Funny Times (newspaper)

American monthly humor paper founded 1985

Funny Times (FT) is an American humor newspaper founded in 1985, and still published as of 2023, by the wife and husband team of Susan Wolpert and Raymond Lesser. Wolpert and Lesser were inspired by The Comic News of Santa Cruz, California, "a monthly journal of progressive editorial cartoons" founded in 1984 by Thom Zajac. FT political content is often subversive and has a progressive/liberal perspective. In 1997, Sandee Beyerle came across the office of Funny Times while trying to escape inclement weather. She became managing editor,

In 2002, Funny Times published the book Funny Times: The Best of The Best of American Humor: The Funniest Cartoons, Columns, and Essays from the Funny Times Newspaper (Three Rivers Press, ). From January 2007 to September 2013, the Funny Times website featured the "Cartoon Playground", in which anyone with Internet access could create and instantly post their own comic strips using artwork drawn by Matt Wuerker. Some of the more frequent contributors to the Playground Cartoon section included individuals going by such names as: CIAgent, Claustrophobic, cta, Danger Dan, Demosfoni, Ducky, Earthmuffin, Elephant Man, Ellie May, Eric Per1in, Fracturedfish, Hal, Just Bean, Konrad Schwoerke, Lo Bottomy, Mr Smartypants, Queen Bean, Rick Dickulous, Sophie, Yankees with Hope, and Zack. These people communicated with each other using cartoons, turning the 'Cartoon Playground' into somewhat of a social networking site. Some reader created cartoons were, for a while, featured in the monthly print edition. As of 2020, for several years the Funny Times website has featured the "Cartoon of the Week", which is also emailed weekly to subscribers.