Considering how often animals appear in New Yorker cartoons, one would assume that our cartoonists are quite fond of them. Of the seventy-nine thousand cartoons that we have published since 1925, more than five thousand have featured animals. Of course, these animals are usually not just animals but animal-human hybrids.
Animal cartoons are so popular with cartoonists because they enable us to cross our ideal selves with our actual bad selves. But in the real lives of cartoonists—as this Cartoon Lounge episode demonstrates—animals are not just an endless source of ideas but also a source of unconditional, mutual (we hope) love.
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