There is no Algorithm for Humor Robert Mankoff More Quotes by Robert Mankoff More Quotes From Robert Mankoff Sometimes you're noodling around with a sketch and something incongruous in the drawing calls forth the caption and other times you think of a line and just have to find a place for it. A cartoon with a caption like "I don't want to live forever, but I sure as hell don't want to be dead forever either" sprang into my head and I just had to find the right venue for it which was an old couple talking to each other. Robert Mankoff coupletalkingthinking Humor of all types is notoriously subjective. That's true not only between different people but even within an individual at different times. This subjectivity is often masked when your in a group because laughter is contagious. Robert Mankoff groupslaughterpeople To paraphrase president Kennedy's inaugural, the torch has been passed to a new generation of cartoonists and they are doing really interesting stuff, taking the old cliches and breathing new life into them and inventing new ones. This doesn't mean the previous generation of which I'm a charter member isn't doing good stuff but this new material is invigorating everyone. Robert Mankoff breathingmeaninteresting Primitive, naive drawing can also be good drawing but it's hard to pull off. I don't think most submitters realize that. Robert Mankoff realizingdrawingthinking The most popular cartoon of mine is a guy on the phone looking at his appointment book and saying "No, Thursday's out. How about never, is never good for you?" Robert Mankoff phonesguybook I've learned not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Why you would want to look any horse the mouth considering how infrequently they brush is beyond me. Robert Mankoff horsemouthslooks You do have to put in a lot time to get good at anything and than includes cartoons. So I think it's true of art and everything else. Robert Mankoff cartoonartthinking It's always harder satirize what you like rather than what you dislike. Robert Mankoff harderdislike I'm very fond of the strictly visual cartoons I did when I was breaking in in the 1970's. Over time I migrated to a more verbal approach. Robert Mankoff visualsapproachcartoon I'm making fun of myself and I think I'm making fun of all men in our desperate, desperate attempt to understand the people we're with and hopefully through humor have them understand us. Robert Mankoff funmenthinking I have been married three times and it just keeps better and better, but I'm going to stop here. Robert Mankoff three-timesmarriedthree I'm really interested in the link between creativity and humor because humor is a type of creativity, and I do think that humorous people and humorous health helps creativity. Robert Mankoff creativityhumorousthinking I think what Jewish culture taught me and what the - and Jewish culture now is everyone's culture - is all these embarrassing things, all these guilt-filled things, all these anxiety filled things are material. Robert Mankoff anxietyguiltthinking None of the cartoons that I ever did are basically, if they're about sex, they're about sex in sort of this, you know, this ironic way, or the way that people actually treat it. Robert Mankoff ironicsexpeople I know everybody wants humor to be subversive and speak truth to power. I don't think power's been listening, incidentally. Robert Mankoff listeningwantthinking The generations that were exposed to sitcom have the people actually saying the line, saying the joke, whereas sort of before that you have much more observational humor. Robert Mankoff generationslinespeople When you look back at the older cartoons, they're very much more observational cartoons. And the cartoon, the people in the cartoons are not making the joke. Robert Mankoff cartoonpeoplelooks A lot of what the Internet is showing is that talent is more disperse than gatekeepers such as myself... Robert Mankoff gatekeepersinternettalent Cartoons, often, that you do for the New Yorker don't appear for months afterwards, and the record for that is a cartoon that was bought by James Stevenson in 1987 and didn't appear until 2000. Robert Mankoff recordsmonthscartoon I have a cartoon where the guy is pretty much, he's a regular-sized guy, but he's the size of the island. He's saying no man is an island, but I come pretty damn close. Robert Mankoff guyislandsmen
