The unfunnies

Recently, another cartoonist and I met with a New York Times editor, trying to persuade the paper to broaden its use of editorial cartoons in its weekly opinion section. I argued that cartoons can be funny but also poignant, furious, snide, vitriolic, sarcastic, obtuse, opaque, oblique and, oh, bleak. It didn’t work. “Come on, they’re cartoons,” the editor said. “They’re supposed to be funny!” That paper now displays editorial cartoons alongside quips from late-night TV comics under the headline “Laugh Lines.”

Cartoonists love good punch lines, but we also love delivering a good punch to the gut. When it comes to substandard treatment of veterans, humans’ foolhardy stewardship of the planet, genocide in Darfur and war atrocities, well, where’s the bright side? Don’t ask us to put the laughter in slaughter.

— Joel Pett

Joel Pett is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist of the Lexington Herald-Leader. His work also appears in USA Today.