Episode 10: Mad Mod
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"You're in my world now, duckies"
- Mad Mod
Originally aired: Sept. 27, 2003
Written by Adam Beechen
Directed by Ciro Nieli


The Teen Titans awake to find themselves captured -- prisoners of Mad Mod, a madcap bad guy in a psychedelic suit. Miffed at the way the Titans "disrespect their elders" and "interfere with the toils of hard working criminals", Mad Mod has decided to teach the teens a lesson. Thus, he's created a massive mind-bending school full of optical illusions and brain-washing hypno-screens. Will the Titans be "re-educated" and lose their minds in the process? Or will our heroes find out the secret to Mad Mod's sinister school and teach him a lesson?


Malcolm McDowell as the Mad Mod


First appearance of the Mad Mod
This episode was originally titled DETENTION but changed to MAD MOD
The song during the chase scene was titled "K2G". The song was written by Andy Strumer, and Puffy AmiYumi, produced by Andy Strumer and performed by Puffy Amiyumi
Starfire's joke: "How many Okaarans does it take to hoegee a marfilk? Finbar!" contains two references: Rob Hoegee is a series writer and Finbarr O'Reardon is the series Art Coordinator
Mad Mod returns in season three's episode, REVOLUTION

References: This episode was filled with nods, winks and homages:
"Clockwork Orange": starred Malcolm McDowell [voice of the Mad Mod] as an ultraviolent teen in the near-future who is re-proprammed with "aversion therapy" to become a brainwashed peaceful member of society. Mad Mod's techniques are similar to the "aversion therapy" - especially the scene in the library where Starfire's eyes are forced open [a direct nod to "Clockwork Orange"]
"Scooby Doo" and "The Monkees": The elaborate chase scene with the go-go music was an homage to the chase scenes on "Scooby Doo" and similar Saturday morning cartoons in the 1970s. Those chase scenes were somewhat inspired by the Monkees TV show, which had musical chase scenes. And the Monkees itself was based on the Beatles' movie "Hard Day's Night". So it's a reference of a reference of a reference, I suppose.
"Yellow Submarine": The Beatles animated opus was referenced in the scene where the Teen Titans pop up through circles. Ringo lifts up a circle exactly as Cyborg does.
"Monthy Python's Flying Circus": The Statue of David dressed as Mad Mod with a british symbol on his crotch seems to be a nod toward the famous British comedy series, whose opening contained a similar image.
DC Comics Silver Age: DC Comics in the 60's [known as the Silver Age] had an infamous trade dress using go-go black and white checks. Mad Mod [and the Teen Titans] first appeared during this era and Mad Mod is a prime example of the typical Silver Age villain. Mod's lair is covered in go-go checks.
Batman TV Show of the 1960's: Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson would reveal the secret entrance to the batcave with a secret button under a bust in the library. The bust of the Mad Mod contains a secret button that seems to lead out of his topsy-turvy world.

Art Lesson: This episode contained many famous art treasures:
Andy Warhol art: The Mad Mod painting with the same four faces in different colors is a direct homage to the 1960's counter-culture artist. Click here to see comparison images.
Rene Magritte "The Son of Man": "Son of Man" is the famous painting of the man in the bowler hat whose face is obscurred by a green apple. In "Mad Mod", a painting hangs where Mod's face is obscurred by bananas.Click here to see comparison images.
M C Escher art: MC Escher created mind-bending imagery similar to Mad Mod's topsy-turvy architecture. He played with architecture, perspective and impossible spaces. His art continues to amaze and wonder millions of people all over the world. His works House of Stairs and Relativity are similar to Mod's world. Click here to see comparison images.
Pablo Picasso Art: A painting in the hallway is inspired by Picasso's abstacts. Click here to see comparison images.
Grant Wood "American Gothic": In The Mad Mod version, Mod is holding his cane instead of the pitchfork. Click here to see comparison images.
Leonardo Da Vinci "Mona Lisa": Mad Mod's face is inserted in this classic painting. Click here to see comparison images.
The Statue of David: The statue dressed as Mad Mod with a british symbol on his crotch seems to be a nod toward the famous Statue of David.


Producer/Story Editor David Slack on MAD MOD: "In SUM OF HIS PARTS, we put the 'wacky' and the 'serious' in one episode. After that, we realized we could just change it up week to week. That's something we're actually very conscious of when we plan the episode order for the season. We had this really dark scary MASKS episode, then we did MAD MOD and CAR TROUBLE before we got into the dark again with APPRENTICE. So MAD MOD was definitely an attempt to lighten it up a little bit."

"[...] I would say by MAD MOD, we had a sense of all the various directions the series could go. And that's one of the great things about the show. We're never quite sure what we'll do - and you'll never be sure of what you're going to get. We can do serious action, we can do wild comedy. We can do romps, emotional stuff, very thoughtful drama... we run the gamut."

"MAD MOD nearly broke all of us though. That was a really, really hard story to crack. Even for a Titans show, it has almost no plot. In the beginning, Mad Mod has got them.. and he's got them the whole time. And Adam Beechen, Glen and I worked diligently through multiple rounds of that script, to give the story enough of a goal to hold onto - so it didn't just feel like a bunch of stuff happening. It needed to move forward and appear to have things escalating. So the Titans needed to seem to be 'getting somewhere' even though they weren't, because that was kind of the point."

"And then we were lucky enough to get Malcolm McDowell to do the voice. That was like... "Wow." Not only to get to meet the guy, but to have him do the voice and speak words you had worked on -- [pause] it's a good job [laughs]."

"[...] After we did the first Mad Mod episode, I told Glen I didn't want to do another one with him. Not to say that I won't. But his episodes are always the hardest. They're the hardest to get to work. But Mad Mod returns in season three. And we're all very happy with the way that one looks. John Espisito wrote that one - and Rob Hoegee and I co-story-edited that one. That one came back looking cool. I hope everyone likes it. "


The Mad Mod was one of the earliest adversaries of the Teen Titans. The Mad Mod was a fashion designer who lived on Carnaby Street in London, where Mod clothes were the rage. Mod used his fashion label as a front to conceal contraband items in the clothes he made. He appeared in Teen Titans #7 and 17 [1967-1968]. He resurfaced year later in Teen Titans [second series] #2 in 1996. By then, he had has reformed, and become a very successful fashion designer (the retro collection of Mad Mod fashions was a huge hit).

One of Starfire's jokes begins with "How many Okaarans does it take..." The Okaarans were a group of old, wise, blue-skinned aliens. Starfire and her sister, Blackfire, trained in the arts of combat with the Warlords of Okaara.

For more information on the comic book versions of the characters - including many images - visit titanstower.com's meeting room page.


There's an old saying: "There's a fine line between genius and insanity." This episode is sitting right on that line. In short, this episode is a masterpiece of absurdity.

A total lark of an outing, it's ironic that it's so thin on plot yet so stuffed with things to see. Visual sight gags and references to fine art, MAD MOD provides a feast for the eyes. It also pushes the series as far as it can go in terms of reality-bending hijinx. The fact that an episode like MASKS can air one week before MAD MOD is a testament to the show's range.

Making an excellent episode superb was the genius casting of Malcolm McDowell as Mad Mod. His rendition of the British baddie was a casting choice made in heaven.

The surreal shenanigans of Mad Mod's high-tech school set a new bar for the show. Grade: A+

 

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