New Yorker readers who turned to the magazine’s last page a few weeks ago (the issue of May 7) no doubt noticed the Cartoon Caption Contest cartoon by Liza Donnelly was influenced by the iconic silhouette Mad Men image of Don Draper, as seen from behind, with his arm extended out along the back of a chair, cigarette in hand. I asked Ms. Donnelly about this and here’s what she had to say:
I love watching Mad Men, and revisiting the visual style of that era (even though I was just a wee kid back then). Contrasting the Don Draper look with cave people seemed like the perfect set-up for a cartoon. Because, of course, humor is all about the unexpected, the incongruous, the ridiculous. I was surprised that not more captions submitted made reference to Mad Men.
Almost as if returning fire, this past episode of Mad Men (“Dark Shadows”) included a scene with Peggy mentioning New Yorker cartoons as an influence for her Sno Ball pitch.
From The Los Angeles Times, May 10, 2012, “John Updike’s house to become a museum”
Above: Updike’s childhood home in Shillington, Pennsylvania