It’s not a joke, but it might be a prank. We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, though, and tell you that Alfred E Neuman is about to land his goofy little face on your iPad.

This year, MAD Magazine will celebrate its 60th birthday. which seems like a splendid time to go digital. MAD Magazine, the satirical heavyweight on popular culture is coming to your iPads on April Fool’s Day. This is fitting, says a blog post, because April 1st happens to be little Alfred’s birthday.

The iPad app will be free, but the content won’t be. Without ponying up a little extra, you’ll only really have access to a free preview. Readers can pay an upfront annual price of $9.99, or you can pay on an issue-to-issue basis. New issues will run you $4.99 and back issues will be $1.99. If you’re already a paid subscriber to MAD, don’t worry, you’ll have access to all the iPad content for free.

“We’re delighted to bring MAD to the iPad,” said MAD Editor John Ficarra. “We think the MAD app may be just the thing to turn the struggling iPad around and make it successful –though most experts think it may be just the thing that kills it altogether.”

Cute.

Here’s what you’ll be getting with the app:

The MAD app will include interactive versions of all current issues, access to a library of back issues and books, animated covers and “fold-in” pages, promo videos from the hit Cartoon Network show, MAD, and a link to MAD’s popular blog The Idiotical. In addition to the regular issue interactive “fold-in,” digital issues will also include a second, classic interactive “fold-in” from a past issue. Fans of Sergio Aragones’ MAD Marginals will enjoy a feature that allows readers to “pop-up” the margin artwork for a larger, more detailed view.

Like many magazines that come to the iPad, you can expect all the same content that’s present in the print version, with added interactive bonus features.

Like I said before, this could all be an April Fool’s prank. But I won’t lose sleep over it. What, me worry?

[h/t TUAW]