The Lighter Side Of...

"The Lighter Side Of..." is an American satirical comic strip series written and drawn by Dave Berg and published in Mad Magazine from 1961 to 2002.

Concept

"The Lighter Side Of..." gently satirized everyday topics such as medicine, office life, parties, marriage, psychiatry, shopping, and school. Originally Berg would take an omnibus topic (such as "Noise", "Spectators", or "Dog Owners") and deliver approximately 15 short multi-panel cartoons on the subject. From late 1980 on he used multiple topics for each installment.

The series had no recurring characters, except for the hypochondriac Roger Kaputnik, his family, and his personal doctor, who typically concluded every monthly installment. Kaputnik was a self-caricature. Berg also caricatured his colleagues, including publisher William M. Gaines, whenever he drew gags based around an office. After Gaines died in 1992, his portrait was often seen mounted on a wall.[1]

Compared to much of the other content in Mad Magazine the strip was notable for being more old-fashioned and less brutal in its style of comedy. The drawing style was also more realistic. Still, according to Mad's editors, "The Lighter Side" was one of the magazine's most popular features.[2] After Berg died the strip was retired.

Homages and reboots

Four months after the last Berg artwork was published, his final set of gags, which Berg had written but not penciled, were published in Mad as a tribute. They were divided among 18 of the magazine's regular artists, including Jack Davis' last original work for Mad. In 2007, an occasional feature called "The Darker Side of the Lighter Side" debuted, which consisted of reprinted Berg strips, with rewritten word balloons that changed the gags to black comedy topics. From October 2018 to December 2019, the Burbank reboot of Mad featured a modern reboot of the strip by writer Tammy Golden and artist Jon Adams, which was canceled when the magazine switched to mostly-reprint content in 2020.

Publications

Sixteen original collections by Berg were published as paperbacks between 1964 and 1987.

Berg paperbacks
Year Title ISBN
1964Mad's Dave Berg Looks at the U.S.A.ISBN 978-0-446-35422-6
1966Mad's Dave Berg Looks at PeopleISBN 978-0-446-86132-8
1967Mad's Dave Berg Looks at ThingsISBN 978-0-446-94403-8
1969Mad's Dave Berg Looks at Modern ThinkingISBN 978-0-446-30434-4
1971Mad's Dave Berg Looks at Our Sick WorldISBN 978-0-446-94404-5
1972Mad's Dave Berg: My Friend GodISBN 978-0-451-06976-4
1973Mad's Dave Berg Looks at LivingISBN 978-0-446-75697-6
1974Mad's Dave Berg: Roger Kaputnik and GodISBN 978-0-451-06106-5
1975Mad's Dave Berg Looks AroundISBN 978-0-446-30432-0
1977Dave Berg: Mad TrashISBN 978-0-446-87938-5
1977Mad's Dave Berg Takes a Loving LookISBN 978-0-446-88860-8
1979Mad's Dave Berg Looks, Listens and LaughsISBN 978-0-446-88667-3
1982Mad's Dave Berg Looks at YouISBN 978-0-446-34792-1
1984Mad's Dave Berg Looks at the NeighborhoodISBN 978-0-446-30350-7
1986Mad's Dave Berg Looks at Our PlanetISBN 978-0-446-32310-9
1987Mad's Dave Berg Looks at TodayISBN 978-0-446-34423-4

The artist's lightweight gags and sometimes moralistic tone were sharply satirized by the National Lampoon's 1971 Mad parody, which included a hard-hatted conservative and a longhaired hippie finding their only common ground by choking and beating Berg for being a "wishy-washy liberal".

Bart Simpson reads "The Lighter Side Of... Hippies" in The Simpsons episode "Bart of Darkness" and laughs: "They don't care whose toes they step on!"[3] In "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", Bart visits Mad Magazine's headquarters, where he witnesses Alfred E. Neuman calling for "Kaputnik and Fonebone" (the latter being a regular character in Don Martin's comics). While Neuman is yelling, Kaputnik is walking right behind him.[4]

In Family Guy's parody of The Return of the Jedi, the episode "It's A Trap!", Chris Griffin (as Luke Skywalker) suggests that Stewie Griffin (as Darth Vader) should hang out on the "lighter side" instead of "the dark side of the force". This leads to a cutaway which spoofs the comic strip.[5]

Sources
  1. "Dave Berg, 81, Wry Cartoonist; Created Mad's 'Lighter Side' Strip". The New York Times. Associated Press. 2002-05-25. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
  2. "Dave Berg". lambiek.net.
  3. "[1F22] Bart of Darkness". www.simpsonsarchive.com. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
  4. "[4F22] "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", The Simpsons Archive".
  5. "The Lighter Side of the Force: Family Guy Cutaways with Star Wars".
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