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{{short description|American cartoonist|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Infobox writer 
| image = Matthew Diffee 2015.jpg
| imagesize =
| name = Matthew Diffee
| caption = Diffee at the 2015 Texas Book Festival
| pseudonym =
| birth_date = 
| birth_place = Denton, Texas
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = [[Cartoonist]]
| nationality = American
| period =
| genre =
| movement =
| notableworks =
| influences =
| influenced =
| website = {{URL|http://www.matthewdiffee.com}}
}}

'''Matthew''' "'''Matt'''" '''Diffee''' is an American cartoonist whose works appear in the [[The New Yorker|New Yorker]] magazine.

==Biography==
Diffee was born in [[Denton, Texas]]{{citation needed|date=July 2019}} and grew up in Texas and North Carolina. The son of an airline pilot, he attended [[Bob Jones University]], planning to become a Christian missionary. While at Bob Jones, he co-founded a [[comedy troupe]], the Leaping Pickes, whose motto was, "We put the fun in [[fundamentalism]]." Diffee's role in the group involved telling jokes, juggling and playing the banjo.<ref name=nyt>{{cite news |last1=St. John |first1=Warren |date=2 May 2004 |title=Sex With Einstein? Yes, in the New Yorker |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/style/sex-with-einstein-yes-in-the-new-yorker.html |website=[[The New York Times]] |accessdate=16 July 2019}}</ref>

He has a background in art and stand-up comedy, which he still performs from time to time. As a struggling artist, he took various day jobs, including road work, construction, and as a convenience store cashier.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

Diffee moved from Boston, Massachusetts to New York and began contributing to the ''New Yorker'' in 1999, after winning a cartoon contest the magazine and the Algonquin Hotel sponsored for an all-cartoon issue, in the process meeting Robert Mankoff, the cartoon editor, in person.<ref name=bio>{{cite news|publisher=ontheinside dot info|url=http://ontheinside.info/author/matthew-diffee/|title=Cartoonist Matthew Diffee|access-date=2008-08-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915044456/http://ontheinside.info/author/matthew-diffee/|archive-date=2008-09-15|url-status=dead}}</ref> Mankoff encouraged Diffee to contribute to the magazine. After three weeks of submission Mankoff chose one cartoon, which became Diffee's first published work. For the next year Diffee submitted fifteen cartoons per week; the magazine published a total of four.<ref name=bio/> The next year Diffee sold eight cartoons to the magazine,<ref name=post>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/23/AR2006122300893_pf.html|newspaper = [[Washington Post]] |title=Very Fine Lines:What Makes a Cartoon New Yorker-Worthy? Draw Your Own Conclusion.|author=Peter Carlson|date=2006-12-24}}</ref> each at the standard rate of $675. He remains a devout Christian, not consuming alcohol and refusing to draw cartoons about sex.<ref name=nyt/>

Diffee's first book, ''The Rejection Collection'', was a compilation of cartoons by various artists that had been rejected from the magazine along with questionnaires and portraits of each artist. In an interview he noted that 90% of even a successful freelance cartoonist's works are rejected, and that most cartoonists are known only for their work, not their personal lives.<ref name=bio/> Many rejected cartoons are good, he explained, but inappropriate for the magazine because they are [[political correctness|politically incorrect]] or sexually suggestive: "...the idea that the cartoonist did it, and actually pitched it to the New Yorker, makes it even funnier to me, like ‘what were they thinking’?"<ref name=bio/> As of the book's publication, the magazine had published more than 100 of Diffee's cartoons, a significant accomplishment for a young cartoonist.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-diffee/|publisher = [[Huffington Post]] |title=Matthew Diffee}}</ref><ref name=bc>{{cite web|url=http://beavercreek.snow.com/info/winter/wa.humor.mattdiffee.asp |publisher=Beaver Creek Ski Resort |title=Matt Diffee |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724223013/http://beavercreek.snow.com/info/winter/wa.humor.mattdiffee.asp |archivedate=July 24, 2008 }}</ref>
[[File:Matt Diffee presenting at the Cusp Conference, Chicago IL September 2011.jpg|thumb|left|Matt Diffee presenting at Cusp Conference 2011, Chicago, Illinois]]

==Works==
His works are mostly single-panel satirical pieces.

Diffee also produces other artwork, and has hosted "The Rejection Show", a monthly off-Broadway production devoted to rejected works by successful artists.<ref name=bc/> He plays [[banjo]] and [[fiddle]], and recently won a race in the sport of [[joggling]] (juggling while running), for which he will appear in an upcoming documentary.<ref name=bc/><ref name=nyt1>{{cite news|work= [[New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/fashion/02TOON.html?ei=5007&en=472a62a3b73d9959&ex=1398830400&partner=USERLAND&pagewanted=print&position=|title=Sex With Einstein? Yes, in The New Yorker|date=2004-05-02|author=Warren St. John | archivedate = 2013-12-31 | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20131231110655/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/style/sex-with-einstein-yes-in-the-new-yorker.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm | url-status = live }}</ref>

He currently hosts The Steam Powered Hour, a "smart and cozy night of bluegrass music, standup comedy, and cartoons."

==Publications==
*{{cite book|title=The Rejection Collection: Cartoons You Never Saw, and Never Will See, in The New Yorker|author=Matthew Diffee|isbn=1-4169-3339-5|date=2006-10-03|publisher=Simon Spotlight Entertainment}}
*{{cite book|title=The Rejection Collection Vol. 2: The Cream of the Crap|author=Matthew Diffee|isbn=978-1-4169-3401-1|date=2007-10-30|publisher=Simon Spotlight Entertainment}}
*{{cite book|title=Hand Drawn Jokes for Smart Attractive People|author=Matthew Diffee|isbn=978-1-4767-4874-0|date=2015|publisher=Scribner}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.matthewdiffee.com www.matthewdiffee.com] - official site (links to Myspace page)
*[http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/asmussen/archive/ San Francisco Chronicle archive of works]
*[http://www.thenewyorkerstore.com/product_details.asp?sitetype=1&did=4&sid=69210&pid= New Yorker Store]{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} - "classic" cartoon of Che Guevara with Bart Simpson tee-shirt

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diffee, Matthew}}
[[Category:American humorists]]
[[Category:American magazine cartoonists]]
[[Category:American satirists]]
[[Category:American banjoists]]
[[Category:American comedy musicians]]
[[Category:American satirical musicians]]
[[Category:21st-century American fiddlers]]
[[Category:Artists from Boston]]
[[Category:People from Denton, Texas]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:The New Yorker cartoonists]]
[[Category:Comedians from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Comedians from Texas]]
[[Category:Jogglers]]

Matthew Diffee - Revision history

imported>Kjell Knudde: Added more categories.