''Spy'' was a

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

monthly magazine published from 1986 to 1998. Based in New York City, the magazine was founded by

Kurt Andersen Kurt Andersen (born August 22, 1954) is an American writer and was the host of the Peabody-winning public radio program ''Studio 360'', a production of Public Radio International, ''Slate'', and WNYC. Early life and education Andersen was bo ...

and E. Graydon Carter, who served as its first editors, and Thomas L. Phillips Jr., its first publisher. ''Spy'' specialized in irreverent and satirical pieces targeting the American media and entertainment industries and mocking high society.

Overview

Some of its features attempted to present the darker side of celebrities such as

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...

John F. Kennedy Jr. John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (November 25, 1960 – July 16, 1999), often referred to as John-John or JFK Jr., was an American lawyer, journalist, and magazine publisher. He was a son of the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kenn ...

Steven Seagal Steven Frederic Seagal (; born April 10, 1952) is an American actor, screenwriter and martial artist. A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, he began his adult life as a martial arts instructor in Japan and eventually ended up running his father-in-l ...

Martha Stewart Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing pub ...

, and especially the real-estate tycoon

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

and his then-wife

Ivana Trump Ivana Marie Trump (, ; February 20, 1949 – July 14, 2022) was a Czech-American businesswoman, media personality, socialite, fashion designer, author, and model. Ivana lived in Canada in the 1970s before relocating to the United States and m ...

. Pejorative epithets of celebrities, such as " Abe 'I'm Writing As Bad As I Can' Rosenthal", "short-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump", "churlish dwarf billionaire

Laurence Tisch Laurence Alan Tisch (March 5, 1923 – November 15, 2003) was an American businessman, investor and billionaire. He was the CEO of CBS television network from 1986 to 1995. With his brother Bob Tisch, he was part owner of Loews Corporation. ...

", "antique Republican pen-holder Bob Dole", "dynastic misstep

La Toya Jackson La Toya Yvonne Jackson (born May 29, 1956) is an American singer and television personality. The fifth child and middle daughter of the Jackson family, Jackson first gained recognition on the family's variety television series, ''The Jacksons'', ...

", "bum-kissing toady Arthur Gelb", "bosomy dirty-book writer Shirley Lord", and "former fat girl Dianne Brill" became a ''Spy'' trademark. In the summer of 1992, the publication ran a story on President

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

's alleged extramarital

affair An affair is a sexual relationship, romantic friendship, or passionate attachment in which at least one of its participants has a formal or informal commitment to a third person who may neither agree to such relationship nor even be aware of i ...

s. The following year, it ran an article entitled " Clinton's First 100 Lies", detailing what it described as the new president's pattern of duplicitous behavior. In March 1989, ''Spy'' published "The Pickup Artist's Guide to Picking Up Women: A Case-by-Case Look at Movie Director

James Toback James Toback (; born November 23, 1944) is an American film director and screenwriter. His screenplay for '' Bugsy'' won the 1991 Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for best screenplay of the year and was nominated for both the Academy Aw ...

's Street Technique." It was written by Vincenza Demetz and included accounts from thirteen women—including the author—who accused Toback of sexual misconduct. The magazine ceased publication in 1998.

Features

Introduced in the May 1987 issue, ''Private Lives of Public Enemies'' (renamed ''Private Lives of Public Figures'', then simply ''Private Lives'' in 1989) presented fictional representations of public personalities in unflattering situations. ''Separated at Birth?'', first presented in a feature article in December 1987, was a regular section which would present juxtaposed photos of two different personalities exhibiting visual similarity, to comical effect. The first of each pair was typically a public figure or celebrity, and the second was usually another such figure, but sometimes (usually in the last set) a more absurd subject such as a fictional character, animal, or inanimate object. ''Separated at Birth?'' became one of the magazine's most popular features and was spun out into a set of paperback books.

Legacy

In 1990, NBC aired a TV special ''Spy Magazine Presents How to Be Famous'' hosted by

Jerry Seinfeld Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for playing a Jerry Seinfeld (character), semi-fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom ''Seinfeld'', which he ...

and featuring

Victoria Jackson Victoria Jackson (born August 2, 1959) is an American actress, comedian, and singer who was a cast member of the NBC television sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' (SNL) from 1986 to 1992. Early life Jackson was born in Miami, Florida ...

and

Harry Shearer Harry Julius Shearer (born December 23, 1943) is an American actor, comedian, writer, musician, radio host, director and producer. Born in Los Angeles, California, Shearer began his career as a child actor. From 1969 to 1976, Shearer was a member ...

satirizing American celebrity culture. In October 2006,

Miramax Books Miramax Books was an American publishing company started by Bob and Harvey Weinstein of Miramax Films to publish movie tie-ins. Between 2000 and 2005, while Jonathan Burnham was its president and editor-in-chief, the imprint published the memoirs ...

published ''Spy: The Funny Years'' (), a greatest-hits anthology and history of the magazine created and compiled by Carter, Andersen, and one of their original editors, George Kalogerakis. In January 2015, after the

Charlie Hebdo shooting On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. CET local time, two French Muslim terrorists and brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper '' Charlie Hebdo'' in Paris. Armed with ...

made a series of tweets attacking both ''Spy'' and ''

Charlie Hebdo ''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...

'', calling ''Spy'' a "rag magazine" In October 2016, ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'' produced a special online version of ''Spy'' during the last thirty days of the

presidential campaign President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese fu ...

Books

* ''Separated at Birth?'' (1988, ): A collection of photographs from "Separated at Birth?" * ''Private Lives of Public Figures'' ( Drew Friedman, cartoons from ''Spy'', 1990) * ''Spy Notes on

McInerney The name McInerney is of noble Irish origin where it is found in the modern Irish form of ''Mac an Airchinnigh'' () and in the old and literary forms of ''Mac an Oirchinnigh'' and ''Mac an Oirchindig''. The pronunciation of ''Mac an Oirchinnigh' ...

's '' Bright Lights, Big City''/ Janowitz's ''

Slaves of New York ''Slaves of New York'' is a 1989 American comedy-drama Merchant Ivory Productions film. Directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant, it stars Bernadette Peters, Adam Coleman Howard, Chris Sarandon, Mary Beth Hurt, Mercedes Ruehl, Ma ...

''/

Ellis Ellis is a surname of Welsh and English origin. Retrieved 21 January 2014 An independent French origin of the surname is said to derive from the phrase fleur-de-lis. Surname A * Abe Ellis (Stargate), a fictional character in the TV series ' ...

's '' Less than Zero'' and All Those Other Hip Urban Novels of the 1980s'' (1989, ): A

CliffsNotes CliffsNotes are a series of student study guides. The guides present and create literary and other works in pamphlet form or online. Detractors of the study guides claim they let students bypass reading the assigned literature. The company cl ...

-style look at the literature of the nineteen-eighties * ''Separated at Birth? 2: The Saga Continues'' (1990, ) * ''Spy High'' (1992) * George Kalogerakis, Kurt Andersen, and Graydon Carter, ''Spy: The Funny Years'' (2006, )

References

External links

''Spy'' magazine
at

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Full archive available
at

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* Todd Leopold
“''Spy'' magazine remembers ‘The Funny Years,’ ”
''

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