Tuesday Spill: An “It’s For You” Update

Apr 21, 2026

An “It’s For You” Update

The last time I updated the number of New Yorker drawings captioned, “It’s for you” was 2024 (I’ve reposted that piece below, and updated it). At that time six of the eleven drawings in the magazine’s archive that carried the caption, “It’s for you” were my doing. With this week’s issue of The New Yorker the number is now seven out a dozen. I’m inclined to say seven-and-a-half as a recent Cartoon Caption Contest drawing (a wave at the door) was originally captioned, “It’s for you.”

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The post below originally appeared on this site, August 27, 2019. It was edited and updated July 29, 2024, and most recently edited and updated today, April 21, 2026.

Personal History: “It’s For You”

According to a quick run through of The New Yorker‘s archives, there have been at least a dozen cartoons published in its history with this exact caption: “It’s for you.” The earliest belongs to Richard Taylor (it appeared in the issue of March 8, 1941). For whatever reason, the other seven (or seven-and-a-half) of twelve are my responsibility. The first, shown at the top of this post appeared in The New Yorker issue of October 10, 1983. The next five: July 12, 2010 (clown and pie); December 3, 2012 (clown and banana peel); August 4, 2008 (fish and hook); June 24, 2019 (peacocks); August 5, 2024 (Olympic torch bearer.).

As you’ll see below, clowns appear twice, but otherwise the drawings have nothing much in common except the caption and the cartoonist.

One might think (and I’ve wondered it myself) if I’ve returned over the years to this caption because it’s been good to me. The answer is: mostly no. Obviously, I have returned to it, but not on purpose. All of these ideas came to me, as ideas always do, unexpectedly, in a great rush, and outta the blue.