MAD About Sports Review
January 20th, 2008 by Tim Lovett

A long-forgotten classic, MAD about Sports is MAD at its best. Released in a paperback book format, instead of the usual magazine, it doesn’t have to resort to poking fun at the politicians and celebrities of the day. By focusing on the generalized category of sports, the book makes for some excellent satire that is still fun to read all these years after its 1972 publication.

Much of the subject matter is still relevant and funny today, although some of the content does show signs of the times. For example, almost every illustration depicts people with 70's-style hairdos and clothing, but that is easily ignored, and one could even argue that it adds to the book’s charm. Also, there is a well-done section that makes jokes about how the average woman is stupid when it comes to understanding sports. Women like that still exist today, but I’m sure it is much less rampant. Here’s a sample:

The dopey look on the wife's face is great. But what's with the husband, is that Michael Moore?

Another feature, which is even funnier now, 35 years later, is titled “The Big Time Athlete of Yesterday and Today”. Apparently, even back in the 70's, people complained that professional athletes were too spoiled and selfish. In hindsight, the sports fans of the 70's hadn’t seen anything yet.

The 1972 athlete may be a jerk, but you have to admire his charisma. (Click image for better resolution)

The longest feature, a piece called “If TV Sports Covered A Family Quarrel”, is simultaneously a brilliant spoof on sports announcing and glorification of family violence. The illustrator did a great job with this one as well.

Family violence, you gotta love it. (Click image for better resolution)

The writers were even clever enough to use the back cover as a last opportunity to throw in some more jokes. For my money, this “Certificate of Laughter” is a better way to end the book than any MAD fold-in.

I can vouch for that.

Many other aspects of the sports world are parodied as well, including a jock who is raised from birth to be a professional athlete, college band half-time formations, the brain-dead sports TV couch potato, and sports editors. All of these provide varying degrees of hilarity, depending on how closely you follow sports.

One bad thing about this book is that it’s a bit too short. With 192 short pages, most of which are just comics, the average reader can breeze through this in under a half-hour. Also, it is a bit disappointing to see that the majority of the segments are devoted to football and baseball, with basketball and hockey hardly getting mentioned at all. An extra section or two devoted to these two major sports would have made for a better book. However, these gripes are relatively small as the book is very satisfying overall.

If you’re a fan of sports or of MAD in general, this oldie is definitely worth picking up. Last I checked, it can be obtained on Ebay for a fairly low price as there seems to be plenty of copies still in circulation.

Final Opinion: Recommended

- 1.20.2008

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