Drawing Our Times -- Dec. 26, 2004

  -- A weekly feature on This Week.

Voices/Images

On our last broadcast of 2004, we refresh your memory of events from an extraordinary year in a conversation with Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor of The New Yorker.

Terry Moran, ABC News: How funny a year was 2004?

Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor of The New Yorker: I think 2004 -- I have looked at the latest stats -- it looks like it was 92 percent funnier than 2003, although the final government statistics aren't in on it.

Moran:It was a year of war, though. And with a subject as grim as war, what do you do in a cartoon, what do you look for in a cartoon?

Mankoff: War is the reason for grim. There is war and security problems and everything. … I'm thinking about a cartoon done not too long after [Sept. 11, 2001] by Leo Collem [in which] a woman's coming on a plane and she's got a cat and the security guy is saying, 'Sorry ma'am I've got to declaw the cat.' You know, of course we're worried the plane could crash, could be blown up. But this is our way of dealing with our mortality and vulnerability.

Moran: What about one of the deepest tragedies and disgraces of the year, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. A tragedy obviously of the people involved [and] for the country, as well. You found something funny.

Mankoff: We've got the Abu Ghraib 'no hard feelings' pizza party. … You say, when does humor go to far? Well, it obviously goes too far when it's not funny. Now, I have never said that line to someone that didn't laugh. The cartoon makes fun of us, like because we see everything in the prism of our life -- like what would we have, how would we handle it?

Moran: Talk about taking a point of view. Isn't [a particular recent] cartoon taking a point of view on the U.S. war in Iraq?

Mankoff: I think it's taking a point of view on how we view it. It seems to be more about not that there should not be freedom, but that freedom mostly leads to consumerism. So you have a liberated Iraqi thinking, 'What's on TV? Is my deodorant letting me down? Are my teeth white enough?' You know, I think it's basically making fun of us and making fun of how we always must see things out of the prism of our own experience and that pretty much is our own.

Moran: One of the favorites for me -- the questioning of authority and the fear factor that authority uses now and deploys.

Mankoff: ... I'll give you an example: I once taught a class in high school, and this very nice Pakistani boy said in a Pakistani accent, 'I don't understand how come there are not more cartoons praising government.' And I said. 'They don't need it. They've got the podium, hail to the chief, they've got the band, the guys with the thing.' All we've got is a pen that looks at this outsized, Macy's-sized ego of a balloon and just wants to let some of the air out of it. And I think that's what cartoons do. I hope.

Moran: Thinking about fear and the kinds of fear that were deployed and in place this year, we heard a lot about chatter once again and that was out there and how we should be frightened of it.

Mankoff: Yeah ... this cartoon here is saying, 'There have been reports of increasing chatter among the women.' I know there is increasing chatter of my teenage daughter on her cell phone. I mean it's just this word, 'chatter,' in itself is funny. How did this become part of the whole defense establishment? What is chatter? It's a little disturbing that this is all they can make out is chatter. And the more they put these weird words between whatever it is they know and whatever it is you want to know, the more disoriented you become and I think that's the reason for the words.

Moran: This year though was really angry and intense politically. How did that affect The New Yorker cartoons and the election?

Mankoff: I'd say most of the cartoonists would be more on the liberal side. But I don't think when you looked at our cartoons they were particularly partisan. One of the big issues was same-sex marriage. I did a cartoon in which there's a woman at a party with her husband and she's saying, 'Hey, we believe in same sex marriage so much he's having an operation.' And then the best one, I thought, was a couple watching television and the guy is throwing up his hands and saying, 'Gays and lesbians getting married -- haven't they suffered enough?' I mean looking at those issues and not saying, 'Oh, by the way, I'm for same sex marriages' [or] 'I'm against it.' The New Yorker is clearly liberal in its outlook and the cartoons, I think, are liberal -- I think they're both conservative and liberal -- conservative in that humor is essentially conservative and says human nature doesn't change, that your grand plans are going to fail. But it's also liberal in that humor is a way in which ordinary people become a part of the Democratic dialogue and question authority. And I know at the New Yorker the cartoonists no matter what side let's say liberals [are on]. I mean we have a lot in common, even though we are in the bluest of the blue states, with the red states.

Moran: How so?

Mankoff: We are both carbon-based life forms.

Moran: In your coverage of the corporate scandal, fat cats are traditional targets for a cartoonist. And yet there is something, in this one in particular ...

Mankoff: Right, the guy at the table is saying, 'If I get it right --,' something like, 'OK we're going to cover our ears and close our eyes and will the person who took the $428 million put it back.' I think that's so funny. But you're identifying that partially because he's made that identifiable through this childish -- We've said that to our children. We've had it said to us. We've all done wrong things, and yet we do feel like, 'OK, let's have a clean start.'

Moran: But you can take a sharp edge to the corporate executive who talks about saying a prayer.

Mankoff: Right. 'Before we discuss screwing the competition, screwing the customers and laughing all the way to the bank, let's begin this meeting in prayer.'

Moran: When you're drawing cartoons on subjects like war, terrorism and the election, is there a line of good taste/bad taste that you can't cross, and where is that?

Mankoff: I think you have to cross it to know where it is. If you never cross it you definitely have a problem. When you -- when people say, 'When does humor go too far?' Well, you know, there's a First Amendment. What's the worst thing that happens when humor goes too far? They say, 'Now, that's in bad taste.' That's a risk we've got to run.

Funnies

In the Sunday "Funnies," we take a look at a couple of our favorites from 2004.

Saturday Night Live:

(Original "This Week" air date: Oct. 3)

Jim Lehrer impersonator: Each candidate will now make a brief closing statement. Senator Kerry?

Sen. Kerry impersonator: You know, this president likes to talk about how I called the war in Iraq 'the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time;' that a few days later, how I said that anyone who doesn't think the world is a safer place without Saddam Hussein is not fit to be commander-in-chief. But what he doesn't tell you is that when I denounced the war in Iraq, I was speaking to an anti-war group, and when I endorsed the war, I was addressing a pro-war delegation from the U.G.A. The fact of the matter is, I have consistently supported the war in front of pro-war audiences and condemned it in front of groups that oppose it. That is not flip-flopping; that is pandering. And America deserves a president who knows the difference. Thank you.

Lehrer impersonator: President Bush?

President Bush impersonator: You know, Sept. 11 changed how America must look at the world. I wake up every day and … work hard … and think about how to protect America. You know, it's my job … and it's hard … it's hard work. You know, frankly, I don't know why my opponent even wants this job.

Late Show with David Letterman:

(Original "This Week" air date: April 4)

Letterman: David Letterman: All right, here it is now. Take a look: George W. Bush invigorating America's youth:

President Bush [on tape]: We need to maintain spending discipline in our nation's capital. I have planned to protect small business owners and employees from. …

[red arrow points to Tyler Crotty, standing behind Bush, yawning]

Bush: … I actually did vote for $87 billion …

[more yawning and shifting]

Bush: … with all your heart …

[Crotty rolls his neck in boredom]

Bush: … state house members, all the local officials, the high sheriff that's with us today …

[Crotty nearly falls asleep while clapping; checks his watch]

Bush: … if you're worried about the quality of education …

[Crotty yawns and twists his neck with his hands, shifts legs and stretches]

Bush:… Please stand for fair treatment of faith-based groups who receive federal support for their works of passion and good …

[Crotty buckles and bends with fatigue; leans over, hands on knees]

Bush: … This will not happen on my watch …

[smiles, yawns and dozes as he claps]

Tyler Crotty's week of surprises continued when Letterman invited the young Bush supporter to appear on "The Late Show."

Letterman: Afterwards you received a very nice letter from the president. Is that right?

Tyler Crotty: Yes.

Letterman: … I think we have the transcription right here. Do you mind sharing his note with us?

Crotty: Yeah, I will. …

[reading] Dear Tyler: I want to thank you for attending my rally in Orlando. The hall was hot and my speech was long, so I understand why a fellow your age might nod off…

Letterman: There you go. Maybe one night you can come and sit in our audience.

Crotty: That would be great.

Letterman: See if you can stay awake for this.

Crotty: Probably not.