How About Never--Is Never Good for You?: My Life in Cartoons

I expected a book of cartoons. What I got was Bob Mankoff's autobiography. He's really, really funny, insightful, and respectful of others who came before him. I especially the love he has for his fellow cartoonists; this is the story of a very thoughtful man who operates a cartoon empire. I don't know how he and his staff manage to sift through thousands of cartoons every week, but he does it, and he does it with style. This is a surprisingly entertaining and informative book. And… he teaches us all how to win the weekly caption contest – guaranteed!

A good read and I suppose one can only expect a short book from a cartoonist. Lost a star because even after double tapping on my iPad Pro a few of the included cartoons and texts weren’t readable: not by me, anyway. Maybe a better experience on other devices?

Haec enim ridentur vel sola vel maxime quae notant et designant turpitudinem aliquam non turpiter. An indecency decently put is the Thing we laugh at hardest. --- Cicero If you like to laugh – and think, this is the book for you. Imagine two guys looking up at a big sign that says STOP AND THINK. One fellow says to the other: “Sorta makes you STOP AND THINK.” The reaction of these two fellows is exactly what the cartoons in The New Yorker Magazine make you do – cartoons that are better described as life drawings requiring you to think about life’s predicaments and ambiguities, facing the dangers and excitements of being alive. Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor for The New Yorker (TNY), has written a memoir about his life in cartoons. The topics of TNY cartoons draw on humor from sex, love, death, parenting, marriage, family, cruelty, fear, jealousy, envy, hate, identity, character, conscience, desire, mourning and more --- the same topics that psychologists are up to their ears in. Mankoff left psychology graduate school to seek his fortune in drawing cartoons. He started selling cartoons in 1977, and started working for TNY in 1980. He says he knows all about rejection, being booted out of psychology graduate school, and submitting thousands of cartoons to TNY before getting his first cartoon published. He became the cartoon editor in 1997, about 20 years after selling his first cartoon. As editor of the magazine, he evaluates more than 500 cartoons every week, selecting about 10 - 15 for each magazine issue Mankoff is most famous for creating the cartoon bank, and for the following best-selling cartoon: An executive is at his desk, on the phone, and looking at his calendar says, “No, Thursday’s out. How about never?” Is never good for you?” His title of his memoir is taken from what might be the most popular cartoon in the history of TNY. Mankoff remembers how he got the idea for this cartoon. He was trying to get on the phone with a friend who he wanted to see. That friend kept saying, “Can we meet this time? Could we do it that time?” And finally Mankoff says to his so-called friend, “How about never? Is never good for you?” Mankoff traces this snotty retort back to his Queens and Bronx New York Jewish background. The Chapter 1 title is: “I’m Not Arguing, I’m Jewish.” During childhood, whenever he complained to his mother he was bored, she told him to bang his head against the wall, Mankoff quips. She taught him boredom was a luxury. He describes his never-boring cartoon editor job as evaluating humor, a much different process from enjoying humor. He gives an example of a cartoon with 10 possible captions --- and this is the format of the cartoon caption contest that runs every week in TNY. The readers submit captions to a cartoon on the page, and the winners of the caption contest are printed. His editing job consists of picking cartoons with the best captions. To evaluate cartoons, Mankoff reports that he is faced with the paradox of choice, which automatically brings the interference of the judgment process, short-circuiting the laugh response. So instead of laughing at the cartoon, he has to judge it. In analyzing humor, Mankoff comments about what comics call “the magic of three.” He says you need a sequence for surprise to make a narrative funny. Here is an example of a cartoon with the element of triplets in humor --- a one, two, and then boom. A woman is saying, “I started my vegetarianism for moral reasons, then for health concerns, and now it’s just to annoy people.” The cartoons in TNY, show the very widespread humor taking place in New York, the circus of the world. Humor makes fun of what’s in the public mind. Here are two examples of cartoons about same-sex marriage: A couple is looking at TV, and the guy is saying, “Gays and lesbians are getting married. Haven’t they suffered enough?” A couple is in bed, and the guy is saying to the woman, “What’s your opinion of some-sex marriage?” Mankoff appreciates humor that is benign, not speaking truth to power, but humor directed back at the people who are reading the magazine. He describes a theory of humor he calls, “Just the Right Amount of Wrong.” He says this view emphasizes that humor is different in different contexts. He says that the mother’s milk of humor is anything that’s embarrassing, guilt- or anxiety-filled. Mankoff has learned that humor comes in almost endless varieties: humor based on reality, observational humor, silliness, and playful incongruity or absurdity. An example of an absurd cartoon is: It’s a cowboy at a desk. The person sitting in front of him is a cow, and he’s reading his resume. And the cowboy is saying, “Very impressive. I’d like to find 5,000 more like you.” One cartoon, apparently not for everybody’s taste, shows a rodent in a cage, and then another picture of a rodent who hung himself. The caption is: “Discouraging data on the antidepressant.” Mankoff tells about readers who send in letters saying they don’t like cartoons where animals suffer. Mankoff’s response: “We use anesthetic ink.” A wise-guy he is. Some people are hypersensitive to humor, and some people have little or no humor. I make it a rule never to use humor with people I don’t like ---- it is hard to keep my unconscious slips from showing. Mankoff notes there have been many cartoons in TNY about the Grim Reaper because humor is an important way we cope with death, anxiety, suffering and illness. An example of Grim Reaper humor: The Grim Reaper is taking away her husband, and the wife is at the apartment door, and she is saying, “Relax, Harry. Change is good.” Cartoons about marriage are another staple of TNY cartoons. Mankoff mentions he is happily married to his third wife (the magic of three). He says humor is essential in our attempts to understand our partners and for our partners to understand us. He cites a cartoon on marriage: A man is talking to a woman in the living room and he says, “Believe me, Janet, I consider you an important part of our marriage. Mankoff focuses on the links between creativity and humor. He mentions Arthur Koestler’s book, “The Act of Creation,” in which he connects humor, science and art. Life without a sense of humor is life without any sense of proportion or perspective. Where laughter stops, so does common sense. As William James noted, “Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.”

I am in the middle of the book and enjoying it very much. It strikes a nice balance. Unfortunately, in the kindle version the resolution on the pictures and cartoons is too low!!! The captions to the cartoons are fine but many of the cartoons contain text. Often the text is unreadable or at best barely readable. If this can be fixed PLEASE DO SO. If there is a way to improve the resolution let me know. The book is worth five stars. The use of the low resolution cartoons, takes the joy out of the book.

This book is a delight. The author's voice is engaging from the first paragraph, and the trip through his life and career is entertaining throughout. Illustrated with New Yorker cartoons, "How About Never..." is also informative about the art and profession of cartooning and cartoon editing. Anyone familiar with Bob Manoff's cartoons can imagine how interesting a glimpse into his thought processes might be. This, combined with the inside dope on the New Yorker's back page cartoon caption contest - what more could you ask for? I started reading this book on kindle but wanted the full page experience of the layout of text with cartoons and illustrations, so bought the hardcover, too.

Let me "illustrate" my only problem with this book by way of excerpt: "Shortly after I became cartoon editor, David Mamet sent me this note: 'Dear Mr. Mankoff, Congratulations! I've taken the liberty of sending you a bunch of cartoons. Sincerely, David Mamet' I sent a note back to him, thanking him and saying I had taken the liberty of sending him a play." Mankoff admits he's being a smart-ass. He's also implying that he's no playwright. By the same token, he's not a great memoirist. Good, yes. Funny, yes. But as memoirs go, this one has huge time gaps, and quickly shifts gears from his life to interviews with other cartoonists, the dos and don'ts of cartooning, how to select and nurture cartoonists, etc. All fun, fascinating stuff--just not the stuff memoirs are made of.

A wonderful look at New Yorker cartoons and they’re made. MUCH more interesting than how sausage is made! If you like the New Yorker cartoons, you will love this book!

I have always loved New Yorker cartoons, and I see the world through their lens: I remember cartoons I've seen and can apply them to a situation in my life almost daily. I am not only a very long-time New Yorker subscriber, but I've read every Rejection Collection book (give us more!). Whenever I hear of a book by a New Yorker cartoonist, I'm on it! I love those by Roz Chast and anything by Bob Mankoff. But this one is the most brilliant yet! It's informative, funny, filled with juicy behind-the-scenes stories, and lots of cartoons. I had to immediately order another book by Mankoff after I finished this; I'm addicted. He's the BEST.

A birthday gift

Para um admirador curioso dos quadrinhos da New Yorker, vale a pena dar uma olhada no livro. É divertido e informativo.

I would highly recommend this book if one is interested in the history of The New Yorker magazine and its cartoons. It is also instructive and entertaining for the general reader.

My Dad loved it. Full of lots of funny New Yorker cartoons. The cartoon editor is a funny guy too.