MAD #166

The 166th issue of MAD Magazine was arguably one of the most controversial covers to grace the newsstands in 1974. At the time, MAD Magazine was in high demand; it was their most successful period of publication, with over 2 million copies circulating per month. For that very reason, they felt they should acknowledge their success on their 166th cover, claiming they are “The Number One Ecch Magazine”. The term “ecch” is theorized to come from old-school comic exclamations, alluding to their low-blow jokes and subversive content that many respectable individuals perceived as bad taste. The witty commentary on their satirical success was complemented by the humble graphic of a middle finger flipping off the reader.

Although the magazine was infamous for its raunchy, satirical, anti-establishment tone, the producers were unrepentant. This impenitent demeaner came to a screeching halt after the release of the 166th issue. The public was so upset with the cover that newsstands refused to stock the issue on their shelves, subscribers cancelled their subscriptions, and some readers never picked up another copy of MAD magazine again. They received so much backlash that the publisher, William Gaines, publicly apologized to the magazine's subscribers, readers, and retailers. The sheer volume of returned magazines from newsstands led MAD to stash the extra issues in storage for thirty years before running a promotional deal where they gave away free copies of their most controversial issue to subscribers. As controversial as the cover was, this incident highlights a sort of natural censorship that occurs when the public isn’t ready for a taboo graphic. MAD spent years walking the line between raunchiness and straight-up bad taste; the 166th issue crossed that line.