July 2, 2017

"I don’t feel beholden to finding the next Benchley or a Benchley knockoff. I like things that are witty."

"I also like dumb fart jokes. The high-low spread is much more interesting than trying to mummify a thing and keep presenting it all over and over again."

Says Emma Allen, who is the new cartoon editor at The New Yorker, quoted in the NYT.
When asked about how her tastes differ from her predecessor’s, she said, “I think I have a slightly weirder sense of humor.” She added later, “As much as I like observational gags, I also like things that are more surreal.”...

The Trump administration has ushered in more political comedy at The New Yorker... and Ms. Allen said she worried that “an exhaustion” could set in....
An exhaustion, yeah, and it could also just not be funny. I find Trump very funny, but I realize my perception depends on my not feeling afraid of him. I don't know exactly why I'm trusting him not to destroy everything, but it's a necessary inference from my enjoyment of his funniness. For those who are afraid and want to use humor to attack him, you'd better believe that's exhausting and also not funny. 

Good luck to the new humor editor finding some things that really are funny. I don't at all expect that The New Yorker will discover how to enjoy Trump's humor, but I'm thoroughly tired of New Yorker cartoons that impose the perspective that we hate Trump. I know humor can be based on anxiety, and I appreciate that many people are really afraid of Trump. But don't pander to them. Don't soothe them. Challenge them.

41 comments:

Known Unknown said...

I find Trump hilarious, which puzzles a lot of my friends/relatives.

YoungHegelian said...

But don't pander to them. Don't soothe them. Challenge them.

New Yorker staff response: "Jesus, woman! WTH? We've all got bills to pay, ya know?"

Rabel said...

The old [from Iowahawk]:

Every New Yorker cartoon can be improved by recaptioning "I think I'm going to kill myself"

The new:

Every New Yorker cartoon can be improved by recaptioning "I think I'm going to kill Donald Trump"

glenn said...

I don't find Trump funny but the responses are hysterical. As in hysterical.

tcrosse said...

I realize my perception depends on my not feeling afraid of him.

Bingo.

rehajm said...

Your reaction to Trump is supposed to make him inert. We both know that so you're not fooling anybody.

mockturtle said...

While I like the wit of Benchley and the other Round Table regulars--esp. Dorothy Parker--I also like The Three Stooges. Trump humor is not high wit but it's still humor. He's funnier than any other President in my lifetime, which goes back to Eisenhower.

Wince said...

I don't at all expect that The New Yorker will discover how to enjoy Trump's humor, but I'm thoroughly tired of New Yorker cartoons that impose the perspective that we hate Trump. I know humor can be based on anxiety, and I appreciate that many people are really afraid of Trump. But don't pander to them. Don't soothe them. Challenge them.

Take the Trump wrestling video, for instance.

Trump bodyslams the CNN corporate logo. CNN is a corporation. I thought corporations weren't people?

In fact, many journalists/lawyers/politicians consider themselves heroes for "doing battle" with large corporations.

I suppose Mega-Media corporations are somehow different -- as would be the law if Citizens United were decided differently.

For the record, the anti-Trump people make me afraid.

rehajm said...

I don't know exactly why I'm trusting him not to destroy everything...

At this point you believe it or you don't. Enough with the fucking prefixes. The qualifiers are no longer supporting your position.

Gahrie said...

Challenge them.

Challenge them?!? They can't handle it.

These are the people of participation trophies and "no score" soccer games.

These are the people who have no idea of how to form an argument, or deal with ideas they disagree with, so they use threats and violence to silence those they disagree with.

These are the people who demand safe spaces because someone is saying something five buildings away that they disagree with.

These are the people who STILL can't deal with the fact that Hillary lost.

They aren't up to a challenge.

themightypuck said...

I think farting is the joke but I can't recall a joke about farting.

n.n said...

The NYT and New Yorker engaged in incestuous collusion creating progressive projections. Comedy gold. This is what Water Closet and the Nigerian Phishing expedition revealed... confirmed.

Throw another baby on the barbie, they're done.

Hagar said...

Trump does not take them seriously, and that is not only an insult, but if it catches on, it could be career threatening - or at least rather insecure people might feel so.

Fen said...

The New Yorker. Comfort the comfortable. Afflict the afflicted.

We had dinner out with a party of 6. One was a media guy, depressed at the disrepect shown his profession. I asked him where it hurt and then hit him there harder.

Wifey kept glancing at my place setting, keeping an eye on my steak knife. She knows I would never, but just to be sure.

But the interesting thing was the other couple was stone cold. Disgusted glares at him not me. I think that, while they didn't care for me digging into him, they were more annoyed at him playing the victim.

Fen said...

Glares is not right, more of a vieled contempt.

Bill Crawford said...

Martin Luther said, "But I resist the the devil, and often it is with a fart that I chase him away." Replace "the devil" with CNN and you have a Trump tweet.

Luke Lea said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Luke Lea said...

Trump's latest take down of CNN in the wrestling rink is nothing but comic, indelibly so! We've never had a joker as President before. And in this case he must have had some help in preparing the tweet, no? In any event, not quite the same as the Roman emperor who appointed his favorite horse to the Senate. Maybe Ann can explain why?

Sam L. said...

I'm guessing you are not afraid of Trump because you know the media are lying about him.

mockturtle said...

Hagar suggests: Trump does not take them seriously, and that is not only an insult, but if it catches on, it could be career threatening

We can only hope.

robother said...

You might ask, where's the humor in Hitler? But when the New Yorker crowd sees Hitler in every Republican President, Trump but also W Bush, it does become a joke, similar to the View from 9th Avenue cover.

traditionalguy said...

Public Ridicule is a many splendored weapon. And Trump uses that weapon attacking the point of the spear Impeachment Media where it hurts. And he does it even better than SNL and the Late Shows have done it to him for over a year now.

The Firepower of Tweets and Veritas undercover Videos has now exposed CNN and NBC as Bad Propaganda done by immoral idiots.

whitney said...

Don't pander to them? How can that be accomplished. Every time you try to challenge them they run to their safe space which frequently is just putting their fingers in their ears and saying lalalalala

Mary Beth said...

I read that CNN credited r/The_Donald with the video. If they credited the redditor who posted it, u/HanAssholeSolo, by name, that would almost make it worth watching them (for a minute or two, anyway.)

Trump amuses me. I like that he retweets memes. I like that he tweet-tweeks the noses of the media. I've had enough of sanitized, focus-group tested messages from politicians. I'm sure this will eventually grow old (when we've had enough winning), but it's pretty entertaining so far.

traditionalguy said...

The rise of Napoleone came from his audacity to fire Grapeshot from his artillery in close quarters at the barricades manned by Parisian street mobs. Like Trump's Twitter fire power, no one had ever done that before.



Be said...

traditionalguy: artillery was considered "below the class of the aristocrats," as is Trump's Technique nowadays. Unfortunately, as with Napoleon, too, though Trump's Tactics might be Interesting, the Strategy might not be.

Ralph L said...

The best part of the New Yorker is the last page of reader-supplied captions, even the anti-Trump ones.

mockturtle said...

Tradguy reports: The rise of Napoleone came from his audacity to fire Grapeshot from his artillery in close quarters at the barricades manned by Parisian street mobs. Like Trump's Twitter fire power, no one had ever done that before.

As Patton once said, "L'audace! Toujours l'audace".

Bad Lieutenant said...

Unfortunately, as with Napoleon, too, though Trump's Tactics might be Interesting, the Strategy might not be.
7/2/17, 9:58 PM

And yet one notices that the Bourbons have not returned to the Tuileries, nor does anyone give a fart in Versailles for the doings of the cardinal.

Tradguy ia more your meat for defending Napoleon-i suspect they were redheads together at college.

Steve said...

I just look at The New Yorker for the pictures. For a week or two before the November election there was an avalanche of anti-Trump cartoons and cover art. I've kept those on my Schadenfreude shelf.

Bay Area Guy said...

Humor editor? At the New Yorker?!!?

Bah hah hah hah hah hah!

Be said...

Bad Lieutenant: You sound almost like a Bad Socialist. (Oh, Well, things worked out well in some areas, despite the Other Stuff. Maybe It will work out Better this Next Time.)

Be said...

Currently in France, there are National Forests, that were put up during the reign of XIV, to keep up a Standing Navy.

Great in the Foresight; still a bit out dated. And yet, we still don't have a French Pope or a Bourbon. Or a Navarre, for that matter.

Unknown said...

"I know humor can be based on anxiety, and I appreciate that many people are really afraid of Trump. But don't pander to them. Don't soothe them. Challenge them."

People are not afraid of Trump. They know who Trump is and everyday since becoming president Trump has validated them. It is the Trumpski's who don't know Trump and who will eventually find out who he is.

This short diatribe is a perfect example of why the East Coasters/Liberals/Progressives et al slap their heads at the fly-over-country Trumpski's.

Unknown said...

"I thought corporations weren't people?"

Duh, TRUMP is a global brand managed by one or more private companies owned by Trump and his Family with assets across the world.


Unknown said...

"I find Trump very funny, but I realize my perception depends on my not feeling afraid of him."

To Coasters/Liberals/Progressives/et al ... "Trump is a poor person's idea of what a rich person is, a dumb person's idea of what a smart person is, a weak person's idea of what a strong person is"

Keep laughing Trumpski's.

Unknown said...

The Quinnipiac poll from May asked a group of American voters for the first word that came to mind when they thought of President Trump. As far as I can tell, of the top 50 words, not a single one talks to being afraid or fearful. Top three words are:

1. IDIOT
2. INCOMPETENT
3. LIAR

Google it and verify it yourself.

Kevin said...

The Trump administration has ushered in more political comedy at The New Yorker

The Obama Administration made it impossible to do political humor for eight years, for fear of being called racist.

FIFY

Jupiter said...

"I appreciate that many people are really afraid of Trump."

As Unknown has verified for us, they aren't afraid of Trump. They are merely frustrated that he is interfering with their plan to make the rest of us afraid of them. And they are, perhaps, beginning to be just a little bit afraid of the rest of us.

Rex said...

""I don’t feel beholden to finding the next Benchley or a Benchley knockoff.""

Is this young person (Harvard 2010) under the impression that Robert Benchley was a cartoonist? Benchley was known throughout the 20s and 30s as America's funniest writer, producing comic essays in the vein of our own Dave Barry (who describes Benchley as his idol). He's no longer remembered - even by The New Yorker, apparently - and was even omitted from the Library of America's "The 50 Funniest American Writers," edited by the tediously un-funny Andy Borowitz. Anyway, he wasn't a cartoonist. Kids these days.

Megaera said...

"Beholden"? How do you get a position as an editor-of-anything at New Yorker when you can't even manage to use English properly? She may have been laboring under the delusion that a word meaning "obliged to" is the same as "obligated", but they're not the same thing at all. And while this may be pedantry, well, editors are supposed to cleave to standards and it appears she is in no way capable of this.