Lou Silverstone

Lou Silverstone was best known as a comedy writer and a longtime contributor to *MAD Magazine*, where he was a member of "The Usual Gang of Idiots" from 1962 to 1990. Born Louis Donald Silverstone on May 17, 1924, in Plainfield, New Jersey, he grew up there and graduated from Plainfield High School before attending the University of Illinois. He worked as an accountant for several years before breaking into comedy writing through sheer determination. His first *MAD* piece was "Bananaz," a parody of the TV western *Bonanza*, and he went on to earn over 180 bylines for the magazine. Though he primarily wrote television and movie parodies, he also conceived the "Madde" insert—a 24-page section published during the Bicentennial that imagined a 1776 edition of *MAD*. Silverstone wrote three of its articles under the pseudonym "scrivener," including "Ye Madde Hate Book." In 1983, he created "The Book of Mad," which presented excerpts from a Biblical-era *MAD*. Outside the magazine, he wrote for *Candid Camera* and the animated *Jackson Five* cartoon. After leaving *MAD*, he moved to its competitor *Cracked*, serving as an editor and writer for several years. Silverstone died on March 9, 2015. He was married for 61 years.