Frank Jacobs, 1929-2021

I was saddened to hear of the passing of MAD‘s “Poet Laureate”, longtime writer Frank Jacobs yesterday. He was 91.

Frank is best known for his song parodies in MAD AKA “Sing to the Tune of…”, which became not just a trademark element of MAD’s repertoire of recurring features, but the focus of its most famous legal battle. Berlin v. E.C. Publications, Inc., 329 F.2d 541 (2d Cir. 1964), became a landmark case of copyright law. Irving Berlin (and a bunch of music publishers) sued MAD over the song parodies that were part of a paperback book entitled More Trash from Mad No. 4, claiming copyright infringement of the original songs. The case made it all the way to the US, Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, which found in favor of MAD. In the decision, U.S. Circuit Court judge Irving Kaufman wrote (in part) : ” We doubt that even so eminent a composer as plaintiff Irving Berlin should be permitted to claim a property interest in iambic pentameter.”

Frank did a lot more than writing just spoofs of song lyrics. His work first appeared in MAD #33 in 1957, and he contributed to over 300 issues over a 57 year span, and his contributions ran the gamut from song parodies to spoofs of famous poems and prose, to political satire, to TV and film parodies, and just about everything else. Frank wrote one of my all time favorite MAD pieces “The Mad Comic Opera” from MAD #56, illustrated by Wally Wood.

I only got to work on something Frank wrote once, and that was just one of many spot illustrations done by different artists for his feature “The Bailout Hymn of the Republic” from MAD #500, the art of which is at the top of this post.

I did get to meet Frank once. Early on in my time with MAD, they had a December holiday party at the Society of Illustrators. One year they gave Frank a “MAD Book”, which is a book full of drawings and writings from The Usual Gang of Idiots in honor of another member of the Usual Gang. These books were started as gifts for MAD publisher Bill Gaines as a commemoration and thank you for each of the famous “MAD Trips”, he would take freelancers on. All those who went on the trip would do something for Bill in a book, and it would be given to him. Often these were a type of “roast” and the contributions were insulting and/or ribald. Eventually these books became a kind of honor given to longtime MAD folks. Anyway I got to do a drawing for Frank’s book, and got to meet him that night when he was presented with it.

There have been a lot of wonderful tributes written by folks who knew Frank far better than I… too many to link to here. He inspired and influenced many, and entertained generations of MAD readers with his smart and funny pen.

Rest in Peace, Frank, and thanks for the laughs!