Tarzan Kurtzman developed the targeted parody style that became a signature of Mad. As Kurtzman described it, "Satire and parody work best when what you're talking about is accurately targeted ... when you reveal a fundamental flaw or untruth in your subject." The parodies struck at the basic premises of their targets: the hero in "Superduperman" proves his mettle by defeating his foe and assumes he can win the heart of the woman he desires with displays of his machismo. She rejects him as she rejected his mild-mannered reporter alter ego, declaring, "Once a creep, always a creep". Kurtzman tended to shy away from politics, though he made an exception with "What's My Shine?" in the seventeenth issue in November 1954. Via the format of the game show What's My Line?, Kurtzman satirized the televised Army–McCarthy hearings of 1954 that resulted in the US Senate reprimanding Senator Joseph McCarthy for his aggressively hunting out of Communist subversives. Kurtzman stated he made this exception as he felt McCarthy "was so evil. It was like doing a satire on Hitler." Kurtzman gave several of the stories with a whimsical, deconstructionist approach: one issue was printed upside-down; another presented the same story twice, the dialogue replaced with gibberish in the second round; and one issue was devoted to a faux biography of Will Elder as fine artist. This playfulness extended to the covers. They imitated Life magazine, a tabloid newspaper, a racetrack results sheet, and a school composition book, with the notice: "Designed to sneak into class". On the 21st cover was a parody of the mail-order Johnson Smith Company's ads that were common in comic books—the Mad version offered a wide range of ridiculous merchandise, including torpedoes and live alligators. Kurtzman was responsible for the finished artwork on about half the covers. Kurtzman considered his visuals his strong point, and his writing clumsy. He wrote in a colloquial style replete with wordplay, including a plethora of Yiddish, foreign, or made-up words used in a nonsensical manner: "furshlugginer", "potrzebie", and "veeblefetzer" among them. Names were used for their humorous effect, such as the running gag name "Melvin" used in stories such as "Melvin of the Apes" and "Little Orphan Melvin", and as the name of the mysterious figure on the cover of the first issue. During Mads run as a comic book, Kurtzman wrote and laid out each story. He built up his