"The jokes came out of drawing the cartoons. I wanted to draw and I liked the way certain cartoons were drawn. So I decided to redraw the ones I liked. This was 1985. I was living in Los Angeles. I drew a lot of Whitney Darrow cartoons. He was actually a friend of Jackson Pollock...I picked out about a dozen jokes...ones that were familiar, the ones that get retold, and wrote them out, by hand on small pieces of paper. Paper and pencil. Pencil on paper."

Richard Prince (b. 1949). Tell Me Everything, 1987. Acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 56 x 48 inches (142.2 x 121.9 cm). Skarstedt Collection, New York

Can a joke be a painting? Can a painting be a joke? In 1984 Richard Prince began redrawing one-line gag cartoons from the New Yorker magazine on small pieces of paper. These works dared anyone to take them seriously as art, and were the antithesis of the expressionistic painting and sculpture that was being produced at the time.

According to Prince, "Artists were casting sculptures in bronze, making huge paintings, talking about prices and clothes and cars and spending vast amounts of money. So I wrote jokes on little pieces of paper and sold them for $10 each. One dealer bought two and asked for a 10% discount. So I decided that every six months I would double the prices. All this was possible because no one was looking at my work. That's a fairly good position sometimes. You can get away with a lot of things."

Like advertising images, cartoons reflect cultural tastes, desires, and prejudices. Prince's first appropriated jokes and cartoons are rather straightforward hand-drawn copies of cartoons by Whitney Darrow Jr., but he soon began interjecting an autobiographical tone by mixing, matching, and appropriating new captions. He replaced the cartoons' original captions with classic one-liners from popular stand-up comics: "What a kid I was. I remember practicing the violin in front of a roaring fire. My old man walked in. He was furious. We didn't have a fireplace"; "I never had a penny to my name so I changed my name"; and so on.

Jokes have provided Prince with another way to extend his practice of transforming familiar elements of pop culture so that we see them in a new light. In his work, jokes become more than a lighthearted exchange and also reveal attitudes and tensions that are usually buried beneath the surface of social interactions.

• What is your response to this work? How is it similar to works of art you are already familiar with? In what ways is it different from them?
• Describe the artistic choices that Prince made in creating this work. Do these choices meet your personal criteria for a successful work of art or not? Explain.
• Prince said that he 'wrote jokes on little pieces of paper and sold them for $10 each.' Some people might agree that this is an artistic act, others might not. Debate this issue in your classroom.
• According to the artist, 'All this was possible because no one was looking at my work. That's a fairly good position sometimes. You can get away with a lot of things.' What might he have meant by this statement? Why can it sometimes be a good thing if people are not paying attention to your creative efforts?

• Over the years Prince's repertoire of jokes has grown to over 100, including:
  
  

  "What a kid I was. I remember practicing the violin in front of a roaring fire. My old man walked in. He was furious. We didn't have a fireplace."
  
  "I never had a penny to my name so I changed my name."

  
  
  And the one he used for the painting Tell Me Everything:
  
  

  "I went to see a psychiatrist. He said, 'Tell me everything.' I did, and now he's doing my act."

  
  
  Although we may laugh at a joke, it is sometimes difficult to describe exactly what is causing that reaction. Choose one of the jokes above and describe the unexpected connection responsible for the humorous response. Try writing a joke and judge your success by your classmates' reactions to it.
  English / Language Arts


• A popular feature of the New Yorker magazine is the Cartoon Caption Contest. Each week a new cartoon is presented and readers send in their suggestions for the best caption. The on-line version of the contest is available at newyorker.com/captioncontest.
  
  As a class, view the weekly cartoon and create a humorous caption for the image. Share the captions with your classmates and vote for the best entry.
  English / Language Arts


• Prince has used preexisting jokes in several ways—from simple printed text to elaborate fragments of words and images culled from various sources. Create your own joke drawing or painting, derived from one or several sources. When done, discuss your choices.
  Visual Arts


• Prince has said that the cartoons of Whitney Darrow Jr. (1909–1999) were an inspiration for his joke paintings. Darrow was a well-known cartoonist and illustrator who produced more than 1,500 cartoons for the New Yorker magazine between 1933 and 1982. More than 100 of his drawings can be viewed at the New Yorker Cartoon Bank.
  
  What is your response to Darrow's work? Discuss why Prince might have found these cartoons inspiring.
  Visual Arts