My Friend God

by Dave Berg

An illustrator from MAD magazine presents his mad, mad views on cults, hypocrisy, evolution, the connection between religion and humor, and many other religion-related topics. Original.

Genres: Humor

Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1972

About the author

Artist, author, and cartoonist for MAD Magazine, 1956-2002.

Reviews

[Ian Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a huge fan of MAD Magazine when I was a kid and I really liked Mr Berg’s “Lighter Side Of...” strips so this seemed like an interesting read when I was much younger. As someone who is now of a similar vintage to the author when he wrote it, though, I feel a little differently. I get that his heart is in the right place but his sentiments haven’t aged very well. The idea of centrism when discussing political/ social issues seems a little odd when he talks about POC people having the same opportunities as he did simply because he grew up in a poor neighbourhood, and I get his sympathies towards the Israelis during the late 60s/ early 70s conflicts, and I even agree with them in part but he refuses to apply his own”fault on both sides” argument to it and he is definitely laying out his support for one side of the generation gap (hint: it’s not the people who might conceivably have bought his book) in the latter chapters. It was a good barometer check for how my attitudes have changed over the years since I last read it, but I’m not sure I’m going to need any calibration like this for a while longer. It’s still funny, but not in the way it used to be.

[FranklinTV · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a strange book for a young teen in Australia to read. I bought it for the few smatterings of cartoons, but one holiday, when aged about 14, I eventually read the actual text. Probably the first book I read on God and being a Jew. It was interesting enough for me to read it all, I no doubt didn't understand most of it, but it also introduced me to the conversation retrospective style of book that I seem to like most. So despite being atheist, I will keep this religious text, even if its only for the paragraph " No, Jews are not smarter than anyone else. They are not even always less stupid. Take their practice of circumcision. They shouldn't be taking off, if they were smart, they'd be adding on".