MAD About “The Raven”

“MAD About ‘The Raven’” examines the eleven times MAD magazine uses “The Raven” as a vehicle of parody either against something external to the poem or to parody Poe and/or his most famous work. The first part of the article looks at how MAD uses “The Raven” to attack such things as advertising, shady business dealings, and Ronald Reagan. The second half focuses on MAD’s parody of “The Raven” itself, revealing that poem’s underside of absurdity through an analysis of Bill Elder’s illustrations. Copies of some of those illustrations help illuminate the point.