners out of losers. The object of the game was to lose your money. But not unlike Brewster with him millions, losing all of one’s sponduli in The Mad Magazine Game was no cake walk. Bizarre rules made for immeasurable unpredictability (especially when players could vote on them). All the great Mad Magazine artists – Sergio Aragones, Dave Berg, Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Al Jaffee, Don Martin, and Antonio Prohias – brought their talents to the board itself. Each space of the board contained the instructions or choices that ranged from peculiar to wacky. “Lose a turn or go ahead twenty-seven spaces” seemed straight forward in an odd way, but “Everyone moves one chair to the left” or “If your name is Alfred E. Neuman, collect $1,329,063. If not, lose a turn,” took the game into the realm of dementia unrivaled in the board game world. On some spaces, players drew cards that inspired even more weirdness. “Stand up and boo the person on your left. Also lose $1000,” could easily be followed on the next turn with “If you are good looking, stand up and imitate your favorite animal, and lose $ 2000.” Play continued around the board until somebody finally lost, thus becoming the winner.
A favorite at slumber parties and informal get-togethers, The Mad Magazine Game enjoyed a small measure of success, inspiring The Mad Magazine Card Game a year later in 1980. Mad Magazine’s staple comic Spy Vs. Spy also entered the board game world in 1986 with enough tunneling, bombing, back-stabbing sabotage to satiate legions of fans. While the life span of all of Mad’s endeavors was relatively short, the continued publication of the magazine means that the next incarnation could be any time.
