Joke in a Box: How to Write and Draw Jokes out now! Click here to order!

Hi there. I'm Emily. I'm a cartoonist-writer-comic-teacher-illustrator. I like hyphens, apparently.

I live in Brooklyn, NY, with my husband, our daughter, and an absurdly large cat.

I make cartoons and write for The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, the New York Times, the Wall St. Journal, and many other publications. I had a weekly strip called Lulu Eightball that carried the jokes that are too vulgar for grown-up publications and too racy for MAD, back when alt-weeklies were strong and we were young. I created backdrop illustrations for the hit Broadway show All In. I’m the author of several books, most recently Joke in a Box: How to Write and Draw Jokes (Andrews McMeel, 2023).

I am a member of the WGA East and wrote on this series directed by Steven Soderbergh.

I run a monthly stand-up show called FDK at Young Ethel’s in Brooklyn, and I’ve performed at the Bell House, Symphony Space, Union Hall, QED, and many other places, from the fancy to the hopelessly vile.

I am also the proprietress of St. Nell’s Humor Writing Residency in Williamsport, PA. I was a Yaddo fellow in 2025 and that makes me feel very fancy.

I teach a grad seminar called Drawing for Writers at the New School, and workshops all over.

The links on this site will tell you more about all of this, as well as how to get in touch with me (to write, draw, say things into a mic, get my recs for making pie crust, etc), which I hope you do.

Courage,

Emily