The best of the rejection collection: 293 cartoons that were too dumb, too dark, or too naughty for the New Yorker

Rescued from the New Yorker’s rejection pile, the cartoons collected here offer an inside look at the jokes its editors would rather keep to themselves.

Too edgy, raunchy, or outrageous for one of the world’s most esteemed magazines, The Best of the Rejection Collection brings together some of the funniest and most original work by the New Yorker’s brightest talents—Roz Chast, Gahan Wilson, Sam Gross, Jack Ziegler, David Sipress, and more. Here you’ll discover their other sides: dark, juvenile, naughty, sick, or just plain weird.

And what a treat. Ventriloquist dummy cartoons. Operating room cartoons. Bring your daughter to work day cartoons (the stripper; the death row prison guard). Lots of couples in bed, quite a few coffins, wise-cracking animals—and zero restraint.

“The submissions were not set aside because they were not funny but (for the most part) because they were too funny.” —The New York Times, on The Best of the Rejection Collection