Laugh Lines

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Put six New Yorker cartoons in the order they were first published.

Play Laugh Lines

on newyorker.com

Laugh Lines art: six New Yorker cartoon cards fanned out in a row on a pale lilac background, the cartoons the game asks you to put in date order

Laugh Lines is a cartoon history game from The New Yorker. Each day you get six cartoons from the magazine's archive, spanning decades, and arrange them on a time line in the order they first ran. It began as a weekly game for the magazine's centenary and now has a dated puzzle every day.

About Laugh Lines

Laugh Lines is a time line game made from The New Yorker's cartoon archive. The magazine launched it in December 2024, around its Cartoons and Puzzles issue, as a weekly game for its hundredth year. The numbered weekly editions, each on a theme such as birds or desert islands, have since been joined by a dated puzzle every day.

Each puzzle shows six cartoons, with their captions and the cartoonist's name. A set can run from the late 1920s to the last few years. Your job is to place them in the order they were first published, using whatever the drawing gives away: clothes, technology, the joke's target, the style of the line. When you submit, the game shows the year each one ran.

It is a quick game, a few minutes a day, and part of the fun is the cartoons themselves. It suits anyone who likes Chronle and the other order-the-events dailies but would rather read jokes than dates, and readers who enjoy the history of the magazine's humour.

The New Yorker has said the last week of puzzles is free to play, while older ones in its archive need a subscription.

How to play Laugh Lines

Open the day's Laugh Lines puzzle on The New Yorker's puzzles and games page.
Look at the six cartoons and read their captions and bylines.
Drag the cartoons along the time line, earliest on the left, latest on the right.
Submit your order to see which places are right and the year each cartoon first ran.
Share your result, or go back to one of the numbered themed editions.

Tips

Look at the technology in the drawing: telephones, televisions, cars and computers date a cartoon fast.
Fashion and hairstyles help; hats on every man usually means an early cartoon.
Cartoonists have eras; if you know when a name was drawing for the magazine, you can place their panel.
Fine cross-hatched pen and wash tends to be older than loose, bright, digital colour.