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Funny Times - Humor Politics and Fun!

10 Minutes With ... Ray Lesser
The politics of laughing

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By Michael Heaton
The Cleveland Plain Dealer; Monday, December 8, 2008; PDQ section

Monthly humor magazine The Funny Times has a nationwide circulation of 70,000 and a list of contributors that looks like a Who's Who of American humor writing. The magazine was born in Cleveland Heights in 1985 to Ray Lesser, who has been the publisher, editor and a columnist, and his wife, co-publisher Susan Wolpert. PDQ's Michael Heaton recently talked with Lesser about the presidential election and other funny stuff.

1.Ray are you worried about being funny without George W. Bush?

The Funny Times has been making America laugh for 23 years, which is a lot longer than W. has. Besides, there's always the potential for even better humorous public figures in the future, or as George Bush says in one of our cartoons, "We can't be the worst administration in history. History's not nearly over!"

2. When you look back on the last eight years what were some of the real comedy gold mines for the Funny Times?

The best comedy comes out of disasters, and we've witnessed some of the most spectacular disasters in my lifetime. Putting a C-average Yale cheerleader in charge of the country may have destroyed most of the wealth in the stock market, but it's been great for paying the bar bills for comedy writers.

3. How do you and your writers turn scary economic times like these into Funny Times material?

We just have to latch on to the small slices of life that can bring us joy. Like seeing the investment banker on a street corner holding up a sign that reads "Will Create Derivatives For Food."

4. Having edited so much humor for so long can you tell when one issue is funnier than another?

Some cartoons and stories are only funny for a month, others may still be funny years later. We try to make every issue the funniest one it can possibly be this month, and let posterity take care of it's own derriere.

5. Do you try to make sure the dems get as much mockery as the republicans? The liberals as much as the conservatives?

We try to make fun of hypocrisy wherever we see it. We can't help it if there are so many more rich, Republican hypocrites. God (and Rupert Murdoch) gave them Fox News. The Funny Times is the fair and balanced news source for the common man.

6. Besides the writers you use which humorists have influenced you and are your heroes? living and dead.

Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin, Charles Schulz, Woody Allen, Lucille Ball, Joseph Heller, Shel Silverstein, Dr. Suess. And then there are the ones that we have been able to have contribute to The Funny Times, including George Carlin, Bill Cosby, George Burns, Bill Bryson, Michael Moore, Hunter S. Thompson.

7. I have yet to hear a funny joke about Obama. Have you heard one?

During the campaign our columnist Andy Borowitz did a nice bit about Obama releasing a list of approved jokes about himself. One of them was, a Christian, a Jew and Barack Obama are in a rowboat in the middle of the ocean. Barack Obama says, "This joke isn't going to work because there's no Muslim in this boat."

8. Why is he so hard to make fun of?

I don't think he'll be hard to make fun of. Cartoonists and comedians just need to get to know him better. But I think he'll be much more like Bugs Bunny than Bush, who has pretty much turned into Elmer Fudd. (Or am I thinking of that other great hunter, Dick Cheney?) Anyway people love Bugs Bunny and wind up laughing much more with him than at him.

9. I've heard that restaurants do better under democratic administrations. Do you think they are more willing to laugh as well?

Everybody does better under Democratic administrations, including the rich, only they hate it because they don't wield absolute power. They keep thinking that's what they really want, only when the economy starts going down the tubes under their Republican cronies, they suddenly remember that what they really care about is being rich.

10. What's you favorite joke that we can run in a family newspaper?

How many men does it take to change a toilet-paper roll? Who knows; it's never happened.

11. Does the daily show help or hurt you?

The Daily Show helps me because I love to watch it. Anything that makes me laugh helps me, because I love to laugh. It's much easier to create humor when you're feeling good, just as it's much easier to do almost everything else in life. Although probably not very good for the psychiatrist business.

12. How much do you think political humor affected the outcome of this election?

It helped contribute to the climate of being fed up with the complete incompetence of the current regime. But humorists have been pointing out the fact that the emperor has no clothes for years now, and I don't think the message really got through to some people until it got so bad that they didn't have any clothes (or jobs, or houses, or pensions) either.