December 27, 2004
A CONSERVATIVE FIFTH COLUMN
Blame The New Yorker (Walter Kirn, New York Times, December 26th, 2004)
Now that America's urbane sophisticates have had to acknowledge their status as a fringe group so out of touch with mainstream moral values, tournament bass fishing, Nascar and Christian rock that their electoral and cultural clout is marginally less than that of Casper, Wyo., legions of self-doubting highbrows are asking themselves how this decline into decadence occurred.Because of what enfeebling bad habit did the proud and potent thinking class that gave us F.D.R. and J.F.K. fade into a cynical, ironic, smirking bunch of spiritual weaklings headed up by Al Franken and Michael Moore? Was the problem attending movies instead of church? Deserting Burger King for Whole Foods Market? No, I've concluded. The blame lies elsewhere. The seduction of America's elites by the vices of humanism and skepticism can only be blamed on the New Yorker cartoon, an agent of corruption more insidious than LSD or the electric guitar.
As we are reminded here frequently, all good humor is conservative. How any modern progressive can take himself seriously after reading these cartoons is beyond comprehension. My all time favorite is from the mid-eighties: A huge fire-breathing dragon is up at a podium addressing an audience of hundreds of identical knights-in-armor, and says: “While there are still profound differences between us, I’m sure we can all agree that just my presence here today marks a major breakthrough.”
Yours?
Posted by Peter Burnet at December 27, 2004 6:49 AM"Progressive?"
Posted by: Lou Gots at December 27, 2004 9:22 AMHow about the one where two Boy Scouts are talking about a third, and one says to the other, Hes trustworthy, loyal, obedient, cheerful, and all that, but he leans to the left.
Posted by: Bartman at December 27, 2004 10:18 AMI have two favorites:
1) King says "I want ours to be the most educated nation in the world, so tomorrow I am giving each of you a diploma."
2) Man opens a letter from the IRS, which says "This is to inform you that we have lost your file. Unless it is found within 60 days you will be subject to fines of up to $10,000."
My favorite is an old one.
Couple in a car pass a hitch hiker holding a sign that says "Bridgeport." Woman to man, Why would anyone want to go there?
If you're not from the Big Apple, you might not understand that to a New Yorker, everywhere outside Manhattan is Bridgeport.
Posted by: erp at December 27, 2004 11:26 AMA couple sitting across a desk from a man in an office. The wife is saying, "We're here because we want to sue for for 15 million, but we're not sure who or for what."
Posted by: Kirk Parker at December 27, 2004 1:16 PMSaul Steinberg was on a different level.
I prefer the drawing style in the 50's cartoons for some reason.
For one job I had the only decoration in my wretched cubicle was this one.
Posted by: carter at December 27, 2004 2:41 PMOh yeah, and the only positive contribution of Freudian psychiatry is that it provided the patient on couch premise for so many funny New Yorker cartoons.
Posted by: carter at December 27, 2004 2:44 PMThree panels.
1. A bunch of people standing around saying "It isn't so. It can't be so. No one believes it is so."
2. A giant monster appears and screams "IT IS SO!"
3. Same people standing around saying "It is so. I always thought it was so. You got that straight, it is so."