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<em>The New Yorker</em> Admits To Troubling/Amusing Spike In Cartoon Body Count
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 29, 2011
Modified Sep 29, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 29, 2011
Modified Sep 29, 2011
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Law & Order: Eustace Tilley Edition? The New Yorker's cartoon editor Robert Mankoff tackles the issue of crime in the weekly magazine's pages—as represented in its cartoons. Inspired by a review of Steven Pinker's book, The Better Angels Of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Decreased (basically!), Mankoff writes, "I decided to investigate the Pinker hypothesis using New Yorker cartoons. I looked at the number of murders depicted, decade by decade, starting with the nineteen-thirties. To qualify as a murder, either there needed to be a dead body in the drawing or the imminent appearance of one."
Mankoff makes a troubling discovery: "I counted a hundred and eleven murders in more than seventy-six thousand cartoons. This means the homicide rate for all New Yorker cartoons is greater than that of fourteenth-century London." Take a look at some of the depraved drawings here—Mankoff admits, "I became cartoon editor in 1997, so most of this happened under my watch—and there have already been four homicides in 2011. I’ve turned a blind eye to all this violence for too long."
Tagged
crime
murder
new yorker
new yorker cartoon
violence
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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