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Last Laughs: Cartoons About Aging, Retirement...and the Great Beyond
A volume of previously unpublished cartoons by top industry names celebrates the wayward experiences of the baby boomer generation with contributions by such artists as Leo Cullum, Jack Ziegler, and Lee Lorenz. 50,000 first printing.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published October 30, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 27, 2018
If you like single panel New York Magazine cartoons this is great, as is the final section of the book where each contributor answers a series of eight questions. Very funny from cover to cover!
March 18, 2019
Yup. I'm there. Great compilation.
August 29, 2025
Cartoons by a variety of artists on, if you can believe it, the humorous side of death. Yeah, a lot of them are pretty funny.
October 11, 2009
Though not especially mood-lightening, Death has has a long history of black humour associated with it. Parodies of the black-cowled figure remain in abundance, as do the steps leading up to His Eminent Arrival (Just take a look at the garish joke books and tacky birthday cards aimed at the 40+ and 50+ crowds). So upon the release of Last Laughs, a compilation of mostly-unpublished cartoons poking fun at retirement, illness, death, and the afterlife edited by The New Yorker's Mort Gerberg, there would appear to be very little left to satirize.
This assumption, however, would be (pardon it) dead wrong.
A few of these cartoons have appeared previously in the pages of The New Yorker magazine (primarily Lee Lorenz's and Mort Gerberg's installments), but the bulk of them were published for the first time in this volume. Several retain the ambiance of The Rejection Collection (cartoons printed in book form which had been rejected by The New Yorker); "Before I go over your test results," an apathetic doctor tells a nervous patient sitting in his underwear on the examination table, "can we agree no one lives forever?" Another cartoon displays a dying elderly woman in bed, announcing to her attending Priest and family members, "I should've made that sex tape." Other cartoons feel even looser, as if culled from The New Yorker's Cartoon Caption Contest, written by naifs based on the image proffered: Aged rock 'n' rollers state that "This next tune is called 'Too Old to Party, but Too Young to Die.'" Or the haggard spouse of a bedridden old man, shouting into the bedroom: "Stanley, you son of a bitch, are you dead?"
But in the words of Groucho Mark: They can't all be winners, folks. The majority of the cartoons are not only clever - they're actually funny. Bleak, dark, and macabre, indeed... but legitimately funny. It takes a lot to laugh at Death's impervious face - and many of these experienced (read: older) cartoonists have had plenty of time in which to do so.
A section devoted to cartoonist biographies are compiled toward the end of the book, and perhaps goes on for too long (a page or three for each of the twenty-six artists included in this compendium). Had Gerberg followed suit with The Rejection Collection and injected each bio following that artist's particular works, then the effect would have been less daunting. The result would be, of course, a more stilted format than the mixed-up end result (retiree cartoons mingling with terminal illness gags, flirting between a smattering of funerals and Boomer jokes). However, this would not necessarily be a bad thing...
For all of The New Yorker's inspiration, this book does not fit in with the seminal magazine's own line of cartoon books. It stands alone, much as we all do in that gaping maw of The Great Beyond. It provides some amusing, ofttimes funny, distraction to fill in the time between now and that final gasping breath - though you might want to bring another book along just in case that takes longer than expected.
This assumption, however, would be (pardon it) dead wrong.
A few of these cartoons have appeared previously in the pages of The New Yorker magazine (primarily Lee Lorenz's and Mort Gerberg's installments), but the bulk of them were published for the first time in this volume. Several retain the ambiance of The Rejection Collection (cartoons printed in book form which had been rejected by The New Yorker); "Before I go over your test results," an apathetic doctor tells a nervous patient sitting in his underwear on the examination table, "can we agree no one lives forever?" Another cartoon displays a dying elderly woman in bed, announcing to her attending Priest and family members, "I should've made that sex tape." Other cartoons feel even looser, as if culled from The New Yorker's Cartoon Caption Contest, written by naifs based on the image proffered: Aged rock 'n' rollers state that "This next tune is called 'Too Old to Party, but Too Young to Die.'" Or the haggard spouse of a bedridden old man, shouting into the bedroom: "Stanley, you son of a bitch, are you dead?"
But in the words of Groucho Mark: They can't all be winners, folks. The majority of the cartoons are not only clever - they're actually funny. Bleak, dark, and macabre, indeed... but legitimately funny. It takes a lot to laugh at Death's impervious face - and many of these experienced (read: older) cartoonists have had plenty of time in which to do so.
A section devoted to cartoonist biographies are compiled toward the end of the book, and perhaps goes on for too long (a page or three for each of the twenty-six artists included in this compendium). Had Gerberg followed suit with The Rejection Collection and injected each bio following that artist's particular works, then the effect would have been less daunting. The result would be, of course, a more stilted format than the mixed-up end result (retiree cartoons mingling with terminal illness gags, flirting between a smattering of funerals and Boomer jokes). However, this would not necessarily be a bad thing...
For all of The New Yorker's inspiration, this book does not fit in with the seminal magazine's own line of cartoon books. It stands alone, much as we all do in that gaping maw of The Great Beyond. It provides some amusing, ofttimes funny, distraction to fill in the time between now and that final gasping breath - though you might want to bring another book along just in case that takes longer than expected.
May 19, 2014
I picked this up from a library display, and I enjoyed the comics immensely. Sometimes the comic bios at the end were even funnier. A great collection that I know my own father would have found a good giggle out of. I find that a few of the comics still roll around in my head and make me snicker. I find myself wanting to share the joke, but you really just need to read them. My 11- and 13-year-old children (most of the comics were appropriate) also read this book, but they sometimes needed explanations of old-people issues. It was fun to chat with them about the issues and then see the slow smile creep across their faces.
May 3, 2015
A book of cartoons on aging, retirement and death by different artists. Reasonable good set, considering the sombre subject. The compiler of the cartoons also added several pages of Q&A from the cartoonists, some of which were interesting, but perhaps could have been avoided to have more cartoons instead. Anyway, it is a quick fun read. So no harm done.
February 5, 2013
The cartoons were great but I especially enjoyed the self-written biographies at the end of the book. The contributors were asked to answer 8 questions, one of which was "What words of wisdom do you have?" Funny people can be very wise.
March 31, 2012
I'd hope to read this once a year--great cartoons.
August 8, 2012
collection of strips from New Yorker artists highlighting aging, retirement and death
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews