Mad Magazine board game (1979)

Back on the tabletop, we finally broke out my copy of the Mad Magazine Board Game from 1979 that I got about two months ago.  It looked like it would be in the gag-filled "dopey" category, and I was not far off.  But it provided plenty of laughs and "ugh" moments, and was actually a lot of fun.

First, it was clear that the rules insert was missing, but that was easily located at BoardGameGeek.com, but the only important detail was how much starting cash you get.  After all, the box bottom boasted that the object of the game was to be the first to lose all your money, and the game board spaces and cards were quite specific enough.

So you start with $10,000.  That's really all you need to know if you're missing the rules sheet.  There a few other rules but you could probably guess them: if you land on an arrow box, roll one die and begin on the inner track (like in Careers), only using one die while on the inner track.  And if you take the money from Tough Luck, the banker puts another $500 in there when you leave.  And, oh yeah, there IS a space called Anywhere.  So sentences that say Anywhere will now make sense.

Just sorting the bills to start as the Banker, there was an unexpected gag ... one leftover bill for a ridiculously specific amount of money.  Good one.

You roll the dice and bounce all over the place, forward and backward, losing turns or being stuck until another player passes your space.  There are so many times where the two players switch seats, it could almost be billed as a Musical Chairs crossover episode.  Note that when switching seats, you leave your money behind but take your drink with you.  Which leads to the comedy that the banker is not actually a player, but a seat -- and whoever ends up at that seat is now the banker.  This was annoying at first and then just plain funny, and heck, you get more physical exercise at this game than most other board games.

After about 15 moves, we ended up with the same amount of money anyway, so the whole situation felt pointless and out-of-whack. 

 

But that was an illusion.  It only takes a move or two for the whole thing to spiral into a win for someone.  Remember that oddly valued extra bill in the pack of play money?  Well, here it is, doing its thing...

 

It's still useless.  Even if that WAS your name, somehow, the bill can't be cashed in because it's worth more than the whole rest of the bankroll combined.

A favorite spot on the board said, "One of your $1,000 is counterfeit, give it back to the bank."  So hooray, you get to relieve yourself of the burden of a $1,000 bill.  Not two $500s.  No, not that at all.  One time, I swear that I was thinking about making change of my last $5,000 bill (the only bill I had left) so I could have more useful bills, but chose not to, and the very next turn I landed on this space and we had to discuss it: with this gag on the board, I don't think you should be allowed to make change except through valid transactions.  Hmm.  Another space said "One of your $2,000 is counterfeit, give it back to the bank."  And that's the kind of smart-ass who wrote this game.  A funny guy.  (There are no $2,000 bills, and it does NOT say "two $1,000".)

The game does an admirable job of lampooning board games.  The first time you have to move 21 or 24 spaces, it's funny.  After a while you have to ask (probably out loud) why we do these things to ourselves.  Instead of having "Chance" cards or "Action" cards or "Career" cards like certain other games, they just have "Card" cards.  And the Card cards were a fair range of ups and downs, with one or two performance acts, like walking all the way around the table with the card on your head and scoring more if it's still on your head when done making the rounds.  Or having the reward change based on whether anyone had their elbows on the table or not.  Only a few of the cards call for embarrassing behavior or antics, unless you're a Rock, which I won't tell you about.  And it's just plain fun to get technical and read EVERY time it says "take a CARD card" exactly the way it's written.  Seriously, there are no other kinds of cards but you just can't stop calling them that.  I mean, you totally could stop, but why would you?

The best gag card was this one:

It is both fiendishly clever and totally dumb at the same time.  Which was a different kind of clever, which makes a different type of dumb.  I mean, if it's Friday you can use it but it does nothing, and all other days it's not even playable.  Is that worse that nothing?

I wanted to comment on the Tough Luck space, which acts like Free Parking AND Jail from Monopoly but with some important differences.  First, it doesn't say you have to stay there or pay to get out, so you can just leave next turn.  Second, while money gets put there throughout the game and if you land there you have to take it, just like the Free Parking space in Monopoly, the funny part is that thing about putting money "in Free Parking" is not an official rule in Monopoly, it's more of a universal house rule that everyone thinks is a thing.  But here it's actually a thing.  Surprisingly, for a game that doesn't even pretend to make sense, we found a loophole which lead to another discussion: if you're already on Tough Luck and another player puts more money into Tough Luck, you really should HAVE to take it, because of all that Tough Luck you're currently having.

If you can find it, I would call this one a comical win, which fits the misfit style of the old Mad Magazine perfectly well.  Actually, Mad Magazine is still around in some fashion, I suppose, seeing how I have their Christmas "Ho Ho Hum" special issue on my bedside table.