98% of the people who get the magazine say they read the cartoons first - and the other 2% are lying.
Interpretation
This quote humorously suggests that cartoons are the most popular part of a magazine, and it pokes fun at honesty in reading preferences.
David Remnick's quote highlights the universal appeal of cartoons in magazines by humorously implying that nearly everyone prioritizes reading them. It addresses the tendency of people to admit to reading the more serious articles in magazines while secretly enjoying the light-hearted cartoons, presenting a comical take on preferences and honesty in readership.
In practice
In a speech about media consumption habits, one could use this quote to illustrate how humor captures audience attention.
The world is a crazy, beautiful, ugly complicated place, and it keeps moving on from crisis to strangeness to beauty to weirdness to tragedy. The caravan keeps moving on, and the job of the longform writer or filmmaker or radio broadcaster is to stop - is to pause - and when the caravan goes away, that's when this stuff comes.
Everybody has a cartoon of themselves. Mine is: I write very fast, and I'm ruthlessly efficient with my time.
Every good journalist is aware that his trade may one day go the way of phrenology-and, what's more, the population will hardly protest the extinction.
Journalism, some huge percentage of it, should be devoted to putting pressure on power, on nonsense, on chicanery of all kinds and if that's going to invite a lawsuit, well, bring it on.
Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.
You're a monster, Mr. Grinch._x000D_ _x000D_ Your heart's an empty hole._x000D_ _x000D_ Your brain is full of spiders,_x000D_ _x000D_ You've got garlic in your soul.
Do you know what prepares you for the mental hospital? Being a prime minister's wife.
I've retired a couple of times. It's great, because you can just say, 'Oh, I'm sorry. I'm retired.'
The malicious sneer is improperly called laughter.
The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.