I recently looked back at some cartoons I did decades ago for The New Yorker featuring cops. In 1999, they were funny in a straightforward sort of way to me and the editor of The New Yorker but wouldn’t make much sense if they appeared now. And, depending on one’s view of law enforcement and race, it might be interpreted today in a way antithetical to their original lighthearted intention.
For me, they were jokes with a tangential relationship to real events and certainly not carrying any real importance. But attitudes change, and I’m sure that The New Yorker wouldn’t publish these today—and maybe wish they never had. But, like they say, hindsight is 20/20 and never more so than in 2020.
Yours in Good Humor,
Bob