August 13, 2025 • 20 mins
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Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: cartoonist Emily Flake!
Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals such as “Ask AI” and audio rebuses.
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"The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs" is distributed by iHeartPodcasts and is a co-production with Neuhaus Ideas.
Our executive producers are Neely Lohmann and Adam Neuhaus of Neuhaus Ideas, and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts.
The show is produced by Jody Avirgan and Brittani Brown of Roulette Productions.
Our Chief Puzzle Officer is Greg Pliska. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello puzzlers. Before we start puzzling today, I wanted to
let you know we are cooking up some big plans
for the puzzler community, and in order to ensure that
it's what you want, we need your input. So we've
put together a short survey, which you can find in
the show notes. It's really quick, just three minutes, but
(00:22):
it will be a huge help in letting us know
what you want so that we can deliver just that.
Thank you, Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a little warm
up puzzle. Today's advertiser is by Andrea Schomberg. It's a
homophone challenge that means there are two words that sound
(00:43):
the same, but I have different spellings and meanings. So
we've done this a couple of times. A housekeeper who
is high up in the mafia is a made maid,
like made in the mafia may maid, as in a housekeeper.
So this one is what would you call it if
you're driving and you hear the theme song of your
(01:06):
favorite animated program on the radio. So you're driving along
you hear the theme song of your favorite TV animated
program on the radio. The answer is actually three words long,
but it sounds as if you're repeating a word twice
in a row. The answer and more puzzling goodness after
the break, Hello Puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast.
(01:35):
The Gold Prince Albert chain attached to your puzzle pocket watch.
I am your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm here, of course,
with che Puzzle Officer Greig Kuliska.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Greg.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Before the break, we had Andrea's teaser puzzle with the
question what do you call it when you're driving and
you hear the theme song of your favorite TV animated program?
What might that be?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Well, it depends on what your favorite her TV animated
program is.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Great point point and going with the generic.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
This is a word that could describe any TV program theme.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Song, animated, animated.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Oh oh oh, I get where you're going with this.
I see. What's tricky about it is that I was
thinking that there is a word related to driving that
is also a word that describes an animated TV or
that can sounds just like a thing describing the animated
TV show theme song. But that's not how it breaks up,
(02:35):
because the answer is it is a cartoon cartoon.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
That's exactly right. That is all excellent.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Andrea stumping me again.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, of course this is very relevant because we have
with us today the great Emily Flake, who is a
cartoonist for The New Yorker. She's written many books, including
Mama Tried, Hilarious one about parenting.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Welcome Emily, Hi, thank you for having me, Thank you
for coming back.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
We are very excited.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
So, Greg, I believe you have even more puzzles for
Emily today.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
I have to admit, Emily, I got so excited about
you coming on. We created way too many puzzles. So
this we're going to actually try to squeeze two puzzles
into one episode.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Okay, I love too many puzzles.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Right, Or it's kind of a puzzle and then a
kind of game. So the puzzle is this, It's a
word ladder, right, which is where you start with one
word and you change one letter and you keep going
to you get another word. So we're gonna we're gonna
I'll give you the clue to each word and you
just give me the word, all right. Okay. The first word,
of course, is your first name, which is Emily. Change
(03:43):
one letter to get the writer Zola's first name, Emil.
Change one letter to get a photographer's command smile. Change
one letter to get a fence crossing.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
A fence crossing, A.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Fence crossing also a word in the poem, there was
a crooked man who walked a crooked mile. He find
crooked something upon a crooked This is an older word.
We don't use a lote.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
No.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Change change a different letter to a T.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Oh, my god, I can't, I can't.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
J do you know what this is?
Speaker 1 (04:19):
I don't know this one either.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Take the word smile, change one of the letters to
a T style style style, Yes, I could turn style.
I should have given that angle to.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
It if you had said subway.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah, exactly, a style a short word for the thing
in the subway. Next word old like bread okay, and
a vampire hunter's tool. And to satisfy as someone's thirst
sleek and your last name magic flake word is there's
(04:58):
probably another way to do it with relying upon a
word like style.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
You know, but I I think I'll allow it.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thinking that was just I.
I was having fun with the idea of that word
ladder because both your names are the same length, so
it's possible to try it. So that was That was
one quick little puzzle there. Now the next thing I
want to try to do, which is maybe a wacky
idea for a podcast, but I'm calling it cartoon mad
libs because I was looking at the Instagram's Favorite New
(05:30):
Yorker Cartoons of twenty twenty four, which is a ton
of the New Yorker's best in which one of yours appears.
And I'm going to describe this cartoon for AJ, and
AJ you're going to try to fill in the blank
in the caption, and Emily, you could play along if
you've forgotten what you did in twenty twenty Oh.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
These absolutely entirely possibly.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So these are actually Emily's cartoons.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Just this one. This one. The rest of them will
be other New Yorker cartoons.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Both play a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
But for the example, I'm going to use of Emily's,
it's a couple in bed, right, and she's looking blissful
and her partner, who's a man, is turning to her
and saying, so, what was all that yes blank stuff about?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (06:16):
And the question is what goes in the blank? And
it's kind of what makes it funny?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Of course, right, Well, is it an improv joke like
yes and stop?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (06:28):
That actually makes it so much a better cartoon, except
for the fact that improv people don't really have sex.
I think that's that.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Is very funny.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Well then, yeah, it.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Was a noun. It's a noun. Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, I'm going to go out on that because I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
You did so well with that what it is?
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Remember it was yes, chef.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Chef, the very funny yes and again sort of goes
to that incongruous right, what is not the thing you
expect somebody to be saying in bed, right?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
I mean, unless it's really a gift to fans and
creators of the popular television show The Bear, featuring the
hottest little pocket rocket kitchen worker in television history.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Which is which is what's great about it because I
haven't watched The Bear, so I saw that cartoon and
I thought it was very funny without knowing really.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Interesting. Okay, that's good to know. So it gets it.
I guess it's got it's got layers.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Well, I know a little bit about the food service industry,
having worked in it when I was younger and having
good friends who work in it, and and you know
that is the way people in a fine dining kitchen
always a yes chef whatever you want, chef, right, that
is the protocol. So I have enough of insider stuff
to get that part of it right.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
So work for you on a back of house level, yes,
even without the pop culture.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Rough absolutely, which is two of most of my life actually, right,
all right. So here's here's what we're going to try
to do. I'm going to describe some of the best
cartoons of twenty twenty four according to New Yorker's Instagram account,
and you guys will come up with what goes in
the blank right of the caption? All right, And it's
not so much who can get it right as a
(08:20):
sort of let's play around and kind of play mad
lips with these cartoons and see what goes in there perfect,
all right? So this is zoom in again. This is
Moris set, who's more a set cartoonists. That's the byeline
on this one. It's a view of two very large
whales underwater and they're in conversation, and above one of
(08:43):
them is a small boat that's dangling a microphone into
the water and the whale that's underneath the microphone. The
caption is I can say literally anything, and they use
it for blank.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Thing. I do you know this one too, Emily, I
or you have a hang?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
I saw it and now I'm completely blanking on what
the last word was. I feel like, you know, it's
like a sleep sleep podcast.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Close. Close. It's two words. Actually, I can say literally anything,
and they use it for blank.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah. I was thinking podcast too, but and then I
got sidetracked with pod because the pod of whales. But
really they're not into that kind of pun. So but yeah,
I was going podcast as well.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Well, it's both close. The answer is spa music. They
use it for spa music. Ye, that was good. This
one is two people. One of them is holding a wheelbarrow,
(09:58):
wheelbarrow full of what looks like leaves, like overflowing, stacked
up higher than the people. And uh, this person speaks.
She says, this should be enough blank for dinner, but
we won't know until we blanket.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Mmm, Emily smiling like she's smiling. So do you know
this or you guessed it?
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Or I know this both as a cartoonist and a cook.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, exactly, Yeah, Kale or it's not. It's similar. It's
the Kale of nineteen before Broccoli.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Cabin. What is leaf?
Speaker 3 (10:38):
It's it's in that same cartoon. You referenced in a
previous episode.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Oh spinach, No, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
This should be enough spinach for dinner. But we won't
know until we uh bake it. I mean.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
He said, these are wheelhouse birds.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Yeah, we'll tell you that. I mean, if you boil
your spinach, I feel sorry for the people your house, Emily,
you know what that.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Is a crime until we cook it.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah, yeah, saut.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Saute yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't know, I don't
know how many times you've you've cooked spinach in your life,
but it's the the ratio of like uncooked spinach to
cook spinach is like one hundred to one. It's just yeah,
that's good, really shrinks down.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
That's interesting though, that is that is a whole genre
of the spinach cartoon.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
The spinach cartoons, and it's I mean, it's it's an
absurd image, right, this giant wheelbarrow for spinach and the
very sort of matter of fact thing it reminds me,
you know. Bob Mankoff, the great editor of the New
Yorker Cartoons, came to Mohawk Mountain House where I do
this words weekend and talked about the sort of He
(11:51):
talked a lot about cartoons and how they work, and
put up this interesting graph of sort of juxtaposing an
absurd image with kind of everyday statement versus an everyday
image with an absurd statement. Do you find for you, Emily,
where do you start when you're when you're coming up
with something? Oh?
Speaker 4 (12:11):
I always write first. I consider myself primarily a writer
who draws, so I always start with words. But you know,
to to the point that that Bob Mankoff was making,
like anytime you put words and pictures together, like no
matter if there's no connection, your brain will try to
make a connection. And that's just that's one of the
(12:34):
wonderful things about about the forum really is like we're
kind of wired for story that way. So yeah, it's
it's fun just to kind of like, you know, push
stuff around and see kind of what comes out of
that friction between image and word.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah, it's so much fun to see to see the result.
Every week. My kids have just started noticing the cartoons
in the New Yorker, and now they're you know, getting
get hooked. All right, we have time to do a
couple more of the Yes a Jared, All right, here's one.
It's three witches around a cauldron and the one in
the center is holding a small baby over the boiling liquid,
(13:12):
and the one on the left speaks and she says, wait,
some of the witches who are coming are blank.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
So is this like a vegan.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Or there you go? That's it right, Yeah, you got
it right away.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Very good, very good. Yeah. You don't want any new
size or babies for the vegan witches.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Absolutely. I can't even put in cheese.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah, yeah, no, cheese. It's just you know, it's again.
It's the juxtaposition of this horrific thing of the witches
about to boil a child with the very matter of
fact you can't wait some of them were come here vegan.
All right, let's do the last one here. This is
an iconic image from The Shining. Actually this image it's
we see a closed door beyond which is Shelley Duvall terrified.
(13:58):
It's a very good drawing. It looks just like the
still from the movie. She's absolutely terrified and her eyes
are wide, her mouth is open in a silent scream,
and the door is splintering, But instead of the axe
held by Jack Nicholson's character, it's actually a flower breaking
through the door and then you notice Shelley Divalli is
holding a little box of tissues, and the caption the
(14:21):
flower has a speech bubble that says, here's blank.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Oh interesting, Now the real one is here's Johnny of.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Course exactly smashed it through the axe.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
So is it a play on is it something that
sounds like, here's john here's Peoni here?
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Yeah, this is Harry Bliss one right, like yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, No,
he's a he is a really just like a top
shelf wizard level draftsman.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Oh okay, so he goes for that kind of real
very similitude or really like the really accurate drawing of that.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Still, yeah, do.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
You remember this one, Emily or I do? So you
know it. So I'm the only one who's on the outside.
Let's say ears and it's a flower breaking down the door.
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yep? Yep.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
But the tissues are really important to the point of
this joke.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Okay, And so way, Shelley the ball has tissues because she's.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Had a little box of tissues. Yeah, And is it.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Like she's gonna cry it's like a tear jerker type
of thing.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Nope, No, no, that's not what's gonna.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Happen different form of face leaking.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
So this is like here, very good. I love it,
very good. I have to say a different form of
face leaking as a statement never said on the Puzzler podcast.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
I'm proud to be the first, and I hope I'm
not the last.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
It's a wonderful juxtaposition of worse.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Well, this was an odd ball sort of day for
puzzles for us, but I hope that was fun. They
kind of a different angle on how to do visual
cartoons as audio puzzles.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I had a great time me too.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
I thought it was the rim and it goes to
the point that puzzles and cartoons are our cousins. Maybe
that's offensive, you.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Say, kissing cousins.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Gross? I actually, you know, I wrote a book about
family and I defended cousin marriage. Uh not for myself,
but just from an ethical standpoint. Should we be banning
cousin marriage?
Speaker 4 (16:33):
No? Well, now that is a whole other podcast.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
There you go. There's an interesting way to wrap up
the whole where.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
I was face leaking. We got married.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Card.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
This has gone off the rails in the funnest way.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Well, thank you Emily for joining us and puzzling and
talking about cartoons. We loved it.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Thank you, Thank you so much for having this is
so much.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Fund and remember to check out Emily's work in the
New York.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
And also the stand up once a month Young Athols
in Brooklyn.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Yeah, I do monthly show with my co host Holly
Harper called FDK at Young Ethel's and we're actually taking
July off, but our next one is August eighth, and
then after that will be like you know, second Saturday
of every month. And yeah, it's a real good time.
And you know, if you're if you look at my
socials I put up when I'm going to be on
(17:33):
a stage anywhere. So if anybody wants to come and
talk to me about cousin marriage, that's where you.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
I do.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
I do want to talk to you clearly, Greg, Do
you have an extra credit for the folks?
Speaker 3 (17:47):
And hut, I do have an extra credit. This is
a cartoon. It's a baby's bedroom. There's a little crib
and the child is standing in the crib and a
very very tired looking father has just entered the room
his bleary's and his T shirt and shorts and he's
(18:08):
bleary and he's got it coming into the crib, and
the baby's saying, this is embarrassing. I don't even remember blank.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Okay, good to think about that.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yep, And it's five I will just say it's five
words that are in the original, the baby saying to
the very sleepy eyed father who's coming to the room,
this is embarrassing. I don't even remember blank.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Okay, So the blank is actually blank blank five words.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Ok yeah, blank blank blank blank blank.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Got it?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
All right? Love it. We'll come back tomorrow for the answer,
and in the meantime, you can look at more puzzles
on the on the internet at Hello puzzlers. It's our
Instagram feed and we've got delightful visual puzzles and lots
of other fun stuff. And thank you Emily, thank you Greg,
thank you listeners, and we'll see you tomorrow. We're puzzling
(18:59):
puzzles lit a puzzle puzzling.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Hey, puzzlers, Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer, Here with
the extra credit answer from our previous episode.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Emily Flake played some comic strip charades. You know, we
do charades where we split a word into parts in
clue each of the parts and each answer in this
puzzle was a famous comic strip. The one I gave
you was this pair of clues ball blank, hammer, and
three letter snack food brand. And I did mention that
(19:32):
if you don't know the snack food, which is kind
of more common on the on the eastern half of
the United States, you might know the Bruce Chatwin book
by this name. And we went down a long path
of other alternate clues, but in any case, the answer
is ball, peen hammer. It's kind of hammer. Peen is
the word pe e n, and the snack food is
(19:53):
uts utz. Put them together, you get peanuts, an iconic
comic strip. I also wanted to mention in this episode.
I said that kale wasn't a thing back in the
nineteen twenties, but of course it was a major thing.
It was a major cooking staple, especially in sol food
in Southern cuisine. My point was it was just not
(20:13):
the hipster thing that it has become today. So enjoy
some kale, however you like to prepare it, and we'll
catch you next time.
Hello puzzlers. Before we start puzzling today, I wanted to
let you know we are cooking up some big plans
for the puzzler community, and in order to ensure that
it's what you want, we need your input. So we've
put together a short survey, which you can find in
the show notes. It's really quick, just three minutes, but
(00:22):
it will be a huge help in letting us know
what you want so that we can deliver just that.
Thank you, Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a little warm
up puzzle. Today's advertiser is by Andrea Schomberg. It's a
homophone challenge that means there are two words that sound
(00:43):
the same, but I have different spellings and meanings. So
we've done this a couple of times. A housekeeper who
is high up in the mafia is a made maid,
like made in the mafia may maid, as in a housekeeper.
So this one is what would you call it if
you're driving and you hear the theme song of your
(01:06):
favorite animated program on the radio. So you're driving along
you hear the theme song of your favorite TV animated
program on the radio. The answer is actually three words long,
but it sounds as if you're repeating a word twice
in a row. The answer and more puzzling goodness after
the break, Hello Puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast.
(01:35):
The Gold Prince Albert chain attached to your puzzle pocket watch.
I am your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm here, of course,
with che Puzzle Officer Greig Kuliska.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Greg.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Before the break, we had Andrea's teaser puzzle with the
question what do you call it when you're driving and
you hear the theme song of your favorite TV animated program?
What might that be?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Well, it depends on what your favorite her TV animated
program is.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Great point point and going with the generic.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
This is a word that could describe any TV program theme.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Song, animated, animated.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Oh oh oh, I get where you're going with this.
I see. What's tricky about it is that I was
thinking that there is a word related to driving that
is also a word that describes an animated TV or
that can sounds just like a thing describing the animated
TV show theme song. But that's not how it breaks up,
(02:35):
because the answer is it is a cartoon cartoon.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
That's exactly right. That is all excellent.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Andrea stumping me again.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, of course this is very relevant because we have
with us today the great Emily Flake, who is a
cartoonist for The New Yorker. She's written many books, including
Mama Tried, Hilarious one about parenting.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Welcome Emily, Hi, thank you for having me, Thank you
for coming back.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
We are very excited.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
So, Greg, I believe you have even more puzzles for
Emily today.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
I have to admit, Emily, I got so excited about
you coming on. We created way too many puzzles. So
this we're going to actually try to squeeze two puzzles
into one episode.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Okay, I love too many puzzles.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Right, Or it's kind of a puzzle and then a
kind of game. So the puzzle is this, It's a
word ladder, right, which is where you start with one
word and you change one letter and you keep going
to you get another word. So we're gonna we're gonna
I'll give you the clue to each word and you
just give me the word, all right. Okay. The first word,
of course, is your first name, which is Emily. Change
(03:43):
one letter to get the writer Zola's first name, Emil.
Change one letter to get a photographer's command smile. Change
one letter to get a fence crossing.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
A fence crossing, A.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Fence crossing also a word in the poem, there was
a crooked man who walked a crooked mile. He find
crooked something upon a crooked This is an older word.
We don't use a lote.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
No.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Change change a different letter to a T.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Oh, my god, I can't, I can't.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
J do you know what this is?
Speaker 1 (04:19):
I don't know this one either.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Take the word smile, change one of the letters to
a T style style style, Yes, I could turn style.
I should have given that angle to.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
It if you had said subway.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah, exactly, a style a short word for the thing
in the subway. Next word old like bread okay, and
a vampire hunter's tool. And to satisfy as someone's thirst
sleek and your last name magic flake word is there's
(04:58):
probably another way to do it with relying upon a
word like style.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
You know, but I I think I'll allow it.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thinking that was just I.
I was having fun with the idea of that word
ladder because both your names are the same length, so
it's possible to try it. So that was That was
one quick little puzzle there. Now the next thing I
want to try to do, which is maybe a wacky
idea for a podcast, but I'm calling it cartoon mad
libs because I was looking at the Instagram's Favorite New
(05:30):
Yorker Cartoons of twenty twenty four, which is a ton
of the New Yorker's best in which one of yours appears.
And I'm going to describe this cartoon for AJ, and
AJ you're going to try to fill in the blank
in the caption, and Emily, you could play along if
you've forgotten what you did in twenty twenty Oh.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
These absolutely entirely possibly.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So these are actually Emily's cartoons.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Just this one. This one. The rest of them will
be other New Yorker cartoons.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Both play a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
But for the example, I'm going to use of Emily's,
it's a couple in bed, right, and she's looking blissful
and her partner, who's a man, is turning to her
and saying, so, what was all that yes blank stuff about?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (06:16):
And the question is what goes in the blank? And
it's kind of what makes it funny?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Of course, right, Well, is it an improv joke like
yes and stop?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (06:28):
That actually makes it so much a better cartoon, except
for the fact that improv people don't really have sex.
I think that's that.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Is very funny.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Well then, yeah, it.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Was a noun. It's a noun. Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, I'm going to go out on that because I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
You did so well with that what it is?
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Remember it was yes, chef.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Chef, the very funny yes and again sort of goes
to that incongruous right, what is not the thing you
expect somebody to be saying in bed, right?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
I mean, unless it's really a gift to fans and
creators of the popular television show The Bear, featuring the
hottest little pocket rocket kitchen worker in television history.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Which is which is what's great about it because I
haven't watched The Bear, so I saw that cartoon and
I thought it was very funny without knowing really.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Interesting. Okay, that's good to know. So it gets it.
I guess it's got it's got layers.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Well, I know a little bit about the food service industry,
having worked in it when I was younger and having
good friends who work in it, and and you know
that is the way people in a fine dining kitchen
always a yes chef whatever you want, chef, right, that
is the protocol. So I have enough of insider stuff
to get that part of it right.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
So work for you on a back of house level, yes,
even without the pop culture.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Rough absolutely, which is two of most of my life actually, right,
all right. So here's here's what we're going to try
to do. I'm going to describe some of the best
cartoons of twenty twenty four according to New Yorker's Instagram account,
and you guys will come up with what goes in
the blank right of the caption? All right, And it's
not so much who can get it right as a
(08:20):
sort of let's play around and kind of play mad
lips with these cartoons and see what goes in there perfect,
all right? So this is zoom in again. This is
Moris set, who's more a set cartoonists. That's the byeline
on this one. It's a view of two very large
whales underwater and they're in conversation, and above one of
(08:43):
them is a small boat that's dangling a microphone into
the water and the whale that's underneath the microphone. The
caption is I can say literally anything, and they use
it for blank.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Thing. I do you know this one too, Emily, I
or you have a hang?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
I saw it and now I'm completely blanking on what
the last word was. I feel like, you know, it's
like a sleep sleep podcast.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Close. Close. It's two words. Actually, I can say literally anything,
and they use it for blank.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah. I was thinking podcast too, but and then I
got sidetracked with pod because the pod of whales. But
really they're not into that kind of pun. So but yeah,
I was going podcast as well.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Well, it's both close. The answer is spa music. They
use it for spa music. Ye, that was good. This
one is two people. One of them is holding a wheelbarrow,
(09:58):
wheelbarrow full of what looks like leaves, like overflowing, stacked
up higher than the people. And uh, this person speaks.
She says, this should be enough blank for dinner, but
we won't know until we blanket.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Mmm, Emily smiling like she's smiling. So do you know
this or you guessed it?
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Or I know this both as a cartoonist and a cook.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, exactly, Yeah, Kale or it's not. It's similar. It's
the Kale of nineteen before Broccoli.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Cabin. What is leaf?
Speaker 3 (10:38):
It's it's in that same cartoon. You referenced in a
previous episode.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Oh spinach, No, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
This should be enough spinach for dinner. But we won't
know until we uh bake it. I mean.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
He said, these are wheelhouse birds.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Yeah, we'll tell you that. I mean, if you boil
your spinach, I feel sorry for the people your house, Emily,
you know what that.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Is a crime until we cook it.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah, yeah, saut.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Saute yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't know, I don't
know how many times you've you've cooked spinach in your life,
but it's the the ratio of like uncooked spinach to
cook spinach is like one hundred to one. It's just yeah,
that's good, really shrinks down.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
That's interesting though, that is that is a whole genre
of the spinach cartoon.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
The spinach cartoons, and it's I mean, it's it's an
absurd image, right, this giant wheelbarrow for spinach and the
very sort of matter of fact thing it reminds me,
you know. Bob Mankoff, the great editor of the New
Yorker Cartoons, came to Mohawk Mountain House where I do
this words weekend and talked about the sort of He
(11:51):
talked a lot about cartoons and how they work, and
put up this interesting graph of sort of juxtaposing an
absurd image with kind of everyday statement versus an everyday
image with an absurd statement. Do you find for you, Emily,
where do you start when you're when you're coming up
with something? Oh?
Speaker 4 (12:11):
I always write first. I consider myself primarily a writer
who draws, so I always start with words. But you know,
to to the point that that Bob Mankoff was making,
like anytime you put words and pictures together, like no
matter if there's no connection, your brain will try to
make a connection. And that's just that's one of the
(12:34):
wonderful things about about the forum really is like we're
kind of wired for story that way. So yeah, it's
it's fun just to kind of like, you know, push
stuff around and see kind of what comes out of
that friction between image and word.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah, it's so much fun to see to see the result.
Every week. My kids have just started noticing the cartoons
in the New Yorker, and now they're you know, getting
get hooked. All right, we have time to do a
couple more of the Yes a Jared, All right, here's one.
It's three witches around a cauldron and the one in
the center is holding a small baby over the boiling liquid,
(13:12):
and the one on the left speaks and she says, wait,
some of the witches who are coming are blank.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
So is this like a vegan.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Or there you go? That's it right, Yeah, you got
it right away.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Very good, very good. Yeah. You don't want any new
size or babies for the vegan witches.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Absolutely. I can't even put in cheese.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah, yeah, no, cheese. It's just you know, it's again.
It's the juxtaposition of this horrific thing of the witches
about to boil a child with the very matter of
fact you can't wait some of them were come here vegan.
All right, let's do the last one here. This is
an iconic image from The Shining. Actually this image it's
we see a closed door beyond which is Shelley Duvall terrified.
(13:58):
It's a very good drawing. It looks just like the
still from the movie. She's absolutely terrified and her eyes
are wide, her mouth is open in a silent scream,
and the door is splintering, But instead of the axe
held by Jack Nicholson's character, it's actually a flower breaking
through the door and then you notice Shelley Divalli is
holding a little box of tissues, and the caption the
(14:21):
flower has a speech bubble that says, here's blank.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Oh interesting, Now the real one is here's Johnny of.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Course exactly smashed it through the axe.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
So is it a play on is it something that
sounds like, here's john here's Peoni here?
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Yeah, this is Harry Bliss one right, like yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, No,
he's a he is a really just like a top
shelf wizard level draftsman.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Oh okay, so he goes for that kind of real
very similitude or really like the really accurate drawing of that.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Still, yeah, do.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
You remember this one, Emily or I do? So you
know it. So I'm the only one who's on the outside.
Let's say ears and it's a flower breaking down the door.
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yep? Yep.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
But the tissues are really important to the point of
this joke.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Okay, And so way, Shelley the ball has tissues because she's.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Had a little box of tissues. Yeah, And is it.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Like she's gonna cry it's like a tear jerker type
of thing.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Nope, No, no, that's not what's gonna.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Happen different form of face leaking.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
So this is like here, very good. I love it,
very good. I have to say a different form of
face leaking as a statement never said on the Puzzler podcast.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
I'm proud to be the first, and I hope I'm
not the last.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
It's a wonderful juxtaposition of worse.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Well, this was an odd ball sort of day for
puzzles for us, but I hope that was fun. They
kind of a different angle on how to do visual
cartoons as audio puzzles.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I had a great time me too.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
I thought it was the rim and it goes to
the point that puzzles and cartoons are our cousins. Maybe
that's offensive, you.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Say, kissing cousins.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Gross? I actually, you know, I wrote a book about
family and I defended cousin marriage. Uh not for myself,
but just from an ethical standpoint. Should we be banning
cousin marriage?
Speaker 4 (16:33):
No? Well, now that is a whole other podcast.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
There you go. There's an interesting way to wrap up
the whole where.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
I was face leaking. We got married.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Card.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
This has gone off the rails in the funnest way.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Well, thank you Emily for joining us and puzzling and
talking about cartoons. We loved it.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Thank you, Thank you so much for having this is
so much.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Fund and remember to check out Emily's work in the
New York.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
And also the stand up once a month Young Athols
in Brooklyn.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Yeah, I do monthly show with my co host Holly
Harper called FDK at Young Ethel's and we're actually taking
July off, but our next one is August eighth, and
then after that will be like you know, second Saturday
of every month. And yeah, it's a real good time.
And you know, if you're if you look at my
socials I put up when I'm going to be on
(17:33):
a stage anywhere. So if anybody wants to come and
talk to me about cousin marriage, that's where you.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
I do.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
I do want to talk to you clearly, Greg, Do
you have an extra credit for the folks?
Speaker 3 (17:47):
And hut, I do have an extra credit. This is
a cartoon. It's a baby's bedroom. There's a little crib
and the child is standing in the crib and a
very very tired looking father has just entered the room
his bleary's and his T shirt and shorts and he's
(18:08):
bleary and he's got it coming into the crib, and
the baby's saying, this is embarrassing. I don't even remember blank.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Okay, good to think about that.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yep, And it's five I will just say it's five
words that are in the original, the baby saying to
the very sleepy eyed father who's coming to the room,
this is embarrassing. I don't even remember blank.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Okay, So the blank is actually blank blank five words.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Ok yeah, blank blank blank blank blank.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Got it?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
All right? Love it. We'll come back tomorrow for the answer,
and in the meantime, you can look at more puzzles
on the on the internet at Hello puzzlers. It's our
Instagram feed and we've got delightful visual puzzles and lots
of other fun stuff. And thank you Emily, thank you Greg,
thank you listeners, and we'll see you tomorrow. We're puzzling
(18:59):
puzzles lit a puzzle puzzling.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Hey, puzzlers, Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer, Here with
the extra credit answer from our previous episode.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Emily Flake played some comic strip charades. You know, we
do charades where we split a word into parts in
clue each of the parts and each answer in this
puzzle was a famous comic strip. The one I gave
you was this pair of clues ball blank, hammer, and
three letter snack food brand. And I did mention that
(19:32):
if you don't know the snack food, which is kind
of more common on the on the eastern half of
the United States, you might know the Bruce Chatwin book
by this name. And we went down a long path
of other alternate clues, but in any case, the answer
is ball, peen hammer. It's kind of hammer. Peen is
the word pe e n, and the snack food is
(19:53):
uts utz. Put them together, you get peanuts, an iconic
comic strip. I also wanted to mention in this episode.
I said that kale wasn't a thing back in the
nineteen twenties, but of course it was a major thing.
It was a major cooking staple, especially in sol food
in Southern cuisine. My point was it was just not
(20:13):
the hipster thing that it has become today. So enjoy
some kale, however you like to prepare it, and we'll
catch you next time.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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