Sometimes, cartoons make no sense to us because they are from a different time. This New Yorker drawing of mine from 2010 might be one of them. Can you guess what I was referring to, or who I was making fun of? And I would love to know even if you don’t recall the specific reference (and there is no reason why you should), is it still funny?
Humor is complicated sometimes. It can be very specific to a time and thus lose understanding with time. It doesn’t “have legs,” as I like to say. Or it can also be specific to a group, and thus can exclude people who don’t understand what it’s about or why it’s funny.
Since I travel a lot and meet cartoonists from other countries all the time, I am aware of how difficult it is sometimes to know other country’s humor. Either the reference is unclear or the style of humor does not strike me as funny. I will write about this in another post soon, and include discussion of my recent visit to Mexico as a guest cartoonist.
Every month, I zoom with my paid supporters, and really enjoy it. In the past, these have been unprogrammed, but this time I plan to share with my supporters something about New Yorker history, either a cartoon or a cartoon artist. We can talk about the work(s) and how it might relate it to the present, either politically or stylistically.
Below are the details for the zoom event with my paid supporters.