Perhaps the most famous feature of MAD magazine is its Fold-In feature, typically found on the inside of the back cover. By folding the page so that Point A and Point B meet, you will transform the picture and question shown on the page into a new picture as well as an answer to the question posed in the bigger picture. They usually deal with topical issues, in this case, flag burning. In 1989, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the 1968 Flag Protection Act was unconstitutional and that flag burning was a protected form of free speech. The decision mobilized Congress to immediately pass a new Flag Protection Act, which was struck down by the Court in June of 1990. The President was against flag burning, causing Fold-In mastermind Al Jaffee to pose the following question: WHAT DO WE FEAR WILL BE THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S SOLUTION TO FLAG BURNING? To find out the answer, I'll have to fold the back cover. But wait, that'll damage the magazine! And since the damn thing is 17 years old and was intentionally printed on shitty paper, there's a good chance it'll fall apart if I fold it. Luckily, I don't have to. Through the magic of digital editing, I can simulate what the magazine MIGHT look like if I were actually to fold it. To see what the folded picture POSSIBLY looks like, simply place your cursor over the image below.
Dear God! George Herbert Walker Bush was planning to stop flag burning by burning the Bill of Rights! Thank heavens MAD stumbled onto to this insane plot and thwarted it! Seriously though, what a stupid fucking fold-in. On the one hand, I admire Al Jaffee because I imagine it takes a significant amount of both talent and careful planning to create a picture that folds into another picture for punchline. On the other hand, this punchline is incredibly stupid. Yes, flag burning is recognized by the Supreme Court as a protected form of free speech. Yes, there are lawmakers who are incredibly pissed off by this decision. But the idea that the attempts to stop flag burning could somehow snowball into an Orwellian nightmare where the American government strips its citizens of the basic rights the founding fathers guaranteed us is both cynical and outright ignorant. I think the thing that offends me the most about this fold-in is its adamant pro-flag burning message. The implication here is that if you believe there should be laws in place to prevent flag burning then you might as well just throw out the entire framework of democracy, because you're a miserable fucking facist. This is an unreasonable message. The issue of flag burning is a very simple, and there's no need for Jaffee's histrionic approach to the subject. Should burning the American flag be considered a protected form of free speech as defined in the First Amendment to the Constitution? Absolutely. Should the American flag ever be burned by American citizens an act of protest against their government? Absolutely not. The American flag is our nation's oldest and most enduring symbol. It dates back to the Revolutionary War when the American colonists began their fight for independence from British rule. As such, the flag is a physical embodiment of the democratic ideals those people fought and died for. It is as much a part of those ideals as the Constitution that details them. So when someone burns the flag to protest some present day government action, they are completely misguided in doing so. The flag is not the sole property of whatever elected officials happen to be in office and it is not a proper effigy for their actions. No, the flag is the property of ALL Americans. and any citizen who believes that framework that Washington, Madison, Franklin, and Jefferson created has within it the capacity for good has no business burning it. It is a symbol to be appropriated by all citizens who believe in the virtues of democracy for whatever purposes they believe to be in the best interest of democracy. It is not, as those who would burn it believe, a symbol of war. Quite the contrary, it is a symbol of freedom and free speech. To burn it, is to reject such ideals. But if there are Americans want to burn their flag, let them; it is their right. But you can take comfort in the fact that such an act is backward and completely contrary to the message it hopes to convey.