Introduction. The Parodic Impulse in the (Not-So) Fabulous Fifties 1. The New, Sick Sense: The Mediation of America's Health and Humor at Mid-Century 2. What, Me Subversive? MAD Magazine and the Textual Strategies and Cultural Politics of Parody 3. The Parodic Sensibility and the Sophisticated Gaze: Masculinity and Taste in Playboy's Penthouse 4. Ernie Kovacs and the Logics of Television Parody and Electronic Trickery 5. Black Tie, Straightjacket: Oscar Levant's Sick Life on TV Conclusion: Television for People Who Hate Television?