Matthew "Matt" Diffee is an American cartoonist whose works appear in the

New Yorker New Yorker may refer to: * A resident of New York: ** A resident of New York City and its suburbs *** List of people from New York City ** A resident of the New York (state), State of New York *** Demographics of New York (state) * ''The New Yor ...

magazine.

Biography

Diffee was born in

Denton, Texas Denton is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Denton County, Texas, Denton County. With a population of 139,869 as of 2020, it is the List of cities in Texas by population, 20th-most populous city in Texas, the List of Un ...

and grew up in Texas and North Carolina. The son of an airline pilot, he attended

Bob Jones University Bob Jones University (BJU) is a private university in Greenville, South Carolina, United States. It is known for its Conservatism in the United States, conservative and Evangelicalism in the United States, evangelical cultural and religious posit ...

, planning to become a Christian missionary. While at Bob Jones, he co-founded a

comedy troupe A comedy troupe is a group of comedians and associated Employment, personnel who work together to perform comedy as entertainment. The term is often used interchangeably with comedy group, and the troupe may specialize in a specific comedic genr ...

, the Leaping Pickes, whose motto was, "We put the fun in

fundamentalism Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that are characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguis ...

." Diffee's role in the group involved telling jokes, juggling and playing the banjo. He has a background in art and stand-up comedy, which he still performs from time to time. As a struggling artist, he took various day jobs, including road work, construction, and as a convenience store cashier. Diffee moved from Boston, Massachusetts to New York and began contributing to the ''New Yorker'' in 1999, after winning a cartoon contest the magazine and the Algonquin Hotel sponsored for an all-cartoon issue, in the process meeting Robert Mankoff, the cartoon editor, in person. Mankoff encouraged Diffee to contribute to the magazine. After three weeks of submission Mankoff chose one cartoon, which became Diffee's first published work. For the next year Diffee submitted fifteen cartoons per week; the magazine published a total of four. The next year Diffee sold eight cartoons to the magazine, each at the standard rate of $675. He remains a devout Christian, not consuming alcohol and refusing to draw cartoons about sex. Diffee's first book, ''The Rejection Collection'', was a compilation of cartoons by various artists that had been rejected from the magazine along with questionnaires and portraits of each artist. In an interview he noted that 90% of even a successful freelance cartoonist's works are rejected, and that most cartoonists are known only for their work, not their personal lives. Many rejected cartoons are good, he explained, but inappropriate for the magazine because they are

politically incorrect "Political correctness" (adjectivally "politically correct"; commonly abbreviated to P.C.) is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. ...

or sexually suggestive: "...the idea that the cartoonist did it, and actually pitched it to the New Yorker, makes it even funnier to me, like ‘what were they thinking’?" As of the book's publication, the magazine had published more than 100 of Diffee's cartoons, a significant accomplishment for a young cartoonist.

Works

His works are mostly single-panel satirical pieces. Diffee also produces other artwork, and has hosted "The Rejection Show", a monthly off-Broadway production devoted to rejected works by successful artists. He plays

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

and

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

, and recently won a race in the sport of

joggling Joggling is a competitive sport that combines juggling with jogging. People who joggle are called jogglers.Beck, S. (2012, October 18).Joggling the Marathon: 3 Beanbags and 26.2 Miles. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved froSeptember 11, 2001. ...

(juggling while running), for which he will appear in an upcoming documentary. He currently hosts The Steam Powered Hour, a "smart and cozy night of bluegrass music, standup comedy, and cartoons."

Publications

* * *

References

External links

www.matthewdiffee.com
- official site (links to Myspace page)
San Francisco Chronicle archive of worksNew Yorker Store
- "classic" cartoon of Che Guevara with Bart Simpson tee-shirt {{DEFAULTSORT:Diffee, Matthew American humorists American magazine cartoonists American satirists American banjoists American fiddlers Artists from Boston People from Denton, Texas Living people The New Yorker cartoonists Comedians from New York (state) Year of birth missing (living people) Comedians from Texas Jogglers