some viewers believe elder's style of separate foreground and background actions was mimicked by louis malle in his 1960 film "zazie dans le métro", in a restaurant scene where the background action begins to take precedence over the main character. “i thought people would notice and would laugh," said malle, "but nobody did." elder had drawn the article "restaurant!" in 1954; the "mad" piece was about a family and its meal, but the backgrounds were filled with numerous sight gags including the bufferin aspirin ad campaign, hieroglyphics, a mop substituting for spaghetti, the rca victor dog, a toddler eating the plates, and a full coat rack including viking helmet and deer antlers. monty python's terry gilliam said of elder, "i don't know if anybody's really worked at that level as intensely as willy did. and it never seemed to distract from the center." 21st-century "mad" cartoonist evan dorkin put it more simply: "if god is in the details, will elder channeled god."