Outgoing 'New Yorker' Cartoon Editor Says 'Being Funny Is Being Awake'
After 20 years as the magazine's cartoon gatekeeper, Bob Mankoff is stepping down. He says humor helps us cope with hardship, get along with one another — and, in general, makes life more enjoyable.
Throughout the day, New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff jots down ideas that strike him as funny: A door lies on a couch in a psychiatrist's office, and the psychiatrist says, "You're not crazy, you're just unhinged." Or, two guys crawling through a desert encounter one of those orange cones that says: "Caution Wet Floor."
For a man obsessed with humor, Mankoff found the
