 the mad fold-in is a feature found on the inside back cover of virtually every mad magazine since 1964. written and drawn by al jaffee, the fold-in is one of the most well-known aspects of the magazine. the feature was conceived in response to centerfolds in popular magazines, particularly playboy.dick debartolo, daily giz wiz, episode 473 http://twit.tv/dgw473 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 or something on that order -- some massive panorama. 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!"fold this book!, jaffee, al, warner books, 1997 in 2011, jaffee reflected, "the thing that i got a kick out of was... jeopardy! showed a fold-in and the contestants all came up with the word they were looking for, which was âfold-in.â so i realized, i created an english language word." ==concept== a mad fold-in consists of a single drawing, with a paragraph of text underneath, and a panel across the top with a question. each fold-in also features instructions on how to manipulate the fold-in, as well as a picture illustrating the procedure. under the instructions are two arrows labeled "a" and "b". when the paper is folded so that points "a" and "b" are touching, the remaining unobscured text underneath the picture becomes the answer to the question, and the picture itself changes into a fresh image reflecting the new text, as the middle 50% of the drawing vanishes. for example, a 1969 fold-in asking, "what is the one thing protest marches have greatly improved?" depicted a stream of placard-carrying marchers, but folded into the image of the underside of a worn-out sole and the answer, "shoe sales." a drawing of a fearsome panther stalking a variety of jungle animals accompanying the question "what predatory creature most threatens the survival of endangered species?" contracted to the image of a lavishly swaddled woman and the solution "fur lovers." (in the larger drawing, the two halves of her fur coat had been the foliage of trees.) following the 1991 tailhook scandal, a navy war room became a female officer being sexually molested by a gauntlet of her comrades. the far side creator gary larson described his experience with the fold-in: "the dilemma was always this: very slowly and 
Mad_(magazine)