Or, “When Star Trek Went MAD…Again”
Mad Magazine (or MAD) was infamous for its impudent take on… well, everything. It spoofed, satirized, and skewered politics, social issues, fads, celebrities, music, etc., plus movies and TV shows. MAD took its first shot at Star Trek in 1967, at the start of the series’ 2nd season. But it took a second crack at the series seven years after its cancellation.
Front cover of MAD #186, cover dated October 1976.
A while back, we decided to look at that second crack, noting how vastly superior it was to its predecessor. The broad and frankly generic spoof of the first attempt was succeeded by a right-on-the-money lampoon that skewered not just the show’s characters and format but commented on its syndication success and the business of selling merch to Trekkies… And on top of all that, did so in the format of a musical. Okay, being in a print magazine, these “musicals” were, by necessity, silent. The writers would pen parody lyrics to popular songs most of their readers would be familiar with at the time, and call out those songs in the text as “Sung to the tune of.” You’d sing it in your head, so to speak.
MAD had sent up music and musicals for years prior. “The Mad ‘Comic” Opera” was printed as far back as 1960, and movies became prime targets for such “musical” spoofage. “On a Clear Day You Can See a Funny Girl Singing ‘Hello Dolly’ Forever” was published in 1971, and “What’s Entertainment” in 1975. But it appears Star Trek may have been the only TV series to receive the MAD musical treatment.
Page 2 of “Star Blecch” from MAD Magazine #115, December 1967.
One thing we could do that MAD couldn’t during the Ford administration is provide links to the songs being parodied. So, if you’re too young for the tunes to be familiar, you’ll be able to put the words to the music. Here’s an example:
Clipping from Page 6 of “Keep on Trekin’” from MAD Magazine #186, December 1976.
Aquarius (lyrics start at 42 seconds in.)
"Aquarius” originated in the controversial 1967 musical Hair, and that’s the recording we’re linking to. Most people know it from its memorable cover by The 5th Dimension in a 1969 medley with “Let the Sunshine In” from the same musical.
So, how come this 1976 spoof was so much better than the 1967 one? Well, Star Trek in syndication had become a hit, so it was more familiar than it had been previously, so much so that two "Federation Trading Post" stores selling merch appeared in Berkeley, CA, and Manhattan, New York City. The NYC location was co-run by a young Doug Drexler. As he said in a 2006 interview on Trekmovie (source):
We chatted with Mr. Drexler about MAD specifically, and he told us:
And sure enough, MAD’s 1976 musical suggests their input. Consider the comic’s aforementioned brilliant parody of “Aquarius” which illustrates that fans had been calling out the plot armor and redshirt phenomena long before either term was invented. This illustrates just how little fandom has changed in the past half-century.
As the making of Star Trek red-shifts into the distance, we increasingly lose visibility into the world and medium it inhabited. To truly judge the show’s merits and failings, and the difference between innovation and popularization, you have to have context, some understanding of the world that bore it, and the environment generated by its fandom. That's why we looked into the context in which the spoof was printed, and how the comic itself is a snapshot of where Trek fandom stood in the American bicentennial year of 1776.
It's too much material to post here, so to read the whole comic, hear the songs, and get the full historical context, check out our FACT TREK blog post where we raise the curtain on MAD’s “Keep On Trekin’.” (link)
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