Since his first published New Yorker cartoon, in 1977, Bob Mankoff has been making us laugh, and when he became the magazine's cartoon editor in 1997, he was the one deciding what was funny enough to be in it. In his hilarious memoir of cartoons—his own, and those of colleagues—Mankoff looks at both his career and the psychology of cartooning, analyzing why some cartoons work and others don't. He explores the process of creating cartoons, deconstructs what makes a New Yorker cartoon (including the ones people don't "get"), explains how he launched the Cartoon Bank, and offers valuable tips for success in the magazine's Cartoon Caption Contest.