Some of the best jokes hide in plain sight: a backyard barbecue, a therapy session, a quiet morning in front of the bathroom mirror. Memphis-based artist Eric Clausen, who signs his work simply 'Eric C.', has a knack for finding them. His cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker and Art in America, and they take ordinary scenes and tilt them just far enough to become wonderfully absurd.
Clausen's path to the single panel is anything but ordinary. For his project Drawing America by Bike, he spent a year cycling back and forth across the country, recording what he saw through drawings and audio. That habit of close observation runs through his cartoons, where loose ink lines and soft washes of gray set up punchlines built on wordplay, twisted idioms, and quietly surreal visuals.
Below, we've gathered a selection of the newest cartoons, where relationships, anxiety, office life, and the general weirdness of being human all become material for a clever punchline. Take a look, enjoy the absurdity, and see how many of these jokes catch you off guard.
