Bruce Eric Kaplan (born }) is an American cartoonist whose single-panel cartoons frequently appear in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''. His cartoons are known for their signature simple style and often

dark humor Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to disc ...

. Kaplan is also a screenwriter and has worked on ''

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself and ...

'' and on '' Six Feet Under''. Kaplan wove his New Yorker cartooning into ''Seinfeld'' with the episode, "The Cartoon." He graduated from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

and studied there with Professor

Jeanine Basinger Jeanine Basinger (born 3 February 1936, in Ravenden, AR), a film historian, retired in 2020 as the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies and Founder and Curator of The Cinema Archives at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut. Education B ...

. Kaplan joined the crew of ''Six Feet Under'' during the first season in 2001, as a supervising producer. He scripted two episodes of the first season, " The Foot" and " The New Person." He was promoted to co-executive producer for the second season in 2002 and wrote another two episodes, "

The Invisible Woman The Invisible Woman (Susan "Sue" Storm-Richards) is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is a founding member of the Fantastic Four and was the first female superhero created by Marvel durin ...

" and " The Secret." He remained a co-executive producer for the third season, in 2003, and wrote an episode entitled "The Trap". He was promoted to executive producer for the fourth season, in 2004, and wrote another episode, "The Dare." He served as executive producer during the fifth and final season and wrote his last episode "The Silence." Kaplan wrote seven episodes for the series. In 2012, he became a co-executive producer on the HBO series ''

Girls A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a ''woman''. However, the term ''girl'' is also used for other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.c ...

.''

Books

* ''No One You Know: A Collection of Cartoons'' (1999) Simon & Schuster * ''The Cat That Changed My Life: 50 Cats Talk Candidly About How They Became Who They Are'' (2002) Simon & Schuster * ''This Is A Bad Time: A Collection of Cartoons'' (2004) Simon & Schuster * ''Every Person on the Planet: An Only Somewhat Anxiety-Filled Tale for the Holidays'' (2005) Simon & Schuster * ''Edmund and Rosemary Go to Hell: A Story We All Really Need Now More Than Ever'' (2007) Simon & Schuster * * ''Everything Is Going to Be Okay: A Book for You or Someone Like You'' (2011) Simon & Schuster * ''I Was a Child: A Memoir'' (2015) Blue Rider Press

''Six Feet Under'' episodes

* The Foot (2001) * The New Person (2001) * The Invisible Woman (2002) *The Secret (2002) * The Trap (2003) * The Dare (2004) * The Silence (2005)

''Seinfeld'' episodes

*" The Merv Griffin Show" (1997) *" The Cartoon" (1998) *"

The Puerto Rican Day "The Puerto Rican Day" is the 176th episode of the NBC sitcom ''Seinfeld''. It aired on May 7, 1998, and was the 20th episode of the ninth and final season. It was the show's second-highest-rated episode of all time, with 38.8 million viewers, on ...

" (1998) (with Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer,

Jennifer Crittenden Jennifer Crittenden (born ) is an American screenwriter and producer. She started her writing career on the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and has since written for several other television sitcoms including ''Everybody Loves Raymo ...

, Spike Feresten,

Steve Koren Steve Koren is an American writer/producer and screenwriter. Most notably, he has written for ''Saturday Night Live'', ''Seinfeld'', and ''Veep''. He also wrote or co-wrote the movies ''Bruce Almighty'', ''Click'', ''A Night at the Roxbury'', ...

David Mandel David Mandel (born ) is writer, actor, director, and producer. He was an executive producer and showrunner of ''Veep'', and was also an executive producer and director of ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' and ''Seinfeld''. He is also a comedian, and on ...

, Dan O'Keefe, Gregg Kavet & Andy Robin)

References

External links

AARP radio interview

Article on mediabistro.com which reproduces a number of BEK cartoons

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaplan, Bruce Eric Wesleyan University alumni American cartoonists American male screenwriters The New Yorker cartoonists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)