Gen X'ers Taking Over the New Yorker!

The fact that I have a subscription to the I flipped through it, and I saw something I never thought I'd see: an ad for New Yorker (yeah, I know the hyperlink goes to a bit on the Sunday edition of the New York Times, but he did write about the New Yorker in his book cheapskate, and I'm lampooning the general attitude that goes with subscribing to highbrow publications, so lighten up) probably means I'm old, or at least getting old. I'd never really looked at it that way until I pulled the latest issue out of my mailbox the other day. I flipped through it, and I saw something I never thought I'd see: an ad for Denis Leary's new book.

I was washing dishes at Red Lobster the first time I ever heard Denis Leary's act. Somebody had put together a mix tape, and "Asshole" was one of the songs on the mix. I was eighteen. Leary and, well, I'm probably flattering myself, even now, were about as far as one could get from the ideal demographic that the New Yorker was trying to reach, at that point in the early nineties.

I guess I can take some comfort in the fact that people my age are finally starting to take over the world if his publisher thinks one of the best ways to reach his audience is in the pages of the New Yorker. About thirteen years ago they started printing cartoons by Robert Crumb, so I suppose it's only a matter of time before Peter Bagge and Marcel Dzama make the cut.