He was hired as assistant editor of the American satire magazine Mad in 1980, shortly after his debut as a contributing writer.

[5] In March 2013 Ficarra was interviewed by Film Society of Lincoln Center, to explain how Mad created its annual movie-parody issue.

[2] In a July 2014 interview with Nerd Reactor, Ficarra explained the changes being made to Mad in an effort to make it more relevant to the 21st century.

[7] In response to the 2015 attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, on January 11, 2015, Ficarra made a personal appearance on the US television show CBS Sunday Morning, to describe the chilling effect which such attacks were having on the previous freedom of expression enjoyed by cartoonists in the Free World.

[8][9] In December 2015 Ficarra was interviewed by MStars News for an article detailing how the magazine created its annual "20 Dumbest People, Events & Things of 20xx" issue.