0:00:00.585,0:00:02.445
I'm going to be talking about designing humor,

0:00:02.445,0:00:04.419
which is sort of an interesting thing, but it goes

0:00:04.419,0:00:08.127
to some of the discussions about constraints,

0:00:08.127,0:00:10.885
and how in certain contexts, humor is right,

0:00:10.885,0:00:12.576
and in other contexts it's wrong.

0:00:12.576,0:00:15.352
Now, I'm from New York,

0:00:15.352,0:00:18.938
so it's 100 percent satisfaction here.

0:00:18.938,0:00:22.141
Actually, that's ridiculous, because when it comes to humor,

0:00:22.141,0:00:25.430
75 percent is really absolutely the best you can hope for.

0:00:25.430,0:00:30.413
Nobody is ever satisfied 100 percent with humor

0:00:30.413,0:00:33.129
except this woman.

0:00:33.129,0:00:42.866
(Video) Woman: (Laughs)

0:00:50.378,0:00:51.778
Bob Mankoff: That's my first wife.

0:00:51.778,0:00:54.053
(Laughter)

0:00:54.053,0:00:56.545
That part of the relationship went fine.

0:00:56.545,0:01:00.110
(Laughter)

0:01:00.110,0:01:03.632
Now let's look at this cartoon.

0:01:03.632,0:01:05.208
One of the things I'm pointing out is that

0:01:05.208,0:01:07.512
cartoons appear within the context

0:01:07.512,0:01:09.225
of The New Yorker magazine,

0:01:09.225,0:01:11.166
that lovely Caslon type, and it seems

0:01:11.166,0:01:14.640
like a fairly benign cartoon within this context.

0:01:14.640,0:01:16.711
It's making a little bit fun of getting older,

0:01:16.711,0:01:18.063
and, you know, people might like it.

0:01:18.063,0:01:21.299
But like I said, you cannot satisfy everyone.

0:01:21.299,0:01:23.745
You couldn't satisfy this guy.

0:01:23.745,0:01:26.832
"Another joke on old white males. Ha ha. The wit.

0:01:26.832,0:01:28.492
It's nice, I'm sure to be young and rude,

0:01:28.492,0:01:31.965
but some day you'll be old, unless you drop dead as I wish."

0:01:31.965,0:01:35.183
(Laughter)

0:01:35.183,0:01:38.693
The New Yorker is rather a sensitive environment,

0:01:38.693,0:01:41.301
very easy for people to get their nose out of joint.

0:01:41.301,0:01:44.235
And one of the things that you realize

0:01:44.235,0:01:46.702
is it's an unusual environment.

0:01:46.702,0:01:48.845
Here I'm one person talking to you.

0:01:48.845,0:01:52.543
You're all collective. You all hear each other laugh and know each other laugh.

0:01:52.543,0:01:56.824
In The New Yorker, it goes out to a wide audience,

0:01:56.824,0:01:58.316
and when you actually look at that,

0:01:58.316,0:02:01.828
and nobody knows what anybody else is laughing at,

0:02:01.828,0:02:05.144
and when you look at that the subjectivity involved in humor

0:02:05.144,0:02:06.727
is really interesting.

0:02:06.727,0:02:08.365
Let's look at this cartoon.

0:02:08.365,0:02:10.700
"Discouraging data on the antidepressant."

0:02:10.700,0:02:12.724
(Laughter)

0:02:12.724,0:02:15.735
Indeed, it is discouraging.

0:02:15.735,0:02:17.537
Now, you would think, well, look,

0:02:17.537,0:02:19.206
most of you laughed at that.

0:02:19.206,0:02:20.627
Right? You thought it was funny.

0:02:20.627,0:02:22.309
In general, that seems like a funny cartoon,

0:02:22.309,0:02:25.693
but let's look what online survey I did.

0:02:25.693,0:02:27.810
Generally, about 85 percent of the people liked it.

0:02:27.810,0:02:31.173
A hundred and nine voted it a 10, the highest. Ten voted it one.

0:02:31.173,0:02:33.484
But look at the individual responses.

0:02:33.484,0:02:35.787
"I like animals!!!!!" Look how much they like them.

0:02:35.787,0:02:39.314
(Laughter)

0:02:39.314,0:02:42.413
"I don't want to hurt them. That doesn't seem very funny to me."

0:02:42.413,0:02:44.302
This person rated it a two.

0:02:44.302,0:02:48.684
"I don't like to see animals suffer -- even in cartoons."

0:02:48.684,0:02:53.810
To people like this, I point out we use anesthetic ink.

0:02:53.810,0:02:55.567
Other people thought it was funny.

0:02:55.567,0:02:58.636
That actually is the true nature of the distribution of humor

0:02:58.636,0:03:02.814
when you don't have the contagion of humor.

0:03:02.814,0:03:04.531
Humor is a type of entertainment.

0:03:04.531,0:03:08.338
All entertainment contains a little frisson of danger,

0:03:08.338,0:03:10.458
something that might happen wrong,

0:03:10.458,0:03:12.927
and yet we like it when there's protection.

0:03:12.927,0:03:15.662
That's what a zoo is. It's danger. The tiger is there.

0:03:15.662,0:03:19.812
The bars protect us. That's sort of fun, right?

0:03:19.812,0:03:21.393
That's a bad zoo.

0:03:21.393,0:03:23.916
(Laughter)

0:03:23.916,0:03:27.938
It's a very politically correct zoo, but it's a bad zoo.

0:03:27.938,0:03:30.093
But this is a worse one.

0:03:30.093,0:03:33.898
(Laughter)

0:03:33.898,0:03:38.017
So in dealing with humor in the context of The New Yorker,

0:03:38.017,0:03:40.866
you have to see, where is that tiger going to be?

0:03:40.866,0:03:42.228
Where is the danger going to exist?

0:03:42.228,0:03:44.447
How are you going to manage it?

0:03:44.447,0:03:48.844
My job is to look at 1,000 cartoons a week.

0:03:48.844,0:03:53.063
But The New Yorker only can take 16 or 17 cartoons,

0:03:53.063,0:03:54.580
and we have 1,000 cartoons.

0:03:54.580,0:03:57.456
Of course, many, many cartoons must be rejected.

0:03:57.456,0:04:00.619
Now, we could fit more cartoons in the magazine

0:04:00.619,0:04:02.635
if we removed the articles.

0:04:02.635,0:04:06.367
(Laughter)

0:04:06.367,0:04:11.324
But I feel that would be a huge loss,

0:04:11.324,0:04:15.097
one I could live with, but still huge.

0:04:15.097,0:04:18.013
Cartoonists come in through the magazine every week.

0:04:18.013,0:04:20.011
The average cartoonist who stays with the magazine

0:04:20.011,0:04:22.567
does 10 or 15 ideas every week.

0:04:22.567,0:04:25.633
But they mostly are going to be rejected.

0:04:25.633,0:04:28.677
That's the nature of any creative activity.

0:04:28.677,0:04:32.141
Many of them fade away. Some of them stay.

0:04:32.141,0:04:33.559
Matt Diffee is one of them.

0:04:33.559,0:04:35.577
Here's one of his cartoons.

0:04:35.577,0:04:41.152
(Laughter)

0:04:41.152,0:04:44.046
Drew Dernavich. "Accounting night at the improv."

0:04:44.046,0:04:46.150
"Now is the part of the show when we ask the audience

0:04:46.150,0:04:50.909
to shout out some random numbers."

0:04:50.909,0:04:55.685
Paul Noth. "He's all right. I just wish he were a little more pro-Israel."

0:04:55.685,0:05:00.458
(Laughter)

0:05:00.458,0:05:02.340
Now I know all about rejection,

0:05:02.340,0:05:06.587
because when I quit -- actually, I was booted out of -- psychology school

0:05:06.587,0:05:10.019
and decided to become a cartoonist, a natural segue,

0:05:10.019,0:05:15.093
from 1974 to 1977 I submitted 2,000 cartoons to The New Yorker,

0:05:15.093,0:05:19.689
and got 2,000 cartoons rejected by The New Yorker.

0:05:19.689,0:05:24.041
At a certain point, this rejection slip, in 1977 --

0:05:24.041,0:05:25.036
[We regret that we are unable to use the enclosed material. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider it.] —

0:05:25.036,0:05:26.610
magically changed to this.

0:05:26.610,0:05:30.048
[Hey! You sold one. No shit! You really sold a cartoon to the fucking New Yorker magazine.]

0:05:30.048,0:05:32.859
(Laughter)

0:05:32.859,0:05:35.128
Now of course that's not what happened,

0:05:35.128,0:05:39.745
but that's the emotional truth.

0:05:39.745,0:05:42.168
And of course, that is not New Yorker humor.

0:05:42.168,0:05:43.957
What is New Yorker humor?

0:05:43.957,0:05:48.633
Well, after 1977, I broke into The New Yorker and started selling cartoons.

0:05:48.649,0:05:51.530
Finally, in 1980, I received the revered

0:05:51.530,0:05:53.724
New Yorker contract,

0:05:53.724,0:05:57.759
which I blurred out parts because it's none of your business.

0:05:57.759,0:06:01.269
From 1980. "Dear Mr. Mankoff, confirming the agreement

0:06:01.269,0:06:03.722
there of -- " blah blah blah blah -- blur --

0:06:03.722,0:06:07.150
"for any idea drawings."

0:06:07.150,0:06:10.176
With respect to idea drawings, nowhere in the contract

0:06:10.176,0:06:12.255
is the word "cartoon" mentioned.

0:06:12.255,0:06:17.704
The word "idea drawings," and that's the sine qua non of New Yorker cartoons.

0:06:17.704,0:06:21.129
So what is an idea drawing? An idea drawing is something

0:06:21.129,0:06:24.414
that requires you to think.

0:06:24.414,0:06:27.199
Now that's not a cartoon. It requires thinking

0:06:27.199,0:06:30.196
on the part of the cartoonist and thinking on your part

0:06:30.196,0:06:32.306
to make it into a cartoon.

0:06:32.306,0:06:38.071
(Laughter)

0:06:38.071,0:06:43.214
Here are some, generally you get my cast of cartoon mind.

0:06:43.214,0:06:49.359
"There is no justice in the world. There is some justice in the world. The world is just."

0:06:49.359,0:06:51.327
This is What Lemmings Believe.

0:06:51.327,0:06:57.616
(Laughter)

0:06:57.616,0:07:00.541
The New Yorker and I, when we made comments,

0:07:00.541,0:07:05.052
the cartoon carries a certain ambiguity about what it actually is.

0:07:05.052,0:07:07.340
What is it, the cartoon? Is it really about lemmings?

0:07:07.340,0:07:09.692
No. It's about us.

0:07:09.692,0:07:12.572
You know, it's my view basically about religion,

0:07:12.572,0:07:17.259
that the real conflict and all the fights between religion

0:07:17.259,0:07:20.140
is who has the best imaginary friend.

0:07:20.140,0:07:25.271
(Laughter)

0:07:25.271,0:07:27.263
And this is my most well-known cartoon.

0:07:27.263,0:07:31.015
"No, Thursday's out. How about never — is never good for you?"

0:07:31.015,0:07:33.582
It's been reprinted thousands of times, totally ripped off.

0:07:33.582,0:07:36.344
It's even on thongs,

0:07:36.344,0:07:42.971
but compressed to "How about never — is never good for you?"

0:07:42.971,0:07:46.370
Now these look like very different forms of humor

0:07:46.370,0:07:48.764
but actually they bear a great similarity.

0:07:48.764,0:07:53.187
In each instance, our expectations are defied.

0:07:53.187,0:07:56.903
In each instance, the narrative gets switched.

0:07:56.903,0:07:59.157
There's an incongruity and a contrast.

0:07:59.157,0:08:02.406
In "No, Thursday's out. How about never — is never good for you?"

0:08:02.406,0:08:04.886
what you have is the syntax of politeness

0:08:04.886,0:08:07.147
and the message of being rude.

0:08:07.147,0:08:10.416
That really is how humor works. It's a cognitive synergy

0:08:10.416,0:08:14.195
where we mash up these two things which don't go together

0:08:14.195,0:08:16.976
and temporarily in our minds exist.

0:08:16.976,0:08:19.496
He is both being polite and rude.

0:08:19.496,0:08:22.767
In here, you have the propriety of The New Yorker

0:08:22.767,0:08:24.748
and the vulgarity of the language.

0:08:24.748,0:08:26.773
Basically, that's the way humor works.

0:08:26.773,0:08:29.295
So I'm a humor analyst, you would say.

0:08:29.295,0:08:32.837
Now E.B. White said, analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog.

0:08:32.837,0:08:35.485
Nobody is much interested, and the frog dies.

0:08:35.485,0:08:40.208
Well, I'm going to kill a few, but there won't be any genocide.

0:08:40.208,0:08:42.013
But really, it makes me —

0:08:42.013,0:08:44.085
Let's look at this picture. This is an interesting picture,

0:08:44.085,0:08:46.017
The Laughing Audience.

0:08:46.017,0:08:47.798
There are the people, fops up there,

0:08:47.798,0:08:50.923
but everybody is laughing, everybody is laughing

0:08:50.923,0:08:53.414
except one guy.

0:08:53.414,0:08:57.954
This guy. Who is he? He's the critic.

0:08:57.954,0:09:00.396
He's the critic of humor,

0:09:00.396,0:09:03.564
and really I'm forced to be in that position,

0:09:03.564,0:09:06.860
when I'm at The New Yorker, and that's the danger

0:09:06.860,0:09:11.977
that I will become this guy.

0:09:11.977,0:09:14.870
Now here's a little video made by Matt Diffee, sort of

0:09:14.870,0:09:18.594
how they imagine if we really exaggerated that.

0:09:18.594,0:09:21.620
(Video) Bob Mankoff: "Oooh, no.

0:09:21.620,0:09:24.148
Ehhh.

0:09:24.148,0:09:33.422
Oooh. Hmm. Too funny.

0:09:33.422,0:09:37.360
Normally I would but I'm in a pissy mood.

0:09:37.360,0:09:40.059
I'll enjoy it on my own. Perhaps.

0:09:40.059,0:09:43.720
No. Nah. No.

0:09:43.720,0:09:46.717
Overdrawn. Underdrawn.

0:09:46.717,0:09:49.387
Drawn just right, still not funny enough.

0:09:49.387,0:09:52.653
No. No.

0:09:52.653,0:09:56.018
For God's sake no, a thousand times no.

0:09:56.018,0:09:59.292
(Music)

0:09:59.292,0:10:05.277
No. No. No. No. No. [Four hours later]

0:10:05.277,0:10:09.043
Hey, that's good, yeah, whatcha got there?

0:10:09.043,0:10:11.186
Office worker: Got a ham and swiss on rye?BM: No.

0:10:11.186,0:10:14.111
Office worker: Okay. Pastrami on sourdough?BM: No.

0:10:14.111,0:10:16.054
Office worker: Smoked turkey with bacon?BM: No.

0:10:16.054,0:10:18.256
Office worker: Falafel?BM: Let me look at it.

0:10:18.256,0:10:19.696
Eh, no.

0:10:19.696,0:10:21.111
Office worker: Grilled cheese?BM: No.

0:10:21.111,0:10:22.048
Office worker: BLT?BM: No.

0:10:22.048,0:10:24.668
Office worker: Black forest ham and mozzarella with apple mustard?BM: No.

0:10:24.668,0:10:27.189
Office worker: Green bean salad?BM: No.

0:10:27.189,0:10:29.770
(Music)

0:10:29.770,0:10:31.714
No. No.

0:10:31.714,0:10:34.944
Definitely no. [Several hours after lunch]

0:10:34.944,0:10:43.710
(Siren)

0:10:56.695,0:10:59.192
No. Get out of here.

0:10:59.192,0:11:00.609
(Laughter)

0:11:00.609,0:11:04.086
That's sort of an exaggeration of what I do.

0:11:04.086,0:11:07.352
Now, we do reject, many, many, many cartoons,

0:11:07.352,0:11:10.456
so many that there are many books called "The Rejection Collection."

0:11:10.456,0:11:14.834
"The Rejection Collection" is not quite New Yorker kind of humor.

0:11:14.834,0:11:17.301
And you might notice the bum on the sidewalk here

0:11:17.301,0:11:21.124
who is boozing and his ventriloquist dummy is puking.

0:11:21.124,0:11:23.612
See, that's probably not going to be New Yorker humor.

0:11:23.612,0:11:26.889
It's actually put together by Matt Diffee, one of our cartoonists.

0:11:26.889,0:11:31.311
So I'll give you some examples of rejection collection humor.

0:11:31.311,0:11:34.022
"I'm thinking about having a child."

0:11:34.022,0:11:39.310
(Laughter)

0:11:39.310,0:11:43.084
There you have an interesting -- the guilty laugh,

0:11:43.084,0:11:46.342
the laugh against your better judgment.

0:11:46.342,0:11:49.393
(Laughter)

0:11:49.393,0:11:52.555
"Ass-head. Please help."

0:11:52.555,0:11:54.838
(Laughter)

0:11:54.838,0:11:58.502
Now, in fact, within a context of this book,

0:11:58.502,0:12:01.544
which says, "Cartoons you never saw and never will see

0:12:01.544,0:12:04.267
in The New Yorker," this humor is perfect.

0:12:04.267,0:12:05.872
I'm going to explain why.

0:12:05.872,0:12:07.584
There's a concept about humor about it being

0:12:07.584,0:12:09.917
a benign violation.

0:12:09.917,0:12:11.894
In other words, for something to be funny, we've got to think

0:12:11.894,0:12:15.435
it's both wrong and also okay at the same time.

0:12:15.435,0:12:18.371
If we think it's completely wrong, we say, "That's not funny."

0:12:18.371,0:12:22.036
And if it's completely okay, what's the joke? Okay?

0:12:22.036,0:12:27.416
And so, this benign, that's true of "No, Thursday's out. How about never — is never good for you?"

0:12:27.416,0:12:29.574
It's rude. The world really shouldn't be that way.

0:12:29.574,0:12:32.478
Within that context, we feel it's okay.

0:12:32.478,0:12:35.690
So within this context, "Asshead. Please help"

0:12:35.690,0:12:37.734
is a benign violation.

0:12:37.734,0:12:42.063
Within the context of The New Yorker magazine ...

0:12:42.063,0:12:45.606
"T-Cell Army: Can the body's immune response

0:12:45.606,0:12:49.516
help treat cancer?" Oh, goodness.

0:12:49.516,0:12:53.278
You're reading about this smart stuff,

0:12:53.278,0:12:57.299
this intelligent dissection of the immune system.

0:12:57.299,0:13:01.032
You glance over at this, and it says,

0:13:01.032,0:13:06.194
"Asshead. Please help"? God.

0:13:06.194,0:13:10.794
So there the violation is malign. It doesn't work.

0:13:10.794,0:13:13.917
There is no such thing as funny in and of itself.

0:13:13.917,0:13:17.768
Everything will be within the context and our expectations.

0:13:17.768,0:13:21.206
One way to look at it is this.

0:13:21.206,0:13:25.347
It's sort of called a meta-motivational theory about how we look,

0:13:25.347,0:13:27.195
a theory about motivation and the mood we're in

0:13:27.195,0:13:30.309
and how the mood we're in determines the things we like

0:13:30.309,0:13:32.009
or dislike.

0:13:32.009,0:13:36.307
When we're in a playful mood, we want excitement.

0:13:36.307,0:13:39.616
We want high arousal. We feel excited then.

0:13:39.616,0:13:42.220
If we're in a purposeful mood, that makes us anxious.

0:13:42.220,0:13:47.801
"The Rejection Collection" is absolutely in this field.

0:13:47.801,0:13:50.157
You want to be stimulated. You want to be aroused.

0:13:50.157,0:13:54.647
You want to be transgressed.

0:13:54.647,0:13:59.017
It's like this, like an amusement park.

0:13:59.017,0:14:08.180
Voice: Here we go. (Screams)

0:14:08.180,0:14:12.150
He laughs. He is both in danger and safe,

0:14:12.150,0:14:15.298
incredibly aroused. There's no joke. No joke needed.

0:14:15.298,0:14:18.523
If you arouse people enough and get them stimulated enough,

0:14:18.523,0:14:20.789
they will laugh at very, very little.

0:14:20.789,0:14:23.074
This is another cartoon from "The Rejection Collection."

0:14:23.074,0:14:27.533
"Too snug?"

0:14:27.533,0:14:29.736
That's a cartoon about terrorism.

0:14:29.736,0:14:33.092
The New Yorker occupies a very different space.

0:14:33.092,0:14:36.817
It's a space that is playful in its own way, and also purposeful,

0:14:36.817,0:14:40.309
and in that space, the cartoons are different.

0:14:40.309,0:14:42.678
Now I'm going to show you cartoons The New Yorker did

0:14:42.678,0:14:47.276
right after 9/11, a very, very sensitive area when humor could be used.

0:14:47.276,0:14:48.705
How would The New Yorker attack it?

0:14:48.705,0:14:53.258
It would not be with a guy with a bomb saying, "Too snug?"

0:14:53.258,0:14:55.482
Or there was another cartoon I didn't show because

0:14:55.482,0:14:59.442
actually I thought maybe people would be offended.

0:14:59.442,0:15:03.088
The great Sam Gross cartoon, this happened

0:15:03.088,0:15:07.120
after the Muhammad controversy where it's Muhammad in heaven,

0:15:07.120,0:15:09.909
the suicide bomber is all in little pieces,

0:15:09.909,0:15:12.009
and he's saying to the suicide bomber,

0:15:12.009,0:15:15.280
"You'll get the virgins when we find your penis."

0:15:15.280,0:15:19.382
(Laughter)

0:15:19.382,0:15:22.806
Better left undrawn.

0:15:22.806,0:15:25.454
The first week we did no cartoons.

0:15:25.454,0:15:28.430
That was a black hole for humor, and correctly so.

0:15:28.430,0:15:31.028
It's not always appropriate every time.

0:15:31.028,0:15:34.676
But the next week, this was the first cartoon.

0:15:34.676,0:15:39.286
"I thought I'd never laugh again. Then I saw your jacket."

0:15:39.286,0:15:42.305
It basically was about, if we were alive,

0:15:42.305,0:15:44.102
we were going to laugh. We were going to breathe.

0:15:44.102,0:15:46.373
We were going to exist. Here's another one.

0:15:46.373,0:15:51.708
"I figure if I don't have that third martini, then the terrorists win."

0:15:51.708,0:15:55.266
These cartoons are not about them. They're about us.

0:15:55.266,0:15:57.590
The humor reflects back on us.

0:15:57.590,0:16:01.425
The easiest thing to do with humor, and it's perfectly legitimate,

0:16:01.425,0:16:05.050
is a friend makes fun of an enemy.

0:16:05.050,0:16:07.183
It's called dispositional humor.

0:16:07.183,0:16:10.652
It's 95 percent of the humor. It's not our humor.

0:16:10.652,0:16:13.062
Here's another cartoon.

0:16:13.062,0:16:16.694
"I wouldn't mind living in a fundamentalist Islamic state."

0:16:16.694,0:16:21.283
(Laughter)

0:16:25.851,0:16:30.215
Humor does need a target.

0:16:30.215,0:16:34.391
But interestingly, in The New Yorker, the target is us.

0:16:34.391,0:16:36.951
The target is the readership and the people who do it.

0:16:36.951,0:16:39.119
The humor is self-reflective

0:16:39.119,0:16:41.972
and makes us think about our assumptions.

0:16:41.972,0:16:45.507
Look at this cartoon by Roz Chast, the guy reading the obituary.

0:16:45.507,0:16:48.161
"Two years younger than you, 12 years older than you,

0:16:48.161,0:16:51.127
three years your junior, your age on the dot,

0:16:51.127,0:16:53.695
exactly your age."

0:16:53.695,0:16:57.119
That is a deeply profound cartoon.

0:16:57.119,0:17:01.590
And so The New Yorker is also trying to, in some way,

0:17:01.590,0:17:05.297
make cartoons say something besides funny

0:17:05.297,0:17:07.544
and something about us. Here's another one.

0:17:07.544,0:17:09.752
"I started my vegetarianism for health reasons,

0:17:09.752,0:17:13.075
Then it became a moral choice, and now it's just to annoy people."

0:17:13.075,0:17:18.722
(Laughter)

0:17:18.722,0:17:21.748
"Excuse me — I think there's something wrong with this

0:17:21.763,0:17:27.587
in a tiny way that no one other than me would ever be able to pinpoint."

0:17:27.587,0:17:31.563
So it focuses on our obsessions, our narcissism,

0:17:31.563,0:17:35.828
our foils and our foibles, really not someone else's.

0:17:35.828,0:17:38.334
The New Yorker demands

0:17:38.350,0:17:41.067
some cognitive work on your part,

0:17:41.067,0:17:43.422
and what it demands is what Arthur Koestler,

0:17:43.422,0:17:46.337
who wrote "The Act of Creation" about the relationship

0:17:46.337,0:17:49.134
between humor, art and science,

0:17:49.134,0:17:51.214
is what's called bisociation.

0:17:51.214,0:17:54.810
You have to bring together ideas from different frames of reference,

0:17:54.810,0:17:57.982
and you have to do it quickly to understand the cartoon.

0:17:57.982,0:18:00.464
If the different frames of reference don't come together

0:18:00.464,0:18:02.450
in about .5 seconds, it's not funny,

0:18:02.450,0:18:04.384
but I think they will for you here.

0:18:04.384,0:18:06.458
Different frames of reference.

0:18:06.458,0:18:09.286
"You slept with her, didn't you?"

0:18:09.286,0:18:14.574
(Laughter)

0:18:14.574,0:18:16.915
"Lassie! Get help!!"

0:18:16.915,0:18:20.883
(Laughter)

0:18:20.883,0:18:23.575
It's called French Army Knife.

0:18:23.575,0:18:30.003
(Laughter)

0:18:30.031,0:18:32.699
And this is Einstein in bed. "To you it was fast."

0:18:32.699,0:18:39.930
(Laughter)

0:18:39.930,0:18:43.154
Now there are some cartoons that are puzzling.

0:18:43.154,0:18:47.218
Like, this cartoon would puzzle many people.

0:18:47.218,0:18:51.445
How many people know what this cartoon means?

0:18:51.445,0:18:55.949
The dog is signaling he wants to go for a walk.

0:18:55.949,0:19:01.655
This is the signal for a catcher to walk the dog.

0:19:01.655,0:19:04.196
That's why we run a feature in the cartoon issue every year

0:19:04.196,0:19:07.266
called "I Don't Get It: The New Yorker Cartoon I.Q. Test."

0:19:07.266,0:19:09.345
(Laughter)

0:19:09.345,0:19:11.283
The other thing The New Yorker plays around with

0:19:11.283,0:19:13.993
is incongruity, and incongruity, I've shown you,

0:19:13.993,0:19:15.581
is sort of the basis of humor.

0:19:15.581,0:19:18.988
Something that's completely normal or logical isn't going to be funny.

0:19:18.988,0:19:22.581
But the way incongruity works is, observational humor

0:19:22.581,0:19:25.003
is humor within the realm of reality.

0:19:25.003,0:19:30.481
"My boss is always telling me what to do." Okay?

0:19:30.481,0:19:33.474
That could happen. It's humor within the realm of reality.

0:19:33.474,0:19:35.670
Here, cowboy to a cow:

0:19:35.670,0:19:40.027
"Very impressive. I'd like to find 5,000 more like you."

0:19:40.027,0:19:43.703
We understand that. It's absurd. But we're putting the two together.

0:19:43.703,0:19:47.201
Here, in the nonsense range:

0:19:47.201,0:19:52.256
"Damn it, Hopkins, didn't you get yesterday's memo?"

0:19:52.256,0:19:56.599
Now that's a little puzzling, right? It doesn't quite come together.

0:19:56.599,0:19:59.396
In general, people who enjoy more nonsense,

0:19:59.396,0:20:01.366
enjoy more abstract art,

0:20:01.366,0:20:04.591
they tend to be liberal, less conservative, that type of stuff.

0:20:04.591,0:20:08.256
But for us, and for me, helping design the humor,

0:20:08.256,0:20:10.821
it doesn't make any sense to compare one to the other.

0:20:10.821,0:20:15.236
It's sort of a smorgasbord that's made all interesting.

0:20:15.236,0:20:19.846
So I want to sum all this up with a caption to a cartoon,

0:20:19.846,0:20:22.606
and I think this sums up the whole thing, really,

0:20:22.606,0:20:24.972
about The New Yorker cartoons.

0:20:24.972,0:20:27.844
"It sort of makes you stop and think, doesn't it."

0:20:27.844,0:20:31.277
(Laughter)

0:20:31.277,0:20:33.559
And now, when you look at New Yorker cartoons,

0:20:33.559,0:20:35.739
I'd like you to stop and think a little bit more about them.

0:20:35.739,0:20:36.952
Thank you.

0:20:36.952,0:20:40.589
(Applause)

0:20:40.589,0:20:42.848
Thank you. (Applause)