If you like “The Daily Show,” “Saturday Night Live” or even “Airplane!” you can thank Alfred E. Neuman.

“When We Went MAD!” says they reflect the magazine’s precocious mascot. The documentary has a point, one shared with wry anecdotes and historical callbacks. This mash note to the “usual gang of idiots” will delight fans and leave others wondering what they missed.

Plenty, as it turns out.

The magazine’s culture war battles raged without enough fanfare, and its pages inspired some of the biggest comedy names today.

It’s shocking we haven’t seen a similar film on MAD’s impact until now. 

MAD’s humble roots belie its cultural run. The magazine began in 1952 as yet another comic creation, albeit one mocking horror titles. It grew beyond those targets, thanks to the tenacity of co-founders Harvey Kurtzman and William Gaines.

MAD became a glossy magazine, and when it embraced movie parodies its fan base exploded. Along the way, MAD challenged authority, mocked politicians and ribbed all the right people.

The creators may have been left-leaning via their choice of targets, but they hit both sides and didn’t shy from controversy. They even took pot shots at hippies, a no-no in select circles.

Today, the mag would be considered MAGA for those reasons alone. After all, Alfred E. Neuman would never lecture his readers.

The magazine’s rigorously PG-rated humor, inspired by the founders’ Jewish roots, didn’t come without a fight. MAD battled back against lawsuits, helping expand the creative field for fellow satirists.

A sequence detailing the FBI’s fury with MAD is fascinating and prescient. Back then, humor was the target. More recently, concerned parents found themselves in the FBI’s crosshairs.

A few details feel unnecessary, like the magazine’s penchant for group vacations and fanboy anecdotes from folks like Bryan Cranston. Others, like Judd Apatow, “Weird” Al Yankovic and Howie Mandel, suggest the magazine’s reach lives on today, even if MAD essentially shuttered in 2019.

Yes, the film genuflects to the subject, but it admits the magazine’s attempt to conquer the big screen failed. The 1980 comedy “Up the Academy,” presented by MAD, proved a critical and commercial dud.

Fanboy Quentin Tarantino notes MAD should have lent its gravitas to better comedies like that year’s “Airplane!”

He’s not wrong.

Oddly, we’re treated to less than zero reflection on “MADtv,” the “SNL”-style series that expanded on the sketch TV format. That was part of MAD’s “selling out” era, a time following Gaines’ 1992 death.

The film doubles as a love letter to the eccentric co-founder. Gaines proved both cheap and generous in equal measures. His quest to retain creative independence meant MAD wouldn’t sell out or compromise its giddy integrity. That he treated his “idiots” like family suggests why the institution clung to satirical power for so long.

Speaking of death, some talking head segments reveal the film’s long incubation period. Comic Gilbert Gottfried passed in 2022, and MAD legend Al Jaffee died a year later at 102.

“When We Went MAD!” shows how overwhelmingly white and male the magazine’s creative team was over the decades, but there’s no hand-wringing over the dearth of diversity. The finished product speaks for itself, and that should be the final word on the subject.

That, and Blecch, of course.

“When We Went MAD!” is available on most VOD platforms.

HiT or Miss: “When We Went MAD!” offers a fascinating look at a magazine that spoke “truth to power” before it was cool.