A while back, the subject of the number of blades and shaving came up, and I remembered reading this Straight Dope article on the subject, which said:

Shave quality, it's generally agreed, is mainly a function of blade sharpness, beard preparation (whether you get your whiskers wet enough), and how catatonic you are when you do your shaving. Razor construction (number of blades, swivel head versus nonswivel, etc.) appears to be a relatively trivial factor. Still, "two blades are better than one blade" does make a pretty catchy slogan, even if it is basically baloney.

Which makes this Onion editorial from a Gillette CEO all the funnier:

Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the fucking vanguard of shaving in this country. The Gillette Mach3 was the razor to own. Then the other guy came out with a three-blade razor. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called the Mach3Turbo. That's three blades and an aloe strip. For moisture. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I'm telling you what happened—the bastards went to four blades. Now we're standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling three blades and a strip. Moisture or no, suddenly we're the chumps. Well, fuck it. We're going to five blades.

Heh. It's like the Cold War all over again.