A gag cartoon (also panel cartoon, single-panel cartoon, or gag panel) is most often a single- panel

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...

, usually including a caption beneath the drawing. In some cases, dialogue may appear in

speech balloon Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a charac ...

s, following the common convention of

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

s. A pantomime cartoon carries no caption (see also:

pantomime comics Silent comics (or pantomime comics) are comics which are delivered in mime. They make use of little or no dialogue, speech balloons or Glossary of comics terminology#Caption, captions written underneath the images. Instead, the stories or gags are ...

). As the name implies—" gag" being a show business term for a comedic idea—these cartoons are most often intended to provoke laughter. Popular magazines that have featured gag cartoons include '' Punch'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' and ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

''. Some publications, such as ''

Humorama Humorama, a division of Martin Goodman (publisher), Martin Goodman's publishing firm, was a line of digest-sized magazines featuring girlie cartoons by Bill Ward (cartoonist), Bill Ward, Bill Wenzel, Dan DeCarlo, Jack Cole (artist), Jack Cole and ...

'', have used cartoons as the main focus of the magazine, rather than articles and fiction.

Captions

Captions are usually concise, to fit on a single line. Gag cartoons of the 1930s and earlier occasionally had lengthy captions, sometimes featuring dialogue between two characters depicted in the drawing; over time, cartoon captions became shorter.

Media

In the mid-1950s, gag cartoonists found a new market with the introduction of highly popular studio cards in college bookstores. Single-panel cartoons have been published on various products, such as coffee mugs and cocktail napkins. Traditionally, newspapers and magazines printed cartoons in black and white, but this changed in the 1950s when ''

'' began to feature full-page, full-color cartoons in every issue. There are numerous collections of cartoons in both paperback and hardcover, notably ''The New Yorker'' collections. From 1942 to 1971, the cartoonist-novelist Lawrence Lariar edited the annual ''Best Cartoons of the Year'' collections.

Notable gag cartoons

A well-known 1928 cartoon in ''

'', drawn by Carl Rose and captioned by E. B. White, shows a mother trying to convince her young daughter to finish her meal. "It's broccoli, dear." "

I say it's spinach I say it's spinach (sometimes given in full as I say it's spinach and I say the hell with it or further abbreviated to just spinach) is a 20th-century American idiom with the approximate meaning of "nonsense" or "rubbish". It is usually spoken or w ...

and I say the hell with it", which have created an

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a Literal and figurative language, figurative or non-literal meaning (linguistic), meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic speech, formulaic ...

in English language. Cartoonist

Charles Addams Charles Samuel Addams (January 7, 1912 – September 29, 1988) was an American cartoonist known for his darkly humorous and macabre characters. Some of his recurring characters became known as the Addams Family, and were subsequently populari ...

drew his first gag cartoon for ''

'' in 1932, and in 1937 started inventing a set of macabre characters which came to be known as ''The Addams Family''. This was turned into a 1960s television series which ran for two years, in an agreement in which Addams gave his characters names and more developed characteristics. Cartoonist Ted Key created a gag panel about a bossy maid named ''Hazel'' for ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...

'' in 1943. This also was made into a 1960s television series, which ran for five years.

Notable gag cartoonists

Peter Arno Curtis Arnoux Peters, Jr. (January 8, 1904 – February 22, 1968), known professionally as Peter Arno, was an American cartoonist. He contributed cartoons and 101 covers to ''The New Yorker'' from 1925, the magazine's first year, until 1968, the ...

* George Booth * Roz Chast * George Clark *

Sam Cobean Sam Cobean (December 28, 1913 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania – July 2, 1951 in Schuyler County, New York) was a cartoonist, especially known for his work in ''The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, comm ...

George Gately George Gately Gallagher (December 21, 1928 – September 30, 2001), better known as George Gately, was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the '' Heathcliff'' comic strip. Born in Queens Village, Queens, Gately came from a famil ...

Sam Gross Sam Gross (August 7, 1933 – May 6, 2023) was an American cartoonist, specializing in single-panel cartoons. He contributed to an array of publications, including ''The New Yorker''. History Born in The Bronx, New York City, Gross was the son ...

* Ted Key *

Gary Larson Gary Larson (born August 14, 1950) is an American cartoonist who created ''The Far Side'', a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to more than 1,900 newspapers for fifteen years. The series ended on January 1, 1995, ...

* R. K. Laxman *

George Lichty George Lichty (May 16, 1905 – July 18, 1983) was an American cartoonist, creator of the daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday cartoon series ''Grin and Bear It''. His work was signed Lichty and often ran without mention of his first name. ...

Lorin Morgan-Richards Lorin Morgan-Richards (born February 16, 1975) is an American author, illustrator, and songwriter, primarily known for his young adult fiction and Gothic Western comedy series ''The Goodbye Family''. In the past, Morgan-Richards served as the p ...

Virgil Partch Virgil Franklin Partch (October 17, 1916 – August 10, 1984), who generally signed his work Vip,Virgil F ...

(a.k.a. VIP) *

Dan Piraro Daniel Charles Piraro (born October 1958), is a painter, illustrator, and cartoonist best known for his syndicated cartoon panel ''Bizarro (comic strip), Bizarro''. Piraro's cartoons have been reprinted in 16 book collections (as of 2012). He has ...

* George Price *

Ronald Searle Ronald William Fordham Searle (3 March 1920 – 30 December 2011) was an English artist and satirical cartoonist, comics artist, sculptor, medal designer and illustrator. He is perhaps best remembered as the creator of St Trinian's School and f ...

* Jean-Jacques Sempé *

James Thurber James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist, and playwright. He was best known for his gag cartoon, cartoons and short stories, published mainly in ''The New Yorker'' an ...

* Marvin Townsend * Kim Warp * Gluyas Williams *

Gahan Wilson Gahan Allen Wilson (February 18, 1930 – November 21, 2019) was an American author, cartoonist and illustrator known for his cartoons depicting horror-fantasy situations. Biography Wilson was born in Evanston, Illinois, and was inspired by th ...

* Tom Wilson

Popular setups

There are some well-established setups used regularly in gag cartoons. * Desert island jokes: marooned on a

desert island An uninhabited island, desert island, or deserted island, is an island, islet or atoll which lacks permanent human population. Uninhabited islands are often depicted in films or stories about shipwrecked people, and are also used as stereotypes ...

. In earlier cartoons the island was quite large, with a shipwreck shown, to deliver the setup of the narrative. Eventually the setup has shrunk to an iconic image of a sand heap with a palm in the middle. * Talking animals * Therapist's couch"Cartoons About Therapy from the Past Century (Well, Almost)"
''

'' (retrieved August 31, 2023)

References