Joel Pett
Pulitzer Prize Winning Cartoonist, Political Satirist

PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING EDITORIAL CARTOONIST

Joel Pett, winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, has been the editorial cartoonist at the Lexington Herald-Leader since 1984.

Joel Pett’s cartoons have appeared in hundreds of newspapers and magazines nationwide, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Daily News, The Boston Globe, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times, George, Business Week, Ms. and Discover.

Having observed life in more than 25 countries, from his boyhood home in Nigeria, down the Amazon, to Red Square, Tiananmen Square and beyond, Pett sums up his philosophy simply: “Hello, God? Listen, we could use some help down here.”

In addition to winning the Pulitzer, Pett is the 1995 winner of the Global Media Award for cartoons on population issues. He has served as president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.

Pett’s cartoon collections are available in four paperback collections, the latest being “Just Don’t Inhale.” Joel Pett is proudest of a college intramural golf title and of shutting out a Kentucky basketball player in a game of HORSE. His list of embarrassments is endless.

An evening with Joel Pett is just what you’d expect from a Pulitzer Prize-winning political satirist: thought-provoking, irreverent, surprising and hilariously entertaining!

Pett takes you on a caricature trip through recent history, deftly penning every president since Nixon, adding his own brand of slash-and-burn color commentary to each. His slide-show sampling of journalistic bloopers and blunders never fails to leave audiences in stitches.

Like all good editorial cartoonists, though, all is not for yuks. Pett closes the show with a powerful mixture of his searing and amusing images, aimed at his favorite targets: the greedy, the short-sighted, the powerful, the corrupt, anyone who, as he says, “should know better.”

Fortunately, Pett adds just enough self-deprecating humor to his programs to keep him from bodily harm. It’s a presentation that’s appropriate for virtually any audience, except the self-important and the humorless. They can always talk to each other.