Comedian Dan Telfer made the best joke, Al’s birthday is now the perfect fold-in! For Gen Z and some Mills, back when MAD was around, the back, inside cover was an art-based joke by Al. It would ask a question and the answer was sussed out by folding in the picture along the A and B tabs. How Al managed to do this for decades is beyond me. Sure, not every one was a hit yet you had to give him credit for such diligence.
He also contributed other great bits, namely his Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions section that MAD would recollect into paperback books. Again, this section wasn’t always a home run nor did they always age well but they were immortalized by The Simpsons…
I loved his other articles, namely when I was a kid, Al came up with counter inventions we need every day. Today, I would love to have a set of reverse headlights to glare back at all those frickin’ F-350s and SUVs riding up on me. Dilate their irises suddenly, see how they like it while they’re jibber jabbering on their phones. Then the special punishments for certain offenders was great. I only remember the pool of warm pickle brine and other liquids you sentence pool pissers to. And they had to be submerged up to their chins to get the point 0f what they do.