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

panel Panel may refer to: Arts and media Visual arts *Panel (comics), a single image in a comic book, comic strip or cartoon; also, a comic strip containing one such image *Panel painting, in art, either one element of a multi-element piece of art, ...

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of imag ...

, usually including a caption beneath the drawing. A pantomime cartoon carries no caption. 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 drawings, often 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 ter ...

s. 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 Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pu ...

'', ''

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 ...

'' and ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...

''. Some publications, such as '' Humorama'', 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 and I say the hell with it", which have created an

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language ...

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, signing the cartoons as Chas Addams. Some of his recurring characters became known as the Addams ...

drew his first gag cartoon for ''

'' in 1932, and in 1937 started inventing a set of macabre characters in 1937 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 Ted Key (born Theodore Keyser; August 25, 1912 – May 3, 2008)
'' ''Hazel'' for ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

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

Notable gag cartoonists

* Peter Arno * 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'' in the 1940s and 1950s. His book of cartoons, '' The Naked Eye'', has b ...

Sam Gross Sam Gross (born August 7, 1933) is an American cartoonist, specializing in single-panel cartoons. History Born in Bronx, New York City, Gross was the son of Max and Sophie, who were Jewish immigrants to America. His mother was born in Iași, ...

Ted Key Ted Key (born Theodore Keyser; August 25, 1912 – May 3, 2008)
'' Gary Larson Gary Larson (born August 14, 1950) is an American cartoonist, environmentalist, and former musician. He is the creator of ''The Far Side'', a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to more than 1,900 newspapers for fif ...

R. K. Laxman Rasipuram Krishnaswami Laxman ''Pg. 11 in the source says that Laxman & his brother Narayan were Tamil Iyer Brahmins.'' (24 October 1921 – 26 January 2015) was an Indian cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist. He is best known for his creation ...

* George Lichty *

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 Weird West series ''The Goodbye Family''. In the past, Richards served as the publisher of ''Celt ...

* Virgil Partch (a.k.a. VIP) * George Price *

Ronald Searle Ronald William Fordham Searle, CBE, RDI (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 S ...

* 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 cartoons and short stories, published mainly in ''The New Yorker'' and collected ...

* Marvin Townsend *

Kim Warp Kim Warp is an American cartoonist whose work has appeared in ''Barron's Magazine'', ''Harvard Business Review'', ''The New Yorker'', ''Reader's Digest'', ''USA Weekend'', and elsewhere. She has contributed cartoons to the New Yorker for over 15 ye ...

* 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 ...

Popular setups

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

desert island A desert island, deserted island, or uninhabited island, is an island, islet or atoll that is not permanently populated by humans. Uninhabited islands are often depicted in films or stories about shipwrecked people, and are also used as stereo ...

. 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."A Guy, a Palm Tree, and a Desert Island: The Cartoon Genre That Just Won’t Die"
''

Vanity Fair Vanity Fair may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Literature * Vanity Fair, a location in '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678), by John Bunyan * ''Vanity Fair'' (novel), 1848, by William Makepeace Thackeray * ''Vanity Fair'' (magazines), the ...

'' (retrieved January 8, 2018) * Talking animals

References