Finding Humor in Hard Times

The subject of money--or the lack thereof--has long been the subject of comedy, providing fodder for late-night talk-show hosts, stand-up comedians, and political cartoonists. An exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City takes a look at classic cartoons from The New Yorker that poke fun at tough economic times. Among the recurring themes: the lighter side of unemployment. In this comic from 1976, for example, a man who may work in government asks a colleague, "Hey, why don’t we just say we have ninety-one per cent full employment?"

"Lately, I’ve had the awful feeling that my marriage is tied to the dollar." Though it's a tad esoteric for a man-walks-into-a-bar joke, this Carter-era drawing still resonates 30 years later. "[The cartoonist] Bill Hamilton made a specialty out of cartoons about 'the Eastern elite,'" says Lee Lorenz, another longtime contributor to the New Yorker. "His drawings are reminiscent of 19th century illustrations--they're upper crust, and they draw on the likes of Dickens and Vanity Fair."

Cartoonist Joe Mirachi was well known for his depictions of drunks. In this 1980 sketch, a disheveled aristocrat raises his glass: "To the dollar--as we knew it!" Over the course of his career, Lorenz says, readers looked forward to Mirachi's pictures of people “mostly just sitting around in bars, getting plastered.”

In a recent speech to Congress, President Obama described the plight of high-school students who must slide their college acceptance back into the envelope. In this 1992 cartoon, artist Dana Fradon takes a bemused look at the way a recession stirs up inter-generational resentment: "Not as well off as our parents were at our age," reads the sign the young couple holds. Of course, today there are a few new ways to make money: "My daughter is 14 and she just sold a few things on eBay all on her own," says Lorenz. "That’s an option we didn’t have when Dana’s cartoon ran."

Recessions tend to foster populist resentment of moneyed interests and corrupt bureaucrats. This 1993 cartoon features a lobbyist or a corporate tycoon delivering a wheelbarrow full of money. The lucky recipient? "A very special interest to see you, Senator," the secretary says. "That’s about the influence of money and the corruption of the political process," says Lorenz, "which as we see continues to this very day, although Mr. Blagojevich continues to proclaim his innocence."