Mad Magazine trolls Buttigieg for not knowing Alfred E. Neuman

Mad Magazine trolled Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg on Saturday after he said he turned to Google to look up Alfred E. Neuman, the gap-toothed boy who has appeared on the magazine’s cover for decades.

“Who’s Pete Buttigieg? Must be a generational thing,” the magazine wrote on Twitter early Saturday morning.

Who’s Pete Buttigieg? Must be a generational thing.

— MAD Magazine (@MADmagazine) May 11, 2019

Please buy our new book, @PeteButtigieg! https://t.co/m9p9yt0PcZ pic.twitter.com/2ylg5t3kCo

— MAD Magazine (@MADmagazine) May 11, 2019

The magazine’s Twitter account then sent out a series of tweets and retweets mocking the South Bend, Ind., mayor, including one message from a fan reading, “no way i’m voting for anyone who has never read mad magazine.”

no way i’m voting for anyone who has never read mad magazine https://t.co/lmYquwYHfq

— Simon Cowfunkel (@deadphishesq) May 11, 2019

Buttigieg first commented on the humor magazine’s iconic character after President Trump nicknamed him “Alfred E. Neuman.”

Trump introduced the nickname Friday in an interview with Politico, telling the outlet “Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States.”

{mosads}“I’ll be honest. I had to Google that,” Buttigieg told reporters in San Francisco Friday in response to the insult. “I guess it’s just a generational thing. I didn’t get the reference. It’s kind of funny, I guess.”

Trump has gone after Buttigieg before, most recently mocking the millennial mayor at a campaign rally in Florida this week.

“We have a young man, Buttigieg. Boot-edge-edge. They say ‘edge-edge,’” Trump said. “He’s got a great chance, doesn’t he?”

“He’ll be great representing us against President Xi of China. That’ll be great. I want to be in that room, I wanna watch that one,” he added.

The mayor responded the next day with a Chinese proverb, adding that he wasn’t “too worried” about the insults.

“You can’t get too worried about the name calling and the games he plays,” said Buttigieg. “I was thinking of a Chinese proverb that goes, when the wind changes, some people build walls and some people build windmills.” 

Buttigieg, a Rhodes Scholar and Afghanistan War veteran, has seen a significant rise in support in recent polls since he first launched an exploratory committee as a relative unknown.  

The two-term South Bend mayor, 37, has faced skepticism over whether he’s experienced enough to win the White House, but has responded that he has more executive experience than Trump and more military experience than Trump and Vice President Pence put together.