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American Morning
Interview with Bob Mankoff
Aired July 26, 2002 - 08:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, with the Dow in flux and Wall Street scandals boiling over, the "New Yorker" is at it again. The magazine's cartoons are providing comic relief, believe it or not, in these economic hard times, just as they have done for the past 75 years. And I spoke with cartoon editor Bob Mankoff about how the "New Yorker" has taken the country's economic temperature over time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NEVILLE: And welcome, Bob.
Good morning to you.
BOB MANKOFF, "THE NEW YORKER" CARTOON EDITOR: And good morning right back to you.
NEVILLE: All right, you know, listen, the stock market is tanking, CEOs are going to jail. How do you make light of the stuff that's happening on Wall Street?
MANKOFF: How can you not make light of it? I mean whenever it's a down time in the economy, it's an up time for cartoonists.
NEVILLE: Oh, yes, that's true.
MANKOFF: Right.
NEVILLE: That's true. So, let's look at some of the cartoons...
MANKOFF: Sure, absolutely.
NEVILLE: .... starting with, what, oh, that $3 billion.
MANKOFF: Yes, oh that -- you have to give it the right read -- oh, THAT $3 billion.
NEVILLE: Oh, that $3 billion.
MANKOFF: You know, it used to be that they used to say, well, you know, past performance is no indicator of future results. Now it's that it wasn't even an indicator of past results.
NEVILLE: Let's move on to the next cartoon. MANKOFF: All right.
NEVILLE: Guys on the ledge.
MANKOFF: Yes, that's actually one of my cartoons. It says, "J.P. will be joining you by speaker phone." Somehow the CEO, the top guy doesn't get what the lower guys get.
NEVILLE: Exactly. That's pretty funny.
And then let's move on to another, and this is sloth, greed is on the second floor.
MANKOFF: Yes, you know, the thing is, I mean there...
NEVILLE: Or the top floor.
MANKOFF: .... you know, this, all this stuff about infectious greed and even if they, you know, do away with greed, I like that because then we'll have more time for the other vices, like lust and envy.
NEVILLE: So is it easy, though, to come up with this stuff?
MANKOFF: Yes.
NEVILLE: It is. So...
MANKOFF: Well, it's not, I mean it's, I mean we're licensed humorists.
NEVILLE: Yes.
MANKOFF: And, you know, in New York State that's difficult to obtain that license. But once we do it's very simple.
NEVILLE: Yes, so you're just watching the news, reading the paper and then boom, there it comes?
MANKOFF: We're watching the news and I mean a lot of times, you know, the people are doing the jokes for us.
NEVILLE: OK, let's move on now to the corporate evildoer.
MANKOFF: Yes, I'm, the corporate evil, that plays off of Bush's line, you know, with the evildoers and the terrorists. And I was thinking well maybe Bush is going to have a military strike on Wall Street and that will take care of it.
NEVILLE: OK. OK. Let's move on now. We have another one, at least you know where you'll be in 25 years.
MANKOFF: Yes, we hope they know where those CEOs will be in 25 years. Somehow I don't think they're going to get 25 years.
NEVILLE: That would be behind bars is the implication. MANKOFF: That would be behind bars.
NEVILLE: And there we go, just around the corner.
MANKOFF: Well, this is from 1932. This shows you these cycles have come around. This was a cartoon in the "New Yorker" that appeared in 1932, you know, during the Depression.
NEVILLE: The Depression, exactly.
MANKOFF: Right. Right.
NEVILLE: And then here we are back there, unfortunately.
MANKOFF: Back there. Now, this is funny. This is a cartoon during the boom of the '20s. It says, "Say, doc, do me a favor. Just keep an eye on Consolidated Can Common and if she goes bearish, tell my broker to sell 4,000 shares of P&O Rails preferred on the usual margin. Thanks." Because the guy is on an operating table.
So we had these manias before.
NEVILLE: Yes, we surely did. I mean it is cyclical, as they say.
Now here, what are we looking here, up here?
MANKOFF: We're looking at, this was during the height of the Internet boom. There's two beggars. One is at spare dime and the other guy is at sparedime.com and, of course, they're giving him all the money.
NEVILLE: Oh, of course. Of course.
MANKOFF: Right. Right.
NEVILLE: It really is interesting, I mean I know you're a paid humorist. That's what you make your money in.
MANKOFF: Right. Right.
NEVILLE: But, you know, some things come to you guys easier than -- do you ever have kind of writer's blocks days, writer's block days?
MANKOFF: Well, you know, I mean I was once, actually I was at the barber and he said he had barber's block. He couldn't do anything with my hair. But frankly we don't.
NEVILLE: You know, I was going to say that it looks like you haven't been to the barber in a while, but, you know, I'm supposed to be polite. But I couldn't pass that one up. I mean I'm a little bit of a humorist myself.
MANKOFF: I know you are. I know you are.
NEVILLE: Listen, that is really -- you know, the "New Yorker" is always entertaining in terms of those cartoons and we appreciate your work and the magazine is chock full of information.
And I'm sure we'll see again here on AMERICAN MORNING.
MANKOFF: OK, now I just did want to do one thing.
NEVILLE: Oh, go right ahead.
MANKOFF: Because, you know, I really have been talking about this infectious greed and I really have a test for it. Now here's a 50. I want you to look at this.
NEVILLE: OK.
MANKOFF: See, your eyes dilated a little bit. You got a little bit excited.
NEVILLE: Is that right?
MANKOFF: You may be a carrier. OK?
NEVILLE: Listen, thank you so much. Nice to see you.
MANKOFF: Nice to see you.
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