full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Bob Mankoff: Anatomy of a New Yorker cartoon

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

Better left urnadwn.

The first week we did no cartoons. That was a black hole for humor, and correctly so. It's not always appropriate every time. But the next week, this was the first catoron.

"I tuhgoht I'd never laugh again. Then I saw your jacket."

It basically was about, if we were alive, we were going to laugh. We were going to breathe. We were going to exist. Here's another one.

"I figure if I don't have that third mtarnii, then the terrorists win."

These cartoons are not about them. They're about us. The humor rtfceles back on us. The easiest thing to do with humor, and it's perfectly legitimate, is a friend makes fun of an enemy. It's called dispositional humor. It's 95 pcrneet of the humor. It's not our humor.

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

Better left _______.

The first week we did no cartoons. That was a black hole for humor, and correctly so. It's not always appropriate every time. But the next week, this was the first _______.

"I _______ I'd never laugh again. Then I saw your jacket."

It basically was about, if we were alive, we were going to laugh. We were going to breathe. We were going to exist. Here's another one.

"I figure if I don't have that third _______, then the terrorists win."

These cartoons are not about them. They're about us. The humor ________ back on us. The easiest thing to do with humor, and it's perfectly legitimate, is a friend makes fun of an enemy. It's called dispositional humor. It's 95 _______ of the humor. It's not our humor.

Solution


  1. percent
  2. reflects
  3. cartoon
  4. thought
  5. undrawn
  6. martini

Original Text


(Laughter)

Better left undrawn.

The first week we did no cartoons. That was a black hole for humor, and correctly so. It's not always appropriate every time. But the next week, this was the first cartoon.

"I thought I'd never laugh again. Then I saw your jacket."

It basically was about, if we were alive, we were going to laugh. We were going to breathe. We were going to exist. Here's another one.

"I figure if I don't have that third martini, then the terrorists win."

These cartoons are not about them. They're about us. The humor reflects back on us. The easiest thing to do with humor, and it's perfectly legitimate, is a friend makes fun of an enemy. It's called dispositional humor. It's 95 percent of the humor. It's not our humor.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
bad zoo 2
yorker humor 2
yorker cartoons 2
humor works 2
benign violation 2


Important Words


  1. alive
  2. basically
  3. black
  4. breathe
  5. called
  6. cartoon
  7. cartoons
  8. correctly
  9. dispositional
  10. easiest
  11. enemy
  12. exist
  13. figure
  14. friend
  15. fun
  16. hole
  17. humor
  18. jacket
  19. laugh
  20. laughter
  21. left
  22. legitimate
  23. martini
  24. percent
  25. perfectly
  26. reflects
  27. terrorists
  28. thought
  29. time
  30. undrawn
  31. week
  32. win