MAD magazine isn't afraid of being controversial, and senior editor Joe Raiola hopes to "offend everyone at least once" when he speaks at Penn State this afternoon.

Raiola will present "The Joy of Censorship" at 1:30 p.m. today in Pattee Library's Foster Auditorium. Free and open to the public, the program will celebrate Banned Books Week, which runs this year from Sept. 26 to Oct. 3.

Raiola said his comedy show is an offbeat and fun take on First Amendment issues. He hopes to make the audience laugh, as well as challenge people's ways of thinking.

"It's all just food for thought presented in a comic way," Raiola said. "When the show goes well, it really encourages a dialogue."

He said the program will explore the history of MAD, founded in the 1950s during a period of heavy censorship, and how it beat the censors at their own game.

"Censorship is not natural," he said. "Life is not censored."

Banned Books Week, sponsored by the American Library Association, annually celebrates the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment, according to the association's Web site.

Steven Herb, director of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, called Raiola's program an "ideal matchup" with the national event.

Raiola's program will also be a good opportunity to experience MAD and its view of the world, he said.

"I think for some people, when they're young and they're trying to make their way through life, they have this feeling that things don't quite add up," Herb said. "Then they discover MAD magazine, and they find out that they're normal -- that they have strange thoughts and that's OK."

He said MAD plays an important role in American culture, and its content is one of the reasons the country recognizes Banned Books Week.

"Satire is just an amazing tool -- an important tool," Herb said. "It's brought down governments. It's a powerful weapon. And that's why we need to celebrate it in the United States."

The "Joy of Censorship" is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book and the Penn State University Libraries' Colloquia Committee.

Catherine Grigor, manager of public relations and marketing for the libraries, said Raiola holds the program across the country and is an amusing speaker. To her knowledge, this will be his first time speaking at Penn State, she said.

Raiola emphasized that the program wouldn't be a dry lecture.

"The show is an opportunity to let myself rip," he said.