Cartoons — American Style
- Mario Miranda
Humour, they say, is a serious business. Being in that racket myself believe me, humour is no laughing matter. I am always curious to see how my colleagues operate. So whenever I have the opportunity, which is not often, I go out of my way to meet some of these gentlemen who are so seriously at work churning out all this laughable matter.
A couple of years ago I had the good luck to make the acquaintance of the English masters in the art of ridicule: Ronald Searle (who was my guru as they say down here), Giles, Jak and Vicky (a very intense person who took his own life some years ago). Lately in Israel, I met two of their most popular cartoonists, Dosh and Katz, and a female of the species, Friedel Stern. A woman cartoonist is a rare specimen. I wonder why.
So when I got this invitation to visit USA, one of the things that I really looked forward to was meeting at least a few of the legion of American cartoonists.
The Americans have really made a cult out of humour - or humor as they would spell it. It is in evidence everywhere, in their homes, newspapers, magazines, posters, advertisements and of course, their television. Like the English, the Americans have this tremendous ability to laugh at themselves (unlike us solemn Indians). I feel the American is never happier than when he is laughing at a joke made at his own expense. That is why the lampooning of their own society is such a tremendous success in that country.
Cartooning in America is a very well-organized, smooth-running laughter machine that has successfully spread out and tickled the funny bone of almost the whole world. This mammoth organization is divided into three distinct groups: the editorial (political) cartoon, the gag (magazine) cartoon and the comic strip cartoon.
In the first group, the political or editorial cartoonist is usually attached to a particular newspaper, like Herblock in The Washington Post and Oliphant in The Denver Post. This breed is obviously well paid considering that it is a very competitive field. Its members are very much loved and respected not only by the enormous reading public but also by the favourite victim of their satire, the American politician.
