Rejection Collection: Cartoons You Never Saw, and Never Will See, in the New Yorker

There was a good reason these cartoons were rejected and that's because most of them simply are NOT funny! Yes, the front cover is hilarious and the only reason I purchased the book, but don't be taken in like I was, the rejected cartoons in this VERY THIN volume fall totally flat. Honestly, I have one of the humongous New Yorker volumes from it's beginning onward and while there are hits and misses in all collections, that one at least had several diamonds among the dross. These didn't make the cut not because they were gross or objectionable or obscene or distasteful, I could accept all of those reasons if they'd been hilariously clever, but these were rejected because they're remarkable BAD & UNFUNNY. I read page after page and said to myself "HUH?!" Had I picked this up in a bookstore instead of buying sight unseen, I would've immediately put this back on the shelf. I have no idea what these other reviewers were smoking when they gave the book such glowing reviews but this one went into the garbage.

....unless you don't mind being seen cackling, gasping for breath with beer running out of your nose. You already know that these are cartoons by New Yorker cartoonists that were rejected by that magazine. If you're a regular reader of the New Yorker, this book will be a revelation: the difference between these cartoons and the ones that get published is not just that these are much funnier. The difference lies in the exuberance and boundary-pushing that's the hallmark or true art. Or at least true cartoons. There's less of the insider-joke smarminess that congratulates you for being hip enough to get what the joke is. Seeing what the magazine didn't want to publish has diminished my respect for it just a bit. (I'm not cancelling my subscription though.) There's the cartoon of the couple sitting on a couch. Through the window, we see the full moon. The man is visibly turning into a werewolf. The woman observes: "You're lucky. I'm turning into my mother." Then there's the Roadkill Zoo and the Santa with a craving for venison and the ventriloquist who getting drunk while his dummy barfs and. . . . . . . _Lynn Hoffman, author of bang BANG, which was rejected once or twice itself

I had high hopes for this book, and it did not disappoint. I laughed out loud many times while reading the book. I must disagree with the reviewer who did not like the cartoonist questionnaires interspersed throughout the book - I thoroughly enjoyed them. They allowed the cartoonists to be creative in new ways. By the way, have a look at the lower right box in the questionnaires, the small gray box that says "For office use only" - Diffee fooled most of the cartoonists into leaving that box blank, which was funny in and of itself. Can't wait for the next book in this collection to come out.

The book description and customer reviews below offer a reasonable "objective" description of the rationale and contents of the book, so permit me to add a personal take on this fine collection. First, while I agree that many (perhaps half) of these cartoons are "too" out there to appear in the New Yorker, I would say (after having read the rag for over ten years) that many would be published if offered again (and Editor Mankoff happened to forget they were amongst the over 20,000/year that he rejects). I also agree that these are on the whole funnier than the ones that are printed in the average New Yorker edition. One of the Cartoonists nailed me, hard, on every cartoon - 5 out of 5 - extended laughs. I would say if you laugh at one (or two) cartoons, like I do, then you will not regret spending your hard-earned coin on The Rejection Collection. BY THE NUMBERS 30 cartoonists are featured (plus Diffee, the editor). 5 cartoons/cartoonist (Diffee offers two). 2-page questionaire/cartoonist Average laughs/cartoonist: 2, maybe 2-/12. (Of course this reflects what made ME laugh - your mileage . . . etc.) THE QUESTIONNAIRES One reviewer thought the questionaires "reeked of self-importance". For my money the questionnaire was a big value-added feature. All these "guys" (including the women) are clever and I was entertained, not only by the content, but by the different ways they responded to and (in some cases) messed with the questionaire itself. Remember your friends and classmates who refused to color inside the lines? Some like these are in this book. I came away thinking I'd love to have lunch (or pound some brews) with many of these cartoonists. Some example questions/instructions: Where will you be in ten minutes? (best answer: "In a tub of scotch. Blended.) My first cartoon . . . Most cartoonists I know are . . .("significantly hairier than you think.....") Inside a box: Draw something in this space that will help us understand your childhood: (there were a few drawings evocative of a Catholic upbringing) NEW YORKER DVD PLUG Maybe the best reason to get this book is that it may cause you to revisit the DVD-ROM set of "The Complete New Yorker". For the uninitiated, this includes every page of every New Yorker magazine published from its inception in 1925 through January of 2005 (plus two February issues). The Complete New Yorker is perhaps the only thing in publishing that, even at its new price, is competitive in entertainment with garage sale paperbacks (in reading hours/cent) . The DVD's are accompanied by software, which offers a catalog/database which allows searches by category (for instance, Talk of the Town, Profiles, Current Cinema, and of course, Cartoons). This is combined with searches by Author (Cartoonist), Key Word, and Year. It was a simple matter to find out that Gahan Wilson has been selling cartoons to the New Yorker since the middle '70's, and to view/print each of these at leisure. So, get this bo

The cartoon on the cover of "The Rejection Collection", a marvelous compilation edited by Matthew Diffee, says it all......the twisted witticisms by various contributors to the New Yorker appear here as they never could in the magazine. Two hundred fifty pages of hilarity are interspersed with mini-biographies of each cartoonist and the book is a total delight. To think that these cartoons have never seen the light of day until now makes them even more of a treasure. Much like poring through "The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker" each reader will have several favorites, but "The Rejection Collection" tugs at a deeper sense of the slightly macabre. I highly recommend this book for its collection of irreverent cartoons...it will be hard to put this down for all the laughter it provides.

These cartoons are much funnier than the ones which actually appear in the New Yorker. I usually laugh out loud two or three times per issue, but almost every cartoon in this book was a winner! Most of these cartoons were rejected not because of poor quality, but because they're in, ahem, questionable taste. The little questionnaires (full of sly wit) which each cartoonist answers were annoying at first, but ended up being one of my favorite parts of the book (partly because they stopped me from barreling through the cartoons and getting overloaded). A perfect gift for somebody who isn't easily offended!