Comedian Stands Up for Newspaper Cartoons

By: Dave Astor Stand-up comedian Elayne Boosler enjoys sitting down to read comics, editorial cartoons, and other things in newspapers. So it was no surprise that she mentioned newspapers during a performance Saturday night at the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) convention here.

"I love Hustler magazine," she said. "I like to hide the New York Post in something on my way home." Boosler -- who's from Brooklyn -- mentioned Hustler because its publisher, Larry Flynt, also spoke at the AAEC meeting (see "Flynt Makes Case for Editorial Cartoons").

The comedian mentioned another newspaper when joking about the camouflage uniforms soldiers wear in airports even though these clothes are designed for outside use. "If you want to camouflage a guy in an airport, put a USA Today in his hand," Boosler quipped.

It's pointless for women to take off their shoes when going through airport security, Boosler continued. "What woman would blow up her shoes?" she asked. "If I wanted to blow up an airplane, I would put my shoes on a different flight."

Boosler ended up flying to the AAEC convention because of a chain of events that began last fall when she read a Los Angeles Times article about Berkeley Breathed, the "Bloom County" creator who was returning to syndication with the "Opus" strip. Boosler was upset that Breathed criticized some comics for being uninteresting, past their prime, and/or no longer done by their original creators. So she wrote a guest column for the Times about how she likes various kinds of comics -- including those that are new or old, topical or purely funny, adult- or kid-oriented, gag-a-day or story-oriented, and done by the original creator or a successor.

"Non Sequitur" creator and former editorial cartoonist Wiley Miller of Universal Press Syndicate contacted Boosler after reading her column. They started corresponding, and the AAEC appearance eventually resulted.

"I've loved cartoons my whole life," Boosler told the audience. And Boosler noted that editorial cartoonists make their points without cursing like some stand-up comedians do.

Some non-cartoonist media people do get on Boosler's nerves when they misquote her or pose annoying questions. She recalled one writer asking: "Where's your sitcom?" To which Boosler replied: "Where's your novel?"

Among Boosler's other media- and non-media-related quips:

-- "I don't send my maid out to get drugs. I get my own!" (Referring to Rush Limbaugh's former dependency on painkillers.)

-- "What does Al-Jazeera mean in English? Fox TV."

-- "Are female suicide bombers paid 78% of what male suicide bombers are paid?"

After Boosler finished, she was presented with a caricature of herself even though she had asked not to be caricatured. "Thank you so much," she said. "And God bless eBay."