Electronics chain says "What, me worry?" and puts MAD back on the racks

The Circuit City electronics chain in the U.S. is putting MAD magazine back on sale in some 40 stores from which they were temporarily banished for making fun of the retailer. According to a story in the New York Times, the company attributed the incident to ''some overly sensitive souls at our corporate headquarters'' after the August issue with its four-page spoof of ''Sucker City'' was removed from sale.

''We apologize for the knee-jerk reaction, and have issued a retraction order; the affected stores are being directed to put the magazines back on sale,'' spokesman Jim Babb said in an e-mail response. ''The parody of our newspaper ad in the August MAD was very clever. Most of us at Circuit City share a rich sense of humor and irony ... but there are occasional temporary lapses.''

Not missing an opportunity to capitalize on Circuit City's discomfort, John Ficarra, the magazine's editor, said in a statement:

''We at MAD were shocked and confused by this entire incident -- mainly because we had no idea that Circuit City even sells magazines."