MAD’s longest-serving cartoonist invented a way to do something unusual: turn a pulp-magazine page into an animated, interactive feature.
Photo: TM & © EC Publishing. Used with permission.magazine, founded in 1952, published 550 issues plus a handful more after a reboot in 2019, andin 1955 and stepped away in 2020, not terribly long before his death this Monday, April 10, at 102. But the length of his run barely touches upon his skill, accessible wit, and ability to channel the collective ethos of the Usual Gang of Idiots while also producing work that was all Al.
Consider “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,” his recurring column with a baby-simple premise: A character asks a particularly S.Q., and another character responds with three snarky S.A.’s. It was Groucho Marxism for beginners, an instruction manual for budding teen smart-asses entering the world of dopey adults. It no doubt was the bane of all but the most enlightened parents and teachers.
“Snappy Answers” often addressed pet peeves, and that instinct pervades Jaffee’s work, especially another long-running series devoted to absurd inventions. Except that they weren’t patently absurd: Most slid right up to the edge of funny practicality, like a giant-size toilet-paper holder that housed ten replacement rolls, or a “hot hand” handbag that contained heating coils activated by a breakaway handle, intended to scorch purse-snatchers.
Jaffee did not have that kind of childhood. He grew up weirdly and under stress, in a life that did not follow a familiar Jewish American–immigrant path. He was born in Savannah, Georgia, and his mother moved to a harsh Lithuanian shtetl when he was 6. Then he returned to America , then went back to Lithuania , and finally, as the Nazis swept in, fled to New York as a teenager. It was an unstable and chaotic youth.
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