Well, kind of. In the interview he starts to say that it is the most reprinted of all New Yorker cartoons (not just his own), then corrects himself to say they don’t have records going all the way back, the implication being that it’s the most reprinted one that anyone’s aware of.
Though yes, I did use “most reprintings” as a proxy for “most famous.”
I find it hard to believe that this isn’t the most famous *New Yorker *cartoon (even if it was a cover). I don’t recall ever seeing the one in the OP, but I may have. That’s the trouble with it; it’s so forgettable.
The Wikipedia article on “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” says:
“As of 2011, the panel was the most reproduced cartoon from The New Yorker, and Steiner has earned over US $50,000 from its reprinting.”
What part of that joke needs to be explained? 
Funny thing is, I don’t associate that line with a (male) executive scheduling a meeting; I associate it with a hot woman scheduling a date.
Unless I’m misremembering either the publication or the exact context (can’t find it on Google Images), I thought one of the more famous New Yorker cartoons was the two penguins standing side-by-side in a bleak Antarctica landscape, with one saying to the other “I don’t give a damn what anyone says…I’m cold.”
The first cartoon that comes to mind when I think about the New Yorker is the “We’re from Manhattan” one.
I love that one, but not as much as the New Yorkistan one:
http://www.prattlibrary.org/locations/periodicals/index.aspx?id=25962
“Ammonia! Ammonia!” has its fans.
Much like “I say it’s spinach and I say the hell with it.”
It’s famous…but it isn’t funny.
A goodly number of other cartoon venues – like “Tom the Dancing Bug” – have made sport of New Yorker “Business Man Sitting at Desk” cartoons that aren’t funny.
agree, this was one of the greats.
It’s definitely Mankoff’s most well-known cartoon. It’s definitely a very well known cartoon in general. It’s probably not the most famous New Yorker cartoon ever, and I’d be surprised if anyone was truly claiming it were.
By the way, I just finished the book in question, and I thought it was pretty good.
Not the joke, necessarily, but the fact (if fact it be) that it is funny. And it was not I who felt it necessary to explain-- “(I) switched the position so that the guy saying it is in a position of superiority … because it makes it funny,” he explains" (from the linked article).
By the way, I agree that the E.B. White (and I forget the artist?) spinach/broccoli thing isn’t funny, on top of the inelegance of the two characters exchanging dialogue in a single-frame drawing. Maybe it has something to do with it being from the early days of the New Yorker, much the way Edward Lear’s limericks are among the most anthologized, even though today he’d be sent right back to the drawing board with most of them.
On the subject of fame, the 1977 edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (if I recall correctly) quoted the White caption, the Arno “drawing board” cartoon, and James Thurber’s “it’s a naive domestic burgundy without any breeding, but I think you’ll be amused by its presumption”. Of course, many equally funny cartoons could never make it into Bartlett’s because they depend on their illustration to work, and no cartoon need apologize for that.
Pfft! The funniest New Yorker cartoon was drawn by George Booth. The most famous one was too.
Could have sworn it involved penguins, but this appears to be it. Thanks.
I found this funniest of all so far. This may correlate to having slightly precocious and cheeky children of a certain age.
I remember chuckling over that in the 70s and then finding it in an anthology of space cartoons in about 1988 - which seemed a long time later but, merciful heavens, is itself more than a quarter-century ago now. :eek:
I didn’t thonk it needed explanation, but suddenly I’m not sure. Chronos said he associated the punchline with a hot woman s heduling a date, and in the interview the cartoonist says the humor depends on the businessman being superior to the person calling.
I didn’t get that impression at all. To me the humor was the character’s blank face – And thought the humor was the lack of an intended put-down. Busy office people can sit at a table, smartphones in hand, and propose possible meeting times back and forth for two minutes. The meeting may end up weeks away, and like many meetings might not be essential in any way.
It wouldn’t have been funny, to me, with a woman making a date. just bitchy. But the character did need a fancy office to imply detachment from the mundane world.
I just wanted to post a link to my personal favorite New Yorker cartoon, which I found in a blog post titled appropriately, “I think you need a dose of James Thurber.” Here. (I think it was pretty famous at one time but probably not the most famous, then or now.)
