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{{short description|Single-panel cartoon}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2022}}
{{Comics navbar|title=Gag cartoon}}
A '''gag cartoon''' (also '''panel cartoon''', '''single-panel cartoon''', or '''gag panel''') is most often a single-[[Panel (comics)|panel]] [[cartoon]], usually including a caption beneath the drawing. In some cases, dialogue may appear in [[speech balloon]]s, following the common convention of [[comic strip]]s. A pantomime cartoon carries no caption (see also: [[pantomime comics]]).

As the name implies&mdash;"[[wikt:gag|gag]]" being a show business term for a comedic idea&mdash;these cartoons are most often intended to provoke laughter. Popular magazines that have featured gag cartoons include ''[[Punch magazine|Punch]]'', ''[[The New Yorker]]'' and ''[[Playboy]]''. Some publications, such as ''[[Humorama]]'', have used cartoons as the main focus of the magazine, rather than articles and fiction.

==Captions==
Captions are usually concise, to fit on a single line. Gag cartoons of the 1930s and earlier occasionally had lengthy captions, sometimes featuring dialogue between two characters depicted in the drawing; over time, cartoon captions became shorter. {{cn|date=July 2019}}

==Media==
In the mid-1950s, gag cartoonists found a new market with the introduction of highly popular [[studio cards]] in college bookstores. Single-panel cartoons have been published on various products, such as coffee mugs and cocktail napkins.

Traditionally, newspapers and magazines printed cartoons in black and white, but this changed in the 1950s when ''[[Playboy]]'' began to feature full-page, full-color cartoons in every issue.

There are numerous collections of cartoons in both paperback and hardcover, notably ''The New Yorker'' collections.
From 1942 to 1971, the cartoonist-novelist Lawrence Lariar edited the annual ''Best Cartoons of the Year'' collections.<ref>[http://www.pbase.com/csw62/lariar Lawrence Lariar]</ref>

==Notable gag cartoons==
A well-known 1928 cartoon in ''[[The New Yorker]]'', drawn by [[Carl Rose (cartoonist)|Carl Rose]] and captioned by [[E. B. White]], shows a mother trying to convince her young daughter to finish her meal. "It's broccoli, dear."  "[[I say it's spinach]] and I say the hell with it", which have created an [[idiom]] in English language.

Cartoonist [[Charles Addams]] drew his first gag cartoon for ''[[The New Yorker]]'' in 1932, and in 1937 started inventing a set of macabre characters which came to be known as ''The Addams Family''. This was turned into a [[The Addams Family (1964 TV series)|1960s television series]] which ran for two years, in an agreement in which Addams gave his characters names and more developed characteristics.

Cartoonist [[Ted Key]] created a gag panel about a bossy maid named [[Hazel (comics)|''Hazel'']] for ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'' in 1943. This also was made into a [[Hazel (TV series)|1960s television series]], which ran for five years.

==Notable gag cartoonists==
{{colbegin}}
*[[Charles Addams]]
*[[Peter Arno]]
*[[George Booth (cartoonist)|George Booth]]
*[[Roz Chast]]
*[[George Clark (cartoonist)|George Clark]]
*[[Sam Cobean]]
*[[George Gately]]
*[[Sam Gross]]
*[[Ted Key]]
*[[Gary Larson]]
*[[R. K. Laxman]]
*[[George Lichty]]
*[[Lorin Morgan-Richards]]
*[[Virgil Partch]] (a.k.a. VIP)
*[[Dan Piraro]]
*[[George Price (New Yorker cartoonist)|George Price]]
*[[Ronald Searle]]
*[[Jean-Jacques Sempé]]
*[[James Thurber]]
*[[Marvin Townsend]]
*[[Kim Warp]]
*[[Gluyas Williams]]
*[[Gahan Wilson]]
*[[Tom Wilson (cartoonist)|Tom Wilson]]{{colend}}

==Popular setups==
There are some well-established setups used regularly in gag cartoons.
*[[Desert island joke]]s: marooned on a [[desert island]]. In earlier cartoons the island was quite large, with a shipwreck shown, to deliver the setup of the narrative. Eventually the setup has shrunk to an iconic image of a sand heap with a palm in the middle.<ref>[https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/05/history-of-the-desert-island-cartoon "A Guy, a Palm Tree, and a Desert Island: The Cartoon Genre That Just Won’t Die"], ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' (retrieved January 8, 2018)</ref> 
*[[Talking animals in fiction|Talking animal]]s
* Therapist's couch<ref>[https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/cartoon-desk/cartoons-about-therapy-from-the-past-century-well-almost "Cartoons About Therapy from the Past Century (Well, Almost)"], ''[[The New Yorker]]'' (retrieved August 31, 2023)</ref>

==See also==
*{{portal-inline|Comics}}
*{{portal-inline|Cartoon}}
*[[Daily strip]]
*[[Editorial cartoon]]
*[[Gag-a-day]]
*[[Humor comics]]
*[[List of cartoonists]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Cartooning]]
[[Category:Comics genres]]
[[Category:Comics terminology]]


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