It's not often that the New Yorker makes a penis joke, let alone puts one on the cover (that's not "New Yorker humor," as the cartoon editor recently explained in a TED talk), but the magazine's new cover illustration featuring Anthony Weiner as King Kong, photographing the phallus of the Empire State Building between his legs, is brilliant.
It's funny, without being crass, and cleverly conveys his position -- cornered and driven up a tree by animalistic urges as he holds New York City hostage and the world closes in. Meanwhile, he seems oblivious to all of it, focusing on getting his smartphone pic just right. And coming on the heels of the magazine's wildly popular Boston Marathon bombing cover, it goes to show that magazine covers can cause a splash with without trolling.
You'd think the "Carlos Danger" saga would be manna from heaven for New York's infamous tabloids, but many have been disappointed, especially by the New York Post's uncharacteristically restrained cover from Wednesday, the day after the scandal broke. "You’d sort of assume that a new Anthony Weiner sexting scandal would cause the New York Post to scramble its jets," Poynter noted, adding that the cover was "remarkably low-key by Post standards."
And today's, featuring a semi-nude photo of the woman with whom Weiner had an online relationship, feels tasteless, shifting attention and ridicule to the woman and away from Weiner:
But today's New York Daily News cover has elicited plenty of chuckles and been widely praised on Twitter:
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