Bob Mankoff: Anatomy of a New Yorker cartoon

322,949 views ・ 2013-06-26

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast
0
0
7000
00:12
I'm going to be talking about designing humor,
1
12585
1860
00:14
which is sort of an interesting thing, but it goes
2
14445
1974
00:16
to some of the discussions about constraints,
3
16419
3708
00:20
and how in certain contexts, humor is right,
4
20127
2758
00:22
and in other contexts it's wrong.
5
22885
1691
00:24
Now, I'm from New York,
6
24576
2776
00:27
so it's 100 percent satisfaction here.
7
27352
3586
00:30
Actually, that's ridiculous, because when it comes to humor,
8
30938
3203
00:34
75 percent is really absolutely the best you can hope for.
9
34141
3289
00:37
Nobody is ever satisfied 100 percent with humor
10
37430
4983
00:42
except this woman.
11
42413
2716
00:45
(Video) Woman: (Laughs)
12
45129
9737
01:02
Bob Mankoff: That's my first wife.
13
62378
1400
01:03
(Laughter)
14
63778
2275
01:06
That part of the relationship went fine.
15
66053
2492
01:08
(Laughter)
16
68545
3565
01:12
Now let's look at this cartoon.
17
72110
3522
01:15
One of the things I'm pointing out is that
18
75632
1576
01:17
cartoons appear within the context
19
77208
2304
01:19
of The New Yorker magazine,
20
79512
1713
01:21
that lovely Caslon type, and it seems
21
81225
1941
01:23
like a fairly benign cartoon within this context.
22
83166
3474
01:26
It's making a little bit fun of getting older,
23
86640
2071
01:28
and, you know, people might like it.
24
88711
1352
01:30
But like I said, you cannot satisfy everyone.
25
90063
3236
01:33
You couldn't satisfy this guy.
26
93299
2446
01:35
"Another joke on old white males. Ha ha. The wit.
27
95745
3087
01:38
It's nice, I'm sure to be young and rude,
28
98832
1660
01:40
but some day you'll be old, unless you drop dead as I wish."
29
100492
3473
01:43
(Laughter)
30
103965
3218
01:47
The New Yorker is rather a sensitive environment,
31
107183
3510
01:50
very easy for people to get their nose out of joint.
32
110693
2608
01:53
And one of the things that you realize
33
113301
2934
01:56
is it's an unusual environment.
34
116235
2467
01:58
Here I'm one person talking to you.
35
118702
2143
02:00
You're all collective. You all hear each other laugh and know each other laugh.
36
120845
3698
02:04
In The New Yorker, it goes out to a wide audience,
37
124543
4281
02:08
and when you actually look at that,
38
128824
1492
02:10
and nobody knows what anybody else is laughing at,
39
130316
3512
02:13
and when you look at that the subjectivity involved in humor
40
133828
3316
02:17
is really interesting.
41
137144
1583
02:18
Let's look at this cartoon.
42
138727
1638
02:20
"Discouraging data on the antidepressant."
43
140365
2335
02:22
(Laughter)
44
142700
2024
02:24
Indeed, it is discouraging.
45
144724
3011
02:27
Now, you would think, well, look,
46
147735
1802
02:29
most of you laughed at that.
47
149537
1669
02:31
Right? You thought it was funny.
48
151206
1421
02:32
In general, that seems like a funny cartoon,
49
152627
1682
02:34
but let's look what online survey I did.
50
154309
3384
02:37
Generally, about 85 percent of the people liked it.
51
157693
2117
02:39
A hundred and nine voted it a 10, the highest. Ten voted it one.
52
159810
3363
02:43
But look at the individual responses.
53
163173
2311
02:45
"I like animals!!!!!" Look how much they like them.
54
165484
2303
02:47
(Laughter)
55
167787
3527
02:51
"I don't want to hurt them. That doesn't seem very funny to me."
56
171314
3099
02:54
This person rated it a two.
57
174413
1889
02:56
"I don't like to see animals suffer -- even in cartoons."
58
176302
4382
03:00
To people like this, I point out we use anesthetic ink.
59
180684
5126
03:05
Other people thought it was funny.
60
185810
1757
03:07
That actually is the true nature of the distribution of humor
61
187567
3069
03:10
when you don't have the contagion of humor.
62
190636
4178
03:14
Humor is a type of entertainment.
63
194814
1717
03:16
All entertainment contains a little frisson of danger,
64
196531
3807
03:20
something that might happen wrong,
65
200338
2120
03:22
and yet we like it when there's protection.
66
202458
2469
03:24
That's what a zoo is. It's danger. The tiger is there.
67
204927
2735
03:27
The bars protect us. That's sort of fun, right?
68
207662
4150
03:31
That's a bad zoo.
69
211812
1581
03:33
(Laughter)
70
213393
2523
03:35
It's a very politically correct zoo, but it's a bad zoo.
71
215916
4022
03:39
But this is a worse one.
72
219938
2155
03:42
(Laughter)
73
222093
3805
03:45
So in dealing with humor in the context of The New Yorker,
74
225898
4119
03:50
you have to see, where is that tiger going to be?
75
230017
2849
03:52
Where is the danger going to exist?
76
232866
1362
03:54
How are you going to manage it?
77
234228
2219
03:56
My job is to look at 1,000 cartoons a week.
78
236447
4397
04:00
But The New Yorker only can take 16 or 17 cartoons,
79
240844
4219
04:05
and we have 1,000 cartoons.
80
245063
1517
04:06
Of course, many, many cartoons must be rejected.
81
246580
2876
04:09
Now, we could fit more cartoons in the magazine
82
249456
3163
04:12
if we removed the articles.
83
252619
2016
04:14
(Laughter)
84
254635
3732
04:18
But I feel that would be a huge loss,
85
258367
4957
04:23
one I could live with, but still huge.
86
263324
3773
04:27
Cartoonists come in through the magazine every week.
87
267097
2916
04:30
The average cartoonist who stays with the magazine
88
270013
1998
04:32
does 10 or 15 ideas every week.
89
272011
2556
04:34
But they mostly are going to be rejected.
90
274567
3066
04:37
That's the nature of any creative activity.
91
277633
3044
04:40
Many of them fade away. Some of them stay.
92
280677
3464
04:44
Matt Diffee is one of them.
93
284141
1418
04:45
Here's one of his cartoons.
94
285559
2018
04:47
(Laughter)
95
287577
5575
04:53
Drew Dernavich. "Accounting night at the improv."
96
293152
2894
04:56
"Now is the part of the show when we ask the audience
97
296046
2104
04:58
to shout out some random numbers."
98
298150
4759
05:02
Paul Noth. "He's all right. I just wish he were a little more pro-Israel."
99
302909
4776
05:07
(Laughter)
100
307685
4773
05:12
Now I know all about rejection,
101
312458
1882
05:14
because when I quit -- actually, I was booted out of -- psychology school
102
314340
4247
05:18
and decided to become a cartoonist, a natural segue,
103
318587
3432
05:22
from 1974 to 1977 I submitted 2,000 cartoons to The New Yorker,
104
322019
5074
05:27
and got 2,000 cartoons rejected by The New Yorker.
105
327093
4596
05:31
At a certain point, this rejection slip, in 1977 --
106
331689
4352
05:36
[We regret that we are unable to use the enclosed material. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider it.] —
107
336041
995
05:37
magically changed to this.
108
337036
1574
05:38
[Hey! You sold one. No shit! You really sold a cartoon to the fucking New Yorker magazine.]
109
338610
3438
05:42
(Laughter)
110
342048
2811
05:44
Now of course that's not what happened,
111
344859
2269
05:47
but that's the emotional truth.
112
347128
4617
05:51
And of course, that is not New Yorker humor.
113
351745
2423
05:54
What is New Yorker humor?
114
354168
1789
05:55
Well, after 1977, I broke into The New Yorker and started selling cartoons.
115
355957
4676
06:00
Finally, in 1980, I received the revered
116
360649
2881
06:03
New Yorker contract,
117
363530
2194
06:05
which I blurred out parts because it's none of your business.
118
365724
4035
06:09
From 1980. "Dear Mr. Mankoff, confirming the agreement
119
369759
3510
06:13
there of -- " blah blah blah blah -- blur --
120
373269
2453
06:15
"for any idea drawings."
121
375722
3428
06:19
With respect to idea drawings, nowhere in the contract
122
379150
3026
06:22
is the word "cartoon" mentioned.
123
382176
2079
06:24
The word "idea drawings," and that's the sine qua non of New Yorker cartoons.
124
384255
5449
06:29
So what is an idea drawing? An idea drawing is something
125
389704
3425
06:33
that requires you to think.
126
393129
3285
06:36
Now that's not a cartoon. It requires thinking
127
396414
2785
06:39
on the part of the cartoonist and thinking on your part
128
399199
2997
06:42
to make it into a cartoon.
129
402196
2110
06:44
(Laughter)
130
404306
5765
06:50
Here are some, generally you get my cast of cartoon mind.
131
410071
5143
06:55
"There is no justice in the world. There is some justice in the world. The world is just."
132
415214
6145
07:01
This is What Lemmings Believe.
133
421359
1968
07:03
(Laughter)
134
423327
6289
07:09
The New Yorker and I, when we made comments,
135
429616
2925
07:12
the cartoon carries a certain ambiguity about what it actually is.
136
432541
4511
07:17
What is it, the cartoon? Is it really about lemmings?
137
437052
2288
07:19
No. It's about us.
138
439340
2352
07:21
You know, it's my view basically about religion,
139
441692
2880
07:24
that the real conflict and all the fights between religion
140
444572
4687
07:29
is who has the best imaginary friend.
141
449259
2881
07:32
(Laughter)
142
452140
5131
07:37
And this is my most well-known cartoon.
143
457271
1992
07:39
"No, Thursday's out. How about never — is never good for you?"
144
459263
3752
07:43
It's been reprinted thousands of times, totally ripped off.
145
463015
2567
07:45
It's even on thongs,
146
465582
2762
07:48
but compressed to "How about never — is never good for you?"
147
468344
6627
07:54
Now these look like very different forms of humor
148
474971
3399
07:58
but actually they bear a great similarity.
149
478370
2394
08:00
In each instance, our expectations are defied.
150
480764
4423
08:05
In each instance, the narrative gets switched.
151
485187
3716
08:08
There's an incongruity and a contrast.
152
488903
2254
08:11
In "No, Thursday's out. How about never — is never good for you?"
153
491157
3249
08:14
what you have is the syntax of politeness
154
494406
2480
08:16
and the message of being rude.
155
496886
2261
08:19
That really is how humor works. It's a cognitive synergy
156
499147
3269
08:22
where we mash up these two things which don't go together
157
502416
3779
08:26
and temporarily in our minds exist.
158
506195
2781
08:28
He is both being polite and rude.
159
508976
2520
08:31
In here, you have the propriety of The New Yorker
160
511496
3271
08:34
and the vulgarity of the language.
161
514767
1981
08:36
Basically, that's the way humor works.
162
516748
2025
08:38
So I'm a humor analyst, you would say.
163
518773
2522
08:41
Now E.B. White said, analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog.
164
521295
3542
08:44
Nobody is much interested, and the frog dies.
165
524837
2648
08:47
Well, I'm going to kill a few, but there won't be any genocide.
166
527485
4723
08:52
But really, it makes me —
167
532208
1805
08:54
Let's look at this picture. This is an interesting picture,
168
534013
2072
08:56
The Laughing Audience.
169
536085
1932
08:58
There are the people, fops up there,
170
538017
1781
08:59
but everybody is laughing, everybody is laughing
171
539798
3125
09:02
except one guy.
172
542923
2491
09:05
This guy. Who is he? He's the critic.
173
545414
4540
09:09
He's the critic of humor,
174
549954
2442
09:12
and really I'm forced to be in that position,
175
552396
3168
09:15
when I'm at The New Yorker, and that's the danger
176
555564
3296
09:18
that I will become this guy.
177
558860
5117
09:23
Now here's a little video made by Matt Diffee, sort of
178
563977
2893
09:26
how they imagine if we really exaggerated that.
179
566870
3724
09:30
(Video) Bob Mankoff: "Oooh, no.
180
570594
3026
09:33
Ehhh.
181
573620
2528
09:36
Oooh. Hmm. Too funny.
182
576148
9274
09:45
Normally I would but I'm in a pissy mood.
183
585422
3938
09:49
I'll enjoy it on my own. Perhaps.
184
589360
2699
09:52
No. Nah. No.
185
592059
3661
09:55
Overdrawn. Underdrawn.
186
595720
2997
09:58
Drawn just right, still not funny enough.
187
598717
2670
10:01
No. No.
188
601387
3266
10:04
For God's sake no, a thousand times no.
189
604653
3365
10:08
(Music)
190
608018
3274
10:11
No. No. No. No. No. [Four hours later]
191
611292
5985
10:17
Hey, that's good, yeah, whatcha got there?
192
617277
3766
10:21
Office worker: Got a ham and swiss on rye?BM: No.
193
621043
2143
10:23
Office worker: Okay. Pastrami on sourdough?BM: No.
194
623186
2925
10:26
Office worker: Smoked turkey with bacon?BM: No.
195
626111
1943
10:28
Office worker: Falafel?BM: Let me look at it.
196
628054
2202
10:30
Eh, no.
197
630256
1440
10:31
Office worker: Grilled cheese?BM: No.
198
631696
1415
10:33
Office worker: BLT?BM: No.
199
633111
937
10:34
Office worker: Black forest ham and mozzarella with apple mustard?BM: No.
200
634048
2620
10:36
Office worker: Green bean salad?BM: No.
201
636668
2521
10:39
(Music)
202
639189
2581
10:41
No. No.
203
641770
1944
10:43
Definitely no. [Several hours after lunch]
204
643714
3230
10:46
(Siren)
205
646944
8766
11:08
No. Get out of here.
206
668695
2497
11:11
(Laughter)
207
671192
1417
11:12
That's sort of an exaggeration of what I do.
208
672609
3477
11:16
Now, we do reject, many, many, many cartoons,
209
676086
3266
11:19
so many that there are many books called "The Rejection Collection."
210
679352
3104
11:22
"The Rejection Collection" is not quite New Yorker kind of humor.
211
682456
4378
11:26
And you might notice the bum on the sidewalk here
212
686834
2467
11:29
who is boozing and his ventriloquist dummy is puking.
213
689301
3823
11:33
See, that's probably not going to be New Yorker humor.
214
693124
2488
11:35
It's actually put together by Matt Diffee, one of our cartoonists.
215
695612
3277
11:38
So I'll give you some examples of rejection collection humor.
216
698889
4422
11:43
"I'm thinking about having a child."
217
703311
2711
11:46
(Laughter)
218
706022
5288
11:51
There you have an interesting -- the guilty laugh,
219
711310
3774
11:55
the laugh against your better judgment.
220
715084
3258
11:58
(Laughter)
221
718342
3051
12:01
"Ass-head. Please help."
222
721393
3162
12:04
(Laughter)
223
724555
2283
12:06
Now, in fact, within a context of this book,
224
726838
3664
12:10
which says, "Cartoons you never saw and never will see
225
730502
3042
12:13
in The New Yorker," this humor is perfect.
226
733544
2723
12:16
I'm going to explain why.
227
736267
1605
12:17
There's a concept about humor about it being
228
737872
1712
12:19
a benign violation.
229
739584
2333
12:21
In other words, for something to be funny, we've got to think
230
741917
1977
12:23
it's both wrong and also okay at the same time.
231
743894
3541
12:27
If we think it's completely wrong, we say, "That's not funny."
232
747435
2936
12:30
And if it's completely okay, what's the joke? Okay?
233
750371
3665
12:34
And so, this benign, that's true of "No, Thursday's out. How about never — is never good for you?"
234
754036
5380
12:39
It's rude. The world really shouldn't be that way.
235
759416
2158
12:41
Within that context, we feel it's okay.
236
761574
2904
12:44
So within this context, "Asshead. Please help"
237
764478
3212
12:47
is a benign violation.
238
767690
2044
12:49
Within the context of The New Yorker magazine ...
239
769734
4329
12:54
"T-Cell Army: Can the body's immune response
240
774063
3543
12:57
help treat cancer?" Oh, goodness.
241
777606
3910
13:01
You're reading about this smart stuff,
242
781516
3762
13:05
this intelligent dissection of the immune system.
243
785278
4021
13:09
You glance over at this, and it says,
244
789299
3733
13:13
"Asshead. Please help"? God.
245
793032
5162
13:18
So there the violation is malign. It doesn't work.
246
798194
4600
13:22
There is no such thing as funny in and of itself.
247
802794
3123
13:25
Everything will be within the context and our expectations.
248
805917
3851
13:29
One way to look at it is this.
249
809768
3438
13:33
It's sort of called a meta-motivational theory about how we look,
250
813206
4141
13:37
a theory about motivation and the mood we're in
251
817347
1848
13:39
and how the mood we're in determines the things we like
252
819195
3114
13:42
or dislike.
253
822309
1700
13:44
When we're in a playful mood, we want excitement.
254
824009
4298
13:48
We want high arousal. We feel excited then.
255
828307
3309
13:51
If we're in a purposeful mood, that makes us anxious.
256
831616
2604
13:54
"The Rejection Collection" is absolutely in this field.
257
834220
5581
13:59
You want to be stimulated. You want to be aroused.
258
839801
2356
14:02
You want to be transgressed.
259
842157
4490
14:06
It's like this, like an amusement park.
260
846647
4370
14:11
Voice: Here we go. (Screams)
261
851017
9163
14:20
He laughs. He is both in danger and safe,
262
860180
3970
14:24
incredibly aroused. There's no joke. No joke needed.
263
864150
3148
14:27
If you arouse people enough and get them stimulated enough,
264
867298
3225
14:30
they will laugh at very, very little.
265
870523
2266
14:32
This is another cartoon from "The Rejection Collection."
266
872789
2285
14:35
"Too snug?"
267
875074
4459
14:39
That's a cartoon about terrorism.
268
879533
2203
14:41
The New Yorker occupies a very different space.
269
881736
3356
14:45
It's a space that is playful in its own way, and also purposeful,
270
885092
3725
14:48
and in that space, the cartoons are different.
271
888817
3492
14:52
Now I'm going to show you cartoons The New Yorker did
272
892309
2369
14:54
right after 9/11, a very, very sensitive area when humor could be used.
273
894678
4598
14:59
How would The New Yorker attack it?
274
899276
1429
15:00
It would not be with a guy with a bomb saying, "Too snug?"
275
900705
4553
15:05
Or there was another cartoon I didn't show because
276
905258
2224
15:07
actually I thought maybe people would be offended.
277
907482
3960
15:11
The great Sam Gross cartoon, this happened
278
911442
3646
15:15
after the Muhammad controversy where it's Muhammad in heaven,
279
915088
4032
15:19
the suicide bomber is all in little pieces,
280
919120
2789
15:21
and he's saying to the suicide bomber,
281
921909
2100
15:24
"You'll get the virgins when we find your penis."
282
924009
3271
15:27
(Laughter)
283
927280
4102
15:31
Better left undrawn.
284
931382
3424
15:34
The first week we did no cartoons.
285
934806
2648
15:37
That was a black hole for humor, and correctly so.
286
937454
2976
15:40
It's not always appropriate every time.
287
940430
2598
15:43
But the next week, this was the first cartoon.
288
943028
3648
15:46
"I thought I'd never laugh again. Then I saw your jacket."
289
946676
4610
15:51
It basically was about, if we were alive,
290
951286
3019
15:54
we were going to laugh. We were going to breathe.
291
954305
1797
15:56
We were going to exist. Here's another one.
292
956102
2271
15:58
"I figure if I don't have that third martini, then the terrorists win."
293
958373
5335
16:03
These cartoons are not about them. They're about us.
294
963708
3558
16:07
The humor reflects back on us.
295
967266
2324
16:09
The easiest thing to do with humor, and it's perfectly legitimate,
296
969590
3835
16:13
is a friend makes fun of an enemy.
297
973425
3625
16:17
It's called dispositional humor.
298
977050
2133
16:19
It's 95 percent of the humor. It's not our humor.
299
979183
3469
16:22
Here's another cartoon.
300
982652
2410
16:25
"I wouldn't mind living in a fundamentalist Islamic state."
301
985062
3632
16:28
(Laughter)
302
988694
4589
16:37
Humor does need a target.
303
997851
4364
16:42
But interestingly, in The New Yorker, the target is us.
304
1002215
4176
16:46
The target is the readership and the people who do it.
305
1006391
2560
16:48
The humor is self-reflective
306
1008951
2168
16:51
and makes us think about our assumptions.
307
1011119
2853
16:53
Look at this cartoon by Roz Chast, the guy reading the obituary.
308
1013972
3535
16:57
"Two years younger than you, 12 years older than you,
309
1017507
2654
17:00
three years your junior, your age on the dot,
310
1020161
2966
17:03
exactly your age."
311
1023127
2568
17:05
That is a deeply profound cartoon.
312
1025695
3424
17:09
And so The New Yorker is also trying to, in some way,
313
1029119
4471
17:13
make cartoons say something besides funny
314
1033590
3707
17:17
and something about us. Here's another one.
315
1037297
2247
17:19
"I started my vegetarianism for health reasons,
316
1039544
2208
17:21
Then it became a moral choice, and now it's just to annoy people."
317
1041752
3323
17:25
(Laughter)
318
1045075
5647
17:30
"Excuse me — I think there's something wrong with this
319
1050722
3026
17:33
in a tiny way that no one other than me would ever be able to pinpoint."
320
1053763
5824
17:39
So it focuses on our obsessions, our narcissism,
321
1059587
3976
17:43
our foils and our foibles, really not someone else's.
322
1063563
4265
17:47
The New Yorker demands
323
1067828
2506
17:50
some cognitive work on your part,
324
1070350
2717
17:53
and what it demands is what Arthur Koestler,
325
1073067
2355
17:55
who wrote "The Act of Creation" about the relationship
326
1075422
2915
17:58
between humor, art and science,
327
1078337
2797
18:01
is what's called bisociation.
328
1081134
2080
18:03
You have to bring together ideas from different frames of reference,
329
1083214
3596
18:06
and you have to do it quickly to understand the cartoon.
330
1086810
3172
18:09
If the different frames of reference don't come together
331
1089982
2482
18:12
in about .5 seconds, it's not funny,
332
1092464
1986
18:14
but I think they will for you here.
333
1094450
1934
18:16
Different frames of reference.
334
1096384
2074
18:18
"You slept with her, didn't you?"
335
1098458
2828
18:21
(Laughter)
336
1101286
5288
18:26
"Lassie! Get help!!"
337
1106574
2341
18:28
(Laughter)
338
1108915
3968
18:32
It's called French Army Knife.
339
1112883
2692
18:35
(Laughter)
340
1115575
6428
18:42
And this is Einstein in bed. "To you it was fast."
341
1122031
2668
18:44
(Laughter)
342
1124699
7231
18:51
Now there are some cartoons that are puzzling.
343
1131930
3224
18:55
Like, this cartoon would puzzle many people.
344
1135154
4064
18:59
How many people know what this cartoon means?
345
1139218
4227
19:03
The dog is signaling he wants to go for a walk.
346
1143445
4504
19:07
This is the signal for a catcher to walk the dog.
347
1147949
5706
19:13
That's why we run a feature in the cartoon issue every year
348
1153655
2541
19:16
called "I Don't Get It: The New Yorker Cartoon I.Q. Test."
349
1156196
3070
19:19
(Laughter)
350
1159266
2079
19:21
The other thing The New Yorker plays around with
351
1161345
1938
19:23
is incongruity, and incongruity, I've shown you,
352
1163283
2710
19:25
is sort of the basis of humor.
353
1165993
1588
19:27
Something that's completely normal or logical isn't going to be funny.
354
1167581
3407
19:30
But the way incongruity works is, observational humor
355
1170988
3593
19:34
is humor within the realm of reality.
356
1174581
2422
19:37
"My boss is always telling me what to do." Okay?
357
1177003
5478
19:42
That could happen. It's humor within the realm of reality.
358
1182481
2993
19:45
Here, cowboy to a cow:
359
1185474
2196
19:47
"Very impressive. I'd like to find 5,000 more like you."
360
1187670
4357
19:52
We understand that. It's absurd. But we're putting the two together.
361
1192027
3676
19:55
Here, in the nonsense range:
362
1195703
3498
19:59
"Damn it, Hopkins, didn't you get yesterday's memo?"
363
1199201
5055
20:04
Now that's a little puzzling, right? It doesn't quite come together.
364
1204256
4343
20:08
In general, people who enjoy more nonsense,
365
1208599
2797
20:11
enjoy more abstract art,
366
1211396
1970
20:13
they tend to be liberal, less conservative, that type of stuff.
367
1213366
3225
20:16
But for us, and for me, helping design the humor,
368
1216591
3665
20:20
it doesn't make any sense to compare one to the other.
369
1220256
2565
20:22
It's sort of a smorgasbord that's made all interesting.
370
1222821
4415
20:27
So I want to sum all this up with a caption to a cartoon,
371
1227236
4610
20:31
and I think this sums up the whole thing, really,
372
1231846
2760
20:34
about The New Yorker cartoons.
373
1234606
2366
20:36
"It sort of makes you stop and think, doesn't it."
374
1236972
2872
20:39
(Laughter)
375
1239844
3433
20:43
And now, when you look at New Yorker cartoons,
376
1243277
2282
20:45
I'd like you to stop and think a little bit more about them.
377
1245559
2180
20:47
Thank you.
378
1247739
1213
20:48
(Applause)
379
1248952
3637
20:52
Thank you. (Applause)
380
1252589
2259
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7