Post Office Clears 'Poonsters' Second 'New Yorker' Parody

Clambering safely out of a running battle with Uncle Sam's Post Office department, Bow Street's busy 'Poonsters will trundle to the stands today with their latest parody, a living replica of The New Yorker.

The bogus edition features a cover by "Birmbarn" and cartoons by other artists with names and styles resembling those in the New Yorker. Regular New Yorker departments are ribbed throughout.

Lampy moguls scheduled the parody several months ago as another in its annual spring series. When the issue rolled off the press the postal authorities complained that the cover made the magazine "look too much like the real New Yorker, and might take advantage of innocent purchasers."

Strings Detached

String-pulling in Washington and Oregon ended the threat to the Toon's use of the mails as swiftly as it had begun, however, when "Big Bob" Handyman, postman, succumbed to an attack from a winged fleet of Ibismen.

This is the second time around the Bow Street della for the metropolitan weekly. It last achieved the doubtful distinction of a Poon parody in 1939, when the issue went through four fast editions to become a collector's item.

Last year the funnymen turned out a duplicate of Newsweek. It was the first mimicry accomplishment since the war had sent the Lampoon into "reprint issue" doldrums, forcing curtailment of all parody efforts.

Only a limited number of New Yorker parodies have been printed, but 'Poon officials stand ready to bring out extra issues if the demand exceeds the supply.