New Yorker Scrubs Space Travel Joke, Reprints Magazines
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NEW YORK — The New Yorker recaptioned a cartoon and reprinted 610,000 copies of its Feb. 3 issue because the cartoon was “inappropriate” following the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, the magazine said Friday.
The cartoon, showing two men sitting in a bar, originally was captioned: “I wish they’d shoot my congressman into space.”
The magazine’s editor, William Shawn, and Steven Florio, president and publisher, decided to make the change after the shuttle exploded on liftoff Tuesday and all seven crew members were killed.
The cartoon remained in the magazine with the new caption: “I used to be a warm human being, but now, I’m sorry to say, I’m a bit of a swine.”
More than 33,000 copies of the magazine containing the original caption were delivered to newsstands before the change was made, said Joyce Richter of the magazine.
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