A century of the New Yorker and 50 years of 'SNL': Our cultural yin and yang
The anniversaries of two revered New York institutions converge in 2025--saying more than you may realize about where we find ourselves in our modern cultural conversation.
A century ago, one New York institution set a template for elite long-form journalism and rigorous adherence to refined tastes.
Harold Ross, founding editor of the New Yorker, articulated his mission the year before its launch (on Feb. 21, 1925) in a three-page statement:
“The New Yorker will be the magazine which is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque,” he wrote. “It will not be concerned in what she is thinking about. This is not meant in disrespect, but the New Yorker is a magazine avowedly published for a metropolitan audience.”
Ross didn’t want his magazine to be “radical” or “highbrow,” but “sophisticated.” He was determined that it “assume a reasonable degree of enlightenment on the part of its readers.”
Fifty years ago, another New York institution set a template for irreverent humor and short-form sketch comedy blasted to the TV masses.
“Saturday Night Live” was an attempt by young producer Lorne Michaels to prove there was “different stuff in New York” to air besides staid talk shows.
“What should we look for in your program?” Tom Snyder (one of those staid talk hosts) asked Michaels in a 1975 interview shortly before the series premiered on Oct. 11, 1975 (initially as “Saturday Night” to avoid confusion with “Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell”).
“Anxiety,” Michaels shot back.
A recent New Yorker profile of Michaels (excerpted from a new biography by Susan Morrison, an editor at the magazine) also notes that he keeps his staff focused on all 50 states as their faithful customers. In a very New Yorker line, it also says that Michaels’ intent with launching the series was catering to his generation weaned on TV: “He wanted to recapture this disaffected group by satirizing the way TV saturated people’s thinking and shrink-wrapped the culture.”
Saturation? Shrink-wrapped culture? Our 21st century, bloated with social media and a smartphone in every hand, boasts to the 20th century: Hold my beer.
On one hand, we have the New Yorker’s confidence in a common set of facts as overseen by dutiful gatekeepers of the printed word.
On the other, we have the “SNL” belief that almost nothing is sacrosanct from satire at the hands of insecure hooligan comedians plopped in front of cameras with their goofy costumes and an arsenal of impressions.
This is reductive, but looking back at the century of the New Yorker and 50 years of “SNL” almost feels like shorthand for our opposing poles on the cultural spectrum.
New Yorker: On one end, we have serious attention to detail—someday we’ll remember to revere good copyediting when AI grows into the role—and a belief in strong civic institutions to steer us. This view usually tries to be careful not to veer into snobbery about those rubes stranded in flyover country, where an “American Gothic” parody may be the closest they’ve gotten to the Met.
“SNL”: On the other end, the punchline is always the ultimate point—because this is a government of, by, and for the people, and nobody should be immune from becoming the butt of a joke. We slap together our artwork and throw it on air in too little time because that’s just more fun—of course!
To clarify, both institutions in their time also have grown up with America, gaining awareness and maturity in how they relate to social justice and a more inclusive society.
I still admit to revering both of these beautifully flawed and resilient brands. They feel like the necessary yin and yang of modern culture in the United States.
I grew up with “SNL.” My first cast was the late-1980s era with Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, etc. Watching Carvey and Mike Myers perform their sketches live in a theater in downtown Omaha remains an indelible childhood memory.
The New Yorker is one of my longest-running subscriptions—about 30 years and still going (in print).
“SNL” (drawing 5.3 million viewers for this year’s season premiere) arguably quickly overtook the New Yorker as the model better suited to the evolution of digital media.
Short videos that can be plastered everywhere.
Topical and timely political humor.
An incubator for launching stars onto other platforms.
The New Yorker remains a viable enterprise, to say the least (1.2 million paid subscribers), and has diversified into live events and podcasting. But its core product still relies on filling static pages with words in black and white. Its most pervasive humor remains hand-drawn cartoons of urbane wit.
So I love both, even though we may be skewing a little dangerously close to the “SNL” end of the spectrum where daily life—especially politics—better resembles a comedy sketch gone awry than a carefully crafted narrative.
But that’s the danger when we’ve wired ourselves to be more adept at swapping memes than turning pages to absorb complicated stories.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m no Luddite. This isn’t about ditching one institution for the other. This isn’t about blaming storytelling innovations (comic books, video games, sketch comedy, etc.) for ruining us. On the contrary, we shouldn’t deny ourselves the creative distractions that help us get through a long day—and occasionally offer up their own profound observations without quite so much pretense as the sober Manhattan gatekeepers.
I think many of us simply crave a bit more balance in this split personality of America represented by the New Yorker and “SNL.”
And despite what Ross outlined a century ago, I believe the old lady in Dubuque can enjoy a refined media and arts diet as much as any Upper East Side sophisticate.
This is not meant in disrespect—to Ross or Michaels or New Yorkers or Midwesterners or anybody.
It may be long since my turn, anyway, so feel free to make me the butt of your next joke.
The Iowa Writers Collaborative has grown to include more than 70 members and a Letters From Iowans column. Each member is an independent columnist who shares two things in common: They have made a living as a journalist or storyteller (or songwriter) and are interested in the state of Iowa. Subscribe to the main account for a convenient way to be notified each Sunday and Wednesday (the midweek “Flipside” edition) about most posts by most members. You can support individual members according to your unique interests by becoming a paid subscriber to any newsletter. We are also proud to be affiliated with Iowa Capital Dispatch, where some of our content is regularly republished.
Des Moines Metro
Chip Albright: Chip Happens, Des Moines
Rekha Basu: Shouts and Whispers, Des Moines
Kelsey Bigelow: There’s a Poem in That, Des Moines
Dartanyan L. Brown: My Integrated Life, Des Moines
Jane Burns: The Crossover, Des Moines
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Randy Evans: Stray Thoughts, Des Moines via Bloomfield
Christina Fernández-Morrow: Hola Iowa, Des Moines
Daniel P. Finney: Paragraph Stacker, Des Moines
Julie Gammack: Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Dennis Goldford: Let’s Talk Politics, Clive
Rob Gray: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny
Maxwell Schaeffer: Maxwell’s Voice, Ankeny
Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines
Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines
Kali White VanBaale: Mind the Gap, Bondurant
John Naughton: My Life in Color, Des Moines
North Central
Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
Fern Kupfer and Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Northwest
Chad Elliott: Iowa’s Renaissance Man, Jefferson
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Joan Zwagerman: Nuts and Bolts, Storm Lake
Nicole Baart: This Stays Here, Sioux Center
Taylor Decker: Taylor’s Millennial Mindset, Sioux City
Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji
David Thoreson: Northwest Passages, Okoboji
Douglas Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Calhoun County
Northeast
Hannah Breckbill: Humble Hands Harvest, Decorah
Kurtis Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader
Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
John Crabtree: Though the Heavens Fall, Oelwein
East
Nina Elkadi: Corn Belt Confidential, Iowa City
Chris Jones: The Swine Republic, Iowa City
Michael Judge: The First Person, Iowa City
Zachary Oren Smith: Cornhole Champions, Iowa City
Ty Rushing: Ty’s Take, Iowa City
Avery Gregurich: The Five and Dime, Marengo
Carol Montag: Monday’s Music, Cedar Rapids
Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids
Alison McGaughey: Out Here n the Fields, Davenport
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Tory Brecht: Brecht’s Beat, Quad Cities
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander's Emerging Voices: Emerging Voices, Kalona
Steve Semken: Ice Cube Press, LLC, North Liberty
Southwest
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Marianne Fons: Reporting From Quiltropolis, Winterset
Vicki Minor: Relatively Minor, Winterset
Jason Walsmith: The Racontourist, Earlham
Sarah Scull: The Piecemaker, Creston
Kathryn Severing Fox: Creston
South Central
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilia
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative, Norwalk
Iowa at large
Iowa Writers Collaborative: Roundup
Hola Iowa: Iowa
Black Iowa News (Dana James): Black Iowa News
Letters From Iowans: Letters From Iowans
Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Iowa
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Alliance with IWC
Out of state
Romen Borsellino: Romen Borsellino, Hollywood, CA
Phoebe Wall Howard: Shifting Gears, Detroit, MI
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Chris Gloninger: Weathering Climate Change, U.S.
Love this!