MAD Magazine published its annual list of the "The 20 Dumbest People, Events and Things of 2014" in December. Included on this year's list are items like the NFL's domestic violence issues, the hysteria surrounding the handful of Ebola cases in the U.S., President Obama's inability to be prepared for anything, Hilary Clinton's bankruptcy claims, Chris Christie's traffic scandal, that whole Donald Sterling thing and loads more.
We got MAD's current Editor-in-Chief John Ficarra (who's pictured near the bottom of this article), on the horn to find out how the list is made and why [spoiler alert!] Kim Kardashian's naked butt didn't make the list.
T-Lounge: What's the vetting process like when selecting the 20 Dumbest of the year? What criteria are needed to make it onto the list?
Ficarra: It's deceptively simple to make the list. Just do something that defies all logic and common sense — like requesting an interview with me! There's never a shortage of candidates.
How many people on your staff put their heads together to create the list?
It starts with my editorial staff, which numbers four. I start a new Word document on January 1st and then every day we meet in my office, discuss the news and see if there are any possible candidates. Around June we'll start culling the list and we send out the first memo to our freelance staff of writers begging for ideas. We're pretty much working on it every day until the day we go to press in early December, except July 4, which is a legal holiday. (Observed.)
An argument could be made that Ebola mania was dumber than the NFL scandal. How do you decide what was the "dumbest," the second dumbest, and so on? What puts one over another?
You could make the argument that Ebola mania was dumber than the NFL scandal, but you would lose! Much of our decision for number one is based on what story we think will still resonate with readers by the time the issue is on sale. The Ebola story appeared to be waning as we were deciding.
We knew there would definitely be some interest in the NFL in December, except in New York where we have the Jets and Giants. Also, the Goodellfellas visual was strong, which is always a factor as well.
On the flip side of the coin, how do you decide what not to include?
Sometimes there is something we want to put on the list — this year it was the ice bucket challenge — but we just can't find anything "dumb" about it. Yes, dumping ice water over your head and pestering your friends on Facebook and YouTube to do the same could be called dumb. But in the end it raised quite a bit of money for a good cause, so we threw cold water on the idea of including it in the 20 Dumbest. (Ha! See what I did there?)
Also, we have a strict rule that we never do victim humor. So while we did Ebola, it was about people's hysterical reaction to the outbreak, not the people who contracted it. Likewise, we didn't do anything on the ISIS beheadings. Now, if by chance in 2015, a member of ISIS suffering from Ebola is beheaded, I might make the case to break our strict rule.
Anything get left off the list this year that you wish could have been included?
We considered putting Ms. Kardashian's attempt to break the internet on the list, but we've done her a few times over the previous years so there is a bit of comedy fatigue in the offices about her. Also, looking at it from her perspective, she is all about getting her name and butt in the public's face as often as possible. So in that regard what she did wasn't dumb, it was brilliant. Right up there with the invention of the combustion engine and the Salk vaccination.
The Sony hack occurred too late for us. And that story is still playing out. Was North Korea dumb to do this? Was Sony dumb to pull the picture? Was Sony dumb to sign James Franco to star in it? Okay, that's one we can all agree upon, but the other questions are still open to history.
Obviously it's too soon to predict major events/scandals to come, but do you have any early predictions on what trending topics might become "dumbest" next year?
Well, the 2016 presidential elections will be in the news next year. And when you review the list of possible candidates and their previous antics (Clinton, Bush, Paul, Santorum, Biden, Cruz, Christie, etc.) it doesn't take much gazing into the comedy crystal ball to know we could probably do a 20 Dumbest of just politicians next year.
Donald Trump was strangely quiet this year. I can't image that tranquility lasting much longer so I wouldn't be surprised by his return to the 20. Oddly, though he's been on our 20 Dumbest list more times than Kim Kardashian, the staff never seems to grow tired of making fun of him.
So what's it like to work at MAD Magazine? It must be a zany place.
Contrary to what many people think, it's very ordinary, very regimented. Just like when you visit a Detroit car assembly factory there are some workers who are responsible for the dashboard, and others who work on the transmission, so to it is at MAD. Some workers handle the set-ups, others the punch lines.
One of our biggest areas of growth is in the puns department, while knock-knock jokes have pretty much been related to the dustbin of comedy. Sad.
Any thoughts about [celebrated longtime illustrator] Jack Davis' retirement?
Jack is one of the great comic illustrators of the 20th Century and one of the most important artists in MAD history. Jack turned 90 recently, so I guess if he wants to slack off and play golf, that's his decision. I would point out to Jack, however, that fellow MAD artist Al Jaffee continues to write and illustrate the MAD Fold-In in every issue of the magazine and Al is 93. So maybe Jack should rethink this whole retirement idea.
