A combined issue for December 30, 2024 and January 6, 2025. It has a lovely colorful cover illustration by Diana Ejaita, along with a major article about the sexual abuse in the family of Alice Munroe. But we are here to talk about the cartoons.
This page of reviews is only useful, if at all, if you have a print copy of this issue of The New Yorker in front of you and you want to compare your reactions to ours.
Page
Reaction
Erudite commentary:
11
The first cartoon on page 11, by Tom Toro, shows two squirrels in bed in their cozy den. Ms. Squirrel is complaining to Mr. Squirrel that he no longer chases her around the tree, like he used to. But the actual caption includes the phrase “halt suddenly”. And for us, that inserted phrase booted the cartoon off the track into the slightly too literary.
This leads to the ongoing question of who writes the captions. I have read that cartoonists submit drawings sans captions and that the cartoon editor (and staff?) supply the caption. I have also heard that the cartoon editor requests cartoons to fit their pre-existing captions.
In this case, for us, the caption, with the addition of the accurately observed detail “halt suddenly” now outweighs the drawing and the result doesn’t fly properly.
14
Victoria Roberts has an intruiging cartoon with two elephants on page 11. The line quality is minimalist and lovely and I wanted very much to like it.
One elephant is drawn smoothly; the line that defines the other is all… crinkly, and the smooth elephant wants to know if the problem is its eyes or if the other elephant has really gone crinkly.
But, elephants are wrinkly, not crinkly, so I got sidetracked by that distinction and complication.
Because elephants are naturally wrinkly, maybe a hippo would have worked better?
And of course, there is the moment in a Woody Allen film where one of the characters goes out of focus: not the camera lens, the character himself has gone out of focus. It was a cinematic visual joke, and not that funny either, but was delivered more cleanly.
27
Benjamin Schwartz has an offbeat cartoon on page 27. (Schwartz is both an MD and a New Yorker cartoonist, which makes him one extraordinarily accomplished dude.)
This cartoon shows a creature from a flying saucer, a military officer, and the computer tech who is translating what the alien says for the brass. The tech translates: “It said, ‘I’d love to pick your leader’s brain if you think they might be interested, but seriously no worries if not.’ “
I took this as what if an alien landing who was “very woke” and made only a gentle demand rather than “take me to your leader.”
For me the caption-cartoon balance is off: too much relies on a complex caption.
And the other oddity for me is that the cartoon seems to be three drawing styles combined. the creature, the officer, the tech are all from different cartoon styles. Not wrong, but odd, because Schwartz normally uses one well-developed style.
29
Mort Gerberg has a cartoon showing a skier in a snow storm (looks like cross-country) looking at a trail map sign showing a steep mountain and on the sign is written “You are freezing your ass off here.” with an arrow pointing at an X.
Gerberg is a New Yorker artist with a high batting average over many years. But to complete the analogy, even a hall of fame 300 hitter doesn’t always get a hit.
I get this, having frozen my ass off while cross country skiing, but there is something missing for me.
I think the skier doesn’t look quite frazzled and freezing enough.
30
Bruce Erik Kaplan‘s cartoon, drawn in his well-defined style, show an annoyed litte Jack character frowning at his mother who says “I’m sorry–I ate the magic beans because I needed a little protein.”
Kaplan is both a frequent New Yorker artist and works seriously in the world of TV (Seinfeld and more…)
So this cartoon can almost be seen as a comedy skit on TV, but instead of being a skit that goes on too long, this little cartoon nails the whole story in one frame. Nothing else needed.
It is another example of modern mentality impinging on a classic story.
One thing that is interesting to me, and not a criticism, is that the Jack figure is out in the open, but the mother is drawn off to one side, visually joining the trees and shrubs behind her. Maybe this is somehow part of why it’s funny.
32
Drew Dernavitch has a cartoon that shows a flght attendant who is addressing the passengers on a flight.
She says “And for those who will be making connections–well, good for you.”
This stimulated laughing out loud around here which is hard to achieve, so a big win for Drew!
His drawing style is a woodcut look, unusual and distinctive.
Why was this cartoon so funny to us? I think it has to do with the setup and payoff. The “making connections” common speech takes a turn for the offbeat, a kind of “who really cares” tacked onto airplane speak.
My partner here suggested that there is a totally other meaning, referring to people who might be making personal connections with other passengers. The cartoon still works if you take it this way.
There is a subtle tilt of the flight attendant’s head that plays to her attitude of… “what-ever.”
Check out his website for some other laugh out loud cartoons and all sorts of other cool stuff.
39
Liana Finck‘s cartoon shows two medieval-era women at a table, one next to an empty suit of armor.
She says, “Then I realized all I wanted was the shining armor. I didn’t need the knight.”
This might be funnier to a member of the female contingent, but it didn’t do much for me: it didn’t resonate.
I got distracted thinking that the joke had something to do with the idea of an empty suit in medieval times, but it doesn’t.
Liana has many prints on her website done in elegant minimalist style. And many books as well. I may have to go buy some of her work because although this cartoon didn’t do it for me, I love her work.
29
Suerynn Lee has a cartoon showing one woman lying on a yoga mat, another standing holding her rolled up mat.
The woman lying down says “I let go of my tension and lost my will to get up.”
I definitely got it, but it didn’t seem all that funny to me even though I have felt like that character.
But her past New Yorker cartoons are funny and smart. She has a strong style, using chunks of black areas, black lines, and no grays.
43
Frank Cotham has an operating room cartoon where the surgeon is saying to the assistant “I know you are rolling your eyes every time I ask for something.”
The assistant’s eyes are wide open with a guilty stare.
I find the idea very funny, a surgeon having to deal with “attitude” from the assistant.
Cotham has many classic New Yorker cartoons in what is to me a classic New Yorker style: line work with lots of gray wash, and strong pithy subjects.
44
Seth Fleishman has a cartoon that landed very well here: a couple is entering a room with suitcases. One would expect hotel or Air B&B.
But the room is full of cool guys playing music and the title of the cartoon is: “AIR R&B”.
This caused out-loud laughter around here.
It’s absurd, but the looks on the faces of the couples, eyes large and bugged out, elevates it to… funny as hell. At least for us.
Fleishman has a very neat, controlled style, which I think makes it tougher for a cartoon to be funny, than by contrast to the flea-bit dogs of Booth. But he makes it work. He also has lovely art prints for sale via the Condé Nast online store.
49
Amy Hwang has a cartoon showing a couple on a couch, each with a cup of coffee, and on the coffee table are seven more cups.
The woman says” We’re getting our money’s worth out of this coffee table.”
Such a gentle, subtle cartoon, but funny for sure.
Her drawing style is always consistent: line work with lots of gray tones, little black, a very classic New Yorker look.
Go to her site and look for the bedsheet cartoon. It really got me going, by which I mean laughing out loud.
53
To start with, if I say one unkind thing about Roz Chast, my old girlfriend will hunt me down, along with a few million others.
Her drawing shows three different examples what she calls Cards of Mystery, those cards you get at holiday time and have no idea from whom.
This is perfect for right around Christmas and we dug it.
I suppose if Roz were to have a New Yorker cartoon that I didn’t get or didn’t like I would say so, but I’m not worried.
54
Ellie Black has a curious cartoon showing two babies in a room where the wall is covered by a bunch of papers and connecting strings, like we have seen on so many TV cops shows. (Do police really do this?)
One kid is saying, “I’ve almost cracked the code of where my mom goes when she covers her eyes with her hands.”
I kind of get it, but the drawing puzzles me. The wall with the images seems like it should be a visual focus, but there is a set of bold white stripes across the floor, perhaps from windows that dominates the drawing.
I think the bold stripes are there to give the image some police-drama-weight, but it didn’t make sense to me.
60
Sofia Warren shows us a rooster looking at a make-up mirror on the barn wall and giving himself a big motivational talk.
I wrestled with this one. I get it: instead of an actor backstage getting himself pumped up to perform, it’s a rooster.
But, but…
Maybe if the rooster drawing was more expressive, if it looked really bedraggled, I would find it funnier.
Hate to keep bringing up Booth, but we all know that if he drew a rooster than was feeling rickety, it would be funny as hell, even without a caption.
But I love the poker cartoon on this page of her site.
64
Zach Kanin has a the last cartoon in this issue. It shows a couple leaving what appears to me the first meeting with the woman’s parents.
The woman is saying, “She said you could call her Mom, not Mommy.”
Geez.
I got it, but rather than funny I found it uncomfortable, like watching Larry David screwing up.
The Wikipedia article (linked from his name above) says that he was assistant cartoon editor for two years at the New Yorker under Robert Mankoff and since has had over 300 cartoon published, which is a lotta cartoons. Plus he wrote for SNL for some years.
74
The Cartoon Caption Contest
The New Cartoon
The new cartoon shows an exec at his desk, a fellow standing next to the desk, both have large birds, like seagulls, on their heads, and there are two on the desk. I have tried thinking up captions for these contest and it is HARD! I will be looking forward to seeing what shows up.
The Finalists
There are the three finalist for captions for the cartoon of the art museum guide explaining to his group about a painting that has a man standing in front painting upon it. I am going for #3, “That used to bea Rembrandt.”
The Winning Caption
Two baby bears getting ready for hibernation, one says he is going to try without his teddy bear. Sweet.
Bottom Line
After taking on this absurd project in the first place, feeling that the New Yorker Cartoons could and should be a lot better, I actually like a number of these a lot. Let’s see what happens next issue.
The only useful way to see this page, if there is one, is with a print copy of the New Yorker in hand. You can compare your reaction to each cartoon to ours.