"Lavoine & Shoiley"

From the pages of MAD Magazine, Issue 194, October 1977 (therefore, published in August) comes this funny and somewhat accurate parody, written by Lou Silverstone and illustrated by probably the best caricaturist of the Usual Gang of Idiots, Angelo Torres.  My vintage but not mint copy is missing the front cover and what appears to be pages 1, 2, 47, and 48, but luckily someone (https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/complete-story/angelo-torres-mad-194-complete-6-page-story-lavoine-and-shoiley-original-art-ec-1977-/a/7187-94772.s) has scanned the entire issue and put it online.

The title of course refers to the fact that so much of the cast (especially in the first couple seasons) sounded like they were from the Northeast.  Or as "Pop" says in the first panel, "It's me...your Fadder from Milwaukee wit' de' Brooklyn accent."  Frank appears here and there in the story, yelling, running a bowling alley, serving pizza (including for breakfast), and telling corny jokes.  Sounds legit.

Edna is in exactly one panel, and says that the girls' reputation is actually too good!  "I mean, who ever [sic] heard of 'not shaking hands on the first date'?!?"

"The Funz" is in three panels, "using that old reliable 'Continued Story' gimmick," i.e. a crossover.  He fixes the girls up with his cousins, his 10-year-old cousins.

"Coalmine" AKA "The Big Fondue" is in two panels and teaches the girls how to dance like beer bottles for an audition for a TV commercial, which is the not too exaggerated plot of this parody.

Mostly though, it is "Loonie" and "Squeegee" who are driving the plot.  (Again, sounds legit.)  Consistent with canon, Lavoine interacts with the boys more than Shoiley does, even accepting Squeegee's offer of a jelly bean, until she realizes he keeps his jelly beans in his sock.  There is perfect Squiggman (or I guess Squeeggman) phrasing on, "Boy, ain't that just like a dame, makin' me take off my shoe for nuttin'!?!"  Loonie asks for a bean and, characteristically, isn't bothered that they're all black.  The boys don't get a hello but Lavoine's "Not like the creeps and slobs we usually associate with" evokes Loonie's "Did somebody call us...??"

(In the very first panel, the "sex preverts" are ogling Shoiley's teddy bear collection.  No, there's no BBK.)

Predicting the Burbank years, the boys become the girls' managers.  Although this sounds more like something Squiggy would come up with, Loonie suggests they "leave a message here in the Executive Washroom, where the Contest Judges can't miss it...!"  The message, "LAVOINE AND SHOILEY ARE PUSHOVERS!  THEY NEVER SAY NO!", convinces Squeegee, and later the judges.

This leads, eventually, to the girls winning the contest and going out with the judges, who try to attack them and end up leaving them by the side of the road, until the "man-hungry idiots" go chasing after the car.  OK, that part isn't so funny, but overall, despite mixing up the boys' roles as unscrupulous schemer and naive dupe, the writing is surprisingly dead on.  Lavoine is the tougher, more cynical one, and Shoiley the dreamer.  The artwork is generally solid (except for Lavoine's rival who looks like a man in unconvincing drag), and Torres manages to capture McKean's versatile facial expressions.  He even seems to get the S/S and L/L pairings at some moments, and the body language feels accurate.