Conde Nast dumps ‘notoriously unfunny’ New Yorker satire columnist Andy Borowitz
New Yorker satirist Andy Borowitz has written his last “notoriously unfunny” column for the high-brow glossy — leading to a collective cheer from his many detractors.
The satirist — who has written for the magazine for 25 years, including his oft-panned Borowitz Report column — was ousted as part of broader budget cuts by parent company Condé Nast.
Borowitz, 65, confirmed his exit Wednesday with a post on Facebook.
“IF I MAY BE SERIOUS: Because of its financial difficulties, The New Yorker has been forced to cut costs. As a result, it has decided to stop publishing The Borowitz Report” he wrote.
While some fans lamented Borowitz’s exit, others took to X, formerly Twitter, to jeer the writer, who often lampooned Republicans, especially Donald Trump.
“Hate to see layoffs (unless it’s Andy Borowitz),” wrote one user.
“Andy Borowitz was always the perfect person to read if you wanted to study writing with the structure of a joke without any danger that you might laugh,” a user added.
“I will pay one million dollars for an accurate description of an Andy Borowitz fan. Who are these people!!!,” another said.
The Daily Beast, which first broke the news of Borowitz’s exit on Monday, called the columnist “notoriously unfunny,” noting that his “fake-news sendups once accounted for mondo traffic” for the New Yorker’s website.
The Beast wasn’t the only media outlet to jab at the milquetoast humor of Borowitz, whose career hit a high note when he created the hit sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
“Andy Borowitz makes dad jokes for self-satisfied liberals,” Salon wrote in 2012. “If you think Sarah Palin is stupid and Mitt Romney is rich, Andy Borowitz has some jokes that will decidedly not challenge a single one of your prior assumptions!”
The outlet mocked Borowitz for his unending litany of cheesy knee-slappers, such as his 2008 Barack Obama joke: “Last night my wife said we can’t have sex and I said Yes We Can.”
In 2019, The Willamette Week also ripped Borowitz in a piece entitled “Andy Borowitz must be stopped” by Corbin Smith.
“Everything he publishes is the most obvious kind of observation—butter-knife dull, liberal-establishment hokum for people who are either unimaginably shallow or have literally never encountered a joke before,” Smith wrote.
Smith provided the following example of a Borowitz headline: “Trump Offers to Station Pence at Border with Binoculars in Lieu of Wall.” The jokey headline is of course “accompanied by that stupid picture of Mike Pence standing on top of that wall and staring at North Korea,” Smith added.
Borowitz’s cheeky final pieces for the New Yorker included “George Santos to Spend More Time with Imaginary Family,” “Ivanka Unable to Remember Name of Her Father” and “Clarence Thomas Collapses from Exhaustion After First Full Day of Regulating Himself.”
Borowitz began writing for The New Yorker in 1998 and launched his satirical news column, The Borowitz Report, in 2001. His column was acquired by The New Yorker in 2012.
In addition to Borowitz’s exit, The Daily Beast also reported a smattering of other New Yorker departures, including staff writers Sue Halpern and Carolyn Kormann, culture editor Michael Agger, and a handful of video, copy desk and social media staffers.
A rep for the New Yorker declined to comment on cuts.
The layoffs come as Condé Nast said last month that it would slash as many as 300 employees, representing 5% of total headcount.
News of the cuts have sparked anger in the halls of Condé, which also publishes Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ, as unionized employees have demanded transparency from CEO Roger Lynch about the company’s future via a petition signed by over 350 members.
Staffers, who are unionized through the NewsGuild of New York, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday, accusing the publisher of unfair labor practices, after they were met by security guards last month when trying to obtain information from management about job cuts.
“It is unfortunate that The New Yorker is canceling Borowitz’s column and using the guise of unspecified ‘financial difficulties’ as justification,” Susan DeCarava, President of the NewsGuild of New York, told The Post on Wednesday.
“Condé Nast executives have steadfastly refused to provide our members with a legitimate rationale for slashing the workforce by 5%. Management needs to stop hiding behind vague corporate-speak for their proposed cutbacks and start providing some real answers.”
A rep for Condé Nast refuted the union’s claims.
“We fully respect our employees’ right to organize and have repeatedly attempted to bargain with the union in good faith about a proposal made over a month ago. They have yet to respond,” the spokesperson told The Post.
