Sunday Mailbag- Hey, you look like…

Q: During your time as a live caricaturist, have you ever drawn a person who looked like a famous person? And did you use this similarity in your caricature?

A: I honestly can’t think of any specific examples of that, but I’m sure it happened. My standard gag would have been a pin/button on their chest saying “President of the So-and-So Look Alike Society”, or in the case of them looking like a teen heartthrob I’d have some pimply girl or boy in the background looking lovestruck at them with a “I <3 So-and-So” T-shirt. High brow humor, that.

What would happen more often is that those watching the drawing from behind me would claim the caricature looked like a certain celebrity, even if the subject has barely any resemblance to that celebrity. I think that phenomenon is rooted in the fact that the public sees caricatures of celebrities all the time in media, and they associate them with certain stereotyped exaggerations. Every skinny white guy with big lips automatically looks like Mick Jagger or Steven Tyler. Anyone with a long, ski-slope nose looks like Nixon. Ect. Etc.

Thanks to Dominick Zeillinger for the question(s). If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!