Those of a certain age will remember the American satirical MAD magazine and it’s star Alfred E Neuman. One of its popular features was the “Mad Fold-In”, written and drawn by Al Jaffee, who died recently at the ripe age of 102. A Mad Fold-In consists of a single drawing, with text underneath, and a panel across the top with a question. It also featured instructions on how to fold the back cover. When the paper is folded so that points A and B are touching, the remaining text becomes the answer to the question, and the picture itself changes into a fresh image reflecting the new text, as the middle half of the drawing vanishes.

Explaining his original inspiration, Jaffee said: Playboy had a foldout of a beautiful woman in each issue, and Life Magazine had these large, striking foldouts in which they’d show how the earth began or the solar system. Many magazines were hopping on the bandwagon, offering similar full-color spreads to their readers. I noticed this and thought, what’s a good satirical comment on the trend? Then I figured, why not reverse it? If other magazines are doing these big, full-color foldouts, well, cheap old Mad should go completely the opposite way and do an ultra-modest black-and-white Fold-In!

The Far Side creator Gary Larson described his experience with the Fold-In: “The dilemma was always this: to slowly and carefully fold the back cover without creasing the page and quickly look at the joke. Jaffee’s artistry before the folding was so amazing that I suspect I was not alone in not wanting to deface it in any way.” Jaffee’s final Fold-In appeared in the August 2020 issue of Mad after the cartoonist retired at the age of 99. Here’s a video showing some examples. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuSlejnid1A)

Issues 110 (April 1967), 115 and 117-121 included spoof adverts for subscriptions to the magazine featuring origami designs folded from dollar bills. These designs were folded by (and probably designed by) Giuseppi Baggi. an Italian artist who lived in the States for some years. Issue 436 of December 2003 contained an article on Norigami – the Ancient Japanese Art of Paper Unfolding.

It’s nice to think that the magazine encouraged some of today’s folders, I certainly loved reading it during my teenage years, especially the cartoons of Don Martin.

Thanks to Michel Grand and David Mitchell (see www.origamiheaven.com/historymadmagazine.htm)