# Christmas comes early - "Spy: The Funny Years"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-comes-early-spy-the-funny-years/380695>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 16, 2006, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-comes-early-spy-the-funny-years/380695 "2006-11-16T16:21:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![UntouchedTakeaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d78d45/32.png) [@UntouchedTakeaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UntouchedTakeaway)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-comes-early-spy-the-funny-years/380695/1 "2006-11-16T16:21:39Z")

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> **[Spy magazine remembers 'The Funny Years' - CNN.com](http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/11/16/spy.magazine/index.html)**
>
> Can you blame them?

I miss this magazine so much. I had forgotten about the 13 cent check cashed by The Donald. 😃  
VCNJ~

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**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-comes-early-spy-the-funny-years/380695/2 "2006-11-16T16:50:48Z")

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[QUOTE=Veuve\_ClicquotNJ]

> **[Spy magazine remembers 'The Funny Years' - CNN.com](https://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/11/16/spy.magazine/index.html)**
>
> Can you blame them?

I miss this magazine so much. I had forgotten about the 13 cent check cashed by The Donald. 😃

[/QUOTE]

Not a day goes by that you don’t see _Spy_ ripped off somewhere. I wish I’d kept my old copies. Especially the fake 1964 “debut” issue.

I still think “short-fingered vulgarian” whenever I see Trump on TV. And what was their tag for Kissinger – “noted unprosecuted war criminal”?

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas-comes-early-spy-the-funny-years/380695/3 "2006-11-16T18:18:59Z")

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I have it and read it.

A bit disappointing, though. It’s written by somebody who was part of the magazine, but even so the utterly relentless “we were wonderful” drumbeat on every single page made me want to rip the book apart by the end. Guys, you were good, but not _that_ good.

The first issue I saw of _Spy_ was the famed Separated at Birth cover issue, with the “Yuppie Porn” article on the inside. I subscribed immediately, but of course the magazine was never that entirely funny ever again.

Looking back at it now, after rereading the reprinted “Yuppie Porn” article, it’s obvious that _Spy_ itself was the ultimate in Yuppie Porn. The magazine was born in that era and died when yuppieness converted into the mainstream. (Every item they call yuppie porn is standard Sharper Image if not Best Buy fare these days.)

_Spy_ was glittery and totally useless to a fault, much less useful than the teakettle they used to encapsulate the period. (A teakettle I had just purchased as a present for my wife, even though we were never under the remotest circumstances what anyone would consider to be yuppies.)

The big problem with the book is that there’s no self-awareness of what they were under all that self-congratulation. And there’s no awareness that their real legacy is pond scum like the Post’s Page 6, far more than any residual legacy of magazine typology.

Some eras are good for nostalgia, but the Reagan era ain’t. As I said, I jumped on the book and then was disappointed. I hope you have a better reaction to it.

P.S. And the cashing the check article was utterly intellectually phony porn. In reality, the people that received the check probably never even saw it except maybe its back as a part of a huge weekly bundle of checks to be endorsed. Cashing it said and says absolutely nothing about them. Still implying otherwise today when they should know better is emblematic of the attitude that so turned me off in the book.