You say witty, I say whutty….

[Alyson Kuhn] The Big Convention Center, The Big Apple How do I laugh thee? Let me count the ways… Notable newcomers at this year’s National Stationery Show include several start-up card companies that put their humor front and center. Here is my report on whose what provoked the biggest laughs from our roving band. I’ve included lots o’ links so that you can read the small print.

Humor is a highly personal perception – one guffaw does not fit all. Kindly contribute a comment and tell us which cards tickle your funnybone!

Jim York, founder of The Found, found a lot of old mug shots… and then found something very amusing to do with them. He created a line of retro cards. The back of each card presents a fictitious bio of the offender, modelled on vintage police reports hammered out on manual typewriters. Accessories include stylish blank books with sleuthy covers – in stealthy black, natch – and mug-shot coasters. Nice noir gifts!

Old Tom Foolery, from San Francisco, has a line of one-line notecards aptly named The Footnote Collection. Each sentiment is followed by an asterisk, and the footnote at the bottom of the card provides the punch. Two of my favorites, in case you are interested in what makes me laugh out loud, are this one and that one. Old Tom’s tagline is Unsappy, uncrappy letterpress greetings; Old Tom himself comes to life as a logo: an inverted serif 7 makes his pointy nose, and a bold bracket his handlebar moustache. Just my type. Speaking of type, the pair of parental birthday cards features the footnote: You old – oh, who am I kidding? You can’t read this tiny type. You can read more about Old Tom and his “parents” in a recent feature article in the “San Francisco Chronicle”.

Hard Cards puts sassy statements on every surface: the front of the card, the inside of the card, the back of the card. The brochure cover proclaims Times are hard and so are we; the backside says for orders, questions, or crank calls, e-ddress yourself to us@hardcardsrule.com. Several of the cards on display caused my dedicated photographer to laugh so hard the camera shook. Co-founder Randi Picarelli, who is a professor of communication arts at Cal State Northridge, comments that the sympathy cards are among the best-sellers. My favorite of them reads I know things are hard right now but you’ll get through this… and the punchline inside is On your own though. I’m really busy.

Right across Aisle 2000 from the Hard Card Corral is Product Superior Limited, whose look drew us over for a see. You can see their superior logo on their site. I am very happy to have and hold it on their charmola die-cut business card {2 tall x 2-3/4-ish wide}. Anywhich, humor is not their main thing, but two cards on the counter, whose design caught our collective eye… turned out to be quite amusing, at least to us. {Last photo below} The cards are so fresh, so to speak, that they aren’t in the Superior Store yet, but will be soon. I developed an immediate fondness for their handsomely-branded natural wood pencils, one of which I have tucked behind my ear as I type. And they’ve just started {as in this very past Monday} Le Clique, a collaborative  photo blog. Savor the pun. The masthead makes me swòón, rhymes with Kuhn, and that’s all she wrote today. Now for java, but not at the Javits. Hasta mañana.

P.S. – We took a lot of photos yesterday, and you can enjoy them today on Flickr. Tomorrow, we’ll tell you what they mean in the Big Esthetic Picture.

Après-P.S. – Whoops, I almost forgot to mention Whigby, whose website is très way witty. I kuhnfess that the monikers and portraits of Whigby ancestors made me flip my you-know-what. The Whigs do such a grand job of talking about themselves, I don’t need to. The directions to their booth, uddered by a cow on their site, made me laugh out loud. See for yourself. Though the Javitisti will know that the directions are inaccurate – which is even funnier.