It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Month, Part 4 – Mad #186 (The Star Trek Musical)

“Hello my Trekkie, hello my Trekker, hello my ragtime geek…”

You have to love the Michigan J. Frog/Spaceballs chestburster cover.

This shall be the last installment in for the Mad month. It’s been brief, but fun. We’ve seen Close Encounters, the Hulk, and The Greatest American Hero all get the works. It seems fitting that we tie things up with one of the richest veins of parody Mad ever mined, the Star Trek mythos. Spock’s ears. Scotty’s accent. Shatner’s toupee and paunch. There’s a lot of clay there with which to sculpt.

This spoof (Mort Drucker/Frank Jacobs), published in the awkward 1970s interregnum between the end of the series and the release of The Motion(less) Picture, has a good laugh at the expense of the hopelessly typecast and adrift ensemble (those days you could get Shat to come to your house for a handful of cash), all set to the tunes of popular tunes of the day. I know Nichelle Nichols belted out a song or two during the original run, but when it comes to singing Star Trek actors, all one can think of is Shatner and “Rocket Man.” This can’t live up to that insanity. But it can try.

Here’s big-belly Bill giving us an “Age of Aquarius” welcome:

How about a thoroughly sadistic looking Leonard McCoy ignoring some pleading Don Martin crewmen?:

Here’s some “Spock Thoughts” for you:

Finally, the entire cast (minus poor Chekov) signing off — could Kirk be in a more Kirky posture?:

Mort Drucker. The Mad maestro. He’s one of those guys that didn’t just set the bar, he posted a record and then took the bar home and buried it in his back yard. The Jerry Rice of Mad illustrators. Everyone else is playing for second. And the lyrics here ain’t too bad either.

This was a good way to close things up. I’ll let you know when I get ready to dig into Sylvester P. Smythe & Co.