A friend of mine observed recently that I’ve had a number of cat cartoons published in the New Yorker, so I decided to do some market research. I invited several cats over and had them give their feedback on some of my drawings, figuring I might be able to sell more cat cartoons if I nail the target demographic. What follows is some exerpts from the conversation.
Maurice: Cats who hunt don’t read The New Yorker.
Ella: Is this me? The one on the left looks like me.
Roger: I thought these would be animated. They’re kind of boring.
Carrot: Ha! I don’t get this one, but it’s funny, because dogs are stupid!
Roger: I don’t get this one, either. But yeah – dogs are stupid!
Carrot: I don’t understand the humor, but I can see why people love these New Yorker cartoons. So fascinating to look at. This one really has everything.
Ella: Is this me again? I used to be a model for art classes. I could pose for a long time.
Roger: A better caption for this one would be “Aren’t dogs stupid?”
Phoebe: There are no cats in this one, right? Can you really call this a cat cartoon?
Maurice: This seems too political.
Carrot: Dogs really are stupid. They chase those round things. They don’t even have to be shiny and they still run after them!
Ella: These chairs are really comfortable.
Roger: You know who is even stupider than dogs? People!
Frances: They’re just standing around doing nothing!
Carrot: A person probably drew this. It doesn’t even make any sense. A real cat would be ruling a jungle or capturing an eagle or something.
Roger: Hey, do we get food during this thing?
