The Books: The Fun of It: Stories from The Talk of the Town, edited by Lillian Ross; ‘Taxi Jokes’, by Mark Singer

Next up on the essays shelf:

The Fun of It: Stories from The Talk of the Town (Modern Library Paperbacks), edited by Lillian Ross

The Fun of It: Stories from The Talk of the Town (Modern Library Paperbacks) is a collection of “The Talk of the Town” pieces in The New Yorker, grouped by decade, which is a lot of fun because you can see how the “voice” of the magazine developed, and how “The Talk of the Town” has grown and changed over the years.

Although many “Talk of the Town” pieces have to do with famous people, notable celebrities doing something interesting in the New York area, there are also pieces that have nothing to do with famous people. The point of the “Talk of the Town” is to give small slivers of glimpses into certain sub-cultures in New York. They are meant to be “in-miniature”. A couple of features that were ongoing over the years were letters from someone referred to as “the long-winded lady”, and her letters would be posted periodically in all their gossipy fascination. If something like a Gourmet Food Show is happening, a New Yorker person will visit, and find an interesting unique “way in” to the event. Put all together, you get a great sense of the bustling craziness, all the shit going on in this gorgeous and intimidating metropolis. Sure, famous people hang out here, and visit here, and tour here, but the “Talk of the Town” always had a wider scope than just reporting on the lives of the rich and famous.

The following piece is from 1977 and is by Mark Singer. He opens with a confession that he has let his subscription to the magazine Taxi Drivers Voice slide, and he misses it, because it is one of the best ways to put “your finger on the pulse” of New York. Taxi Drivers Voice is the magazine for the Local 3036 Taxi Drivers Union, and deals with all things Yellow Cab. Singer mentions he picked up a copy and came across an op-ed column about “taxi driver jokes”. The op-ed columnist, a taxi driver himself, of course, said that yes, comedians love to make jokes about taxi drivers, but we should try to have a good sense of humor about it and not take it personally. Singer says that reading the op-ed column made him think that taxi drivers see themselves as “an oppressed minority”, which is hysterical. Singer then thinks to himself about all of the “taxi driver jokes” he knows, and realizes that … Huh. I don’t know any taxi driver jokes. Is there a surplus of jokes about taxi drivers of which he is wholly unaware? How could that be??

Singer then goes to visit the Local 3036 headquarters to speak to Ben Goldberg, who is the president of Local 3036 and editor of the Taxi Drivers Voice, to get some clarification. Singer basically wants to hear some “taxi driver jokes”. As Singer sits in Ben Goldberg’s office, Goldberg’s son Larry comes in. Larry is also a reporter for Taxi Drivers Voice, also a cab driver, who does a stand-up routine at comedy clubs on the side. Singer asks him about his routine, hoping to hear about all the jokes about taxi drivers, but no, Larry tells him he mainly jokes about “dieting and television commercials”.

Singer keeps asking questions along the lines of: “Tell me a joke told on television lately by Johnny Carson about taxi drivers that may have ruffled some feathers?” Nobody can come up with one. Larry Goldberg comes up with one, but it’s not a joke about taxi drivers, as Mark Singer points out to Larry, it’s actually a riddle involving a tow-truck.

The piece is very funny, and is representative of what “Talk of the Town” does best: mini sketches of interesting people, direct quotes, and a light hilarious tone. Keep it light. Don’t pontificate. Not the point here. The point here is to give the readers a glimpse into an interesting world, and do it in only 6 paragraphs.

So while it is true that “taxi driver jokes” may not be as big a deal as that op-ed columnist seemed to think (nobody can even come up with a proper “taxi joke”), a couple of the cab drivers in the office enter into the conversation and start telling funny stories about some of their fares, and finally, finally, one of them tells a joke that is ABOUT a taxi driver. And it made me laugh out loud.

It’s purely local humor. If you don’t live in New York, you might not get why the punchline is funny.

But that’s the way it goes. This is in The New Yorker after all.

Anyone who has ever tried to get a Manhattan-borough cab go to Brooklyn, or, God forbid, New Jersey, will understand!

Good stuff. Here’s an excerpt, where people start regaling Mark Singer with funny stories on the job (but not, strictly speaking, “taxi jokes”).

The Fun of It: Stories from The Talk of the Town (Modern Library Paperbacks), edited by Lillian Ross; ‘Taxi Jokes’, by Mark Singer

“O.K., then, I’ve got one,” said Ben Goldberg, who had come in and taken a seat on the couch. “I don’t know if you’d call this a joke, but it’s a true story that once happened to me in Brooklyn. I picked up a guy at the corner of Marcy Avenue and Broadway, and I heard him say, ‘Keep on Broadway.’ So I’m driving and driving, and all the way he’s saying what sounds like ‘Keep on Broadway. Keep on Broadway.’ Finally, we get to the end of Broadway, where it runs into Fulton Street, and I turn to him and say, ‘Now which way?’ And the passenger says he wants out at Keap on Broadway – so I realized that all along he really meant Keap Street on Broadway, but I thought he’d been telling me to keep going on Broadway. Get it?”

As Mr. Goldberg finished recounting this incident, a retired driver named Howard Richman appeared in the office with a question about some union matter. ‘Hey, Howie,’ said Mr. Goldberg, “you know any taxi-driver jokes?”

Mr. Richman did not. However, he did summon up a story in the Keap-on-Broadway vein, about a young couple who wanted to be driven to a Manhattan night club but were taken instead to a garbage dump in Astoria, Queens. “What they wanted was some joint called The City Dumb, but I gave ’em the city dump. See, I take everything literally. Ya got that?” Mr. Richman was literally convulsed with laughter.

Next, the Goldbergs, junior and senior, gave us a guided tour of the union offices, and along the way we met another retired driver, a man named Harry Hoffman.

“I got one,” said Mr. Hoffman. “A guy gets into a taxi on Park Avenue and says to the driver he wants to go to London. The driver says, ‘Are you kidding?’ The passenger says, ‘No. Just drive over to the pier. We’ll get on the Queen Mary. You keep the meter running the whole time. I’ll pay you.’ So they get on the boat and cross the Atlantic and they land in England and get off the boat and drive to London, and the passenger pays him and leaves a big tip. Now the driver realizes that he’s got to get back to New York the same he came over. So he’s driving through London on his way to catch a boat, and a guy flags him down and asks for a lift. The driver says he’s going to the United States. The guy says, ‘Terrific, that’s where I wanna go. Do you happen to know where Flatbush Avenue is?’ And the cabby says, ‘Sorry, Mister, but I can’t take you. I don’t go to Brooklyn.'”