The definitive reflection of what it is to be a New Yorker, from subway commute catastrophes to avoiding awkward taxi conversations and all the madness in between. Written and illustrated by two of The New Yorker magazine's best-loved cartoonists, You're Not a Real New Yorker Until... is a must for anyone who loves the Big Apple.

Anyone who’s lived in or even visited New York will know that there’s more to being a New Yorker than simply saying you’re a New Yorker. For some, if you’re not born in NY, you’ll never be a New Yorker, for others you need to be able to trace your relatives back to at least Ellis Island. For Australian transplants and comedians Scott Dooley and Jason Chatfield, it’s the curious everyday occurrences and how you handle them that make a Real New Yorker.

Jason and Scott cut their teeth in the comedy clubs of New York City and teamed up to create cartoons for the New Yorker and a successful podcast about, of all things, how to come up with cartoons for The New Yorker. Leaning into their comedic flair for observation they’ve created the definitive illustrated list of what it means to live in the greatest city on earth.

Each page contains a different humorous observation about New York life and stereotypes that will appeal to locals as much as it will to those who may not have visited the Big Apple but know it through television, movies, books, and music.

For example, You're Not A Real New Yorker Until...

...someone’s tried to convince you that a kitchen counts as a second bedroom .
..anyone doing better than you is a “trust fund kid”
...you've said "keep it open" after handing your credit card to a hotdog vendor
...you’ve refused to eat sushi on a Monday because of a 20-year-old Bourdain article
...nearly every recommendation you give people visiting is something you would never do in a million years

About The Authors

Jason Chatfield

Jason is an award-winning Cartoonist, Author & Comedian based in New York City. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, MAD Magazine, Variety, Wired, The Weekly Humorist, American Bystander, and Air Mail, among others. His art has been exhibited in France, the UK, Australia, and the US and in books published by Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, & Humorist Media. His latest book with Andrews McMeel Publishing will be released in Fall of 2026.

He has lectured on the creative process at Stanford University, The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) & The Cosmos Club in Washington DC, as well as multiple sold-out lectures with Lectures On Tap.

For 16 years, he has been an internationally syndicated comic strip cartoonist, writing and drawing the iconic 102-year-old strip, Ginger Meggs, published daily through Andrews McMeel Syndication. Chatfield is a past President of both the National Cartoonists Society (Est. 1946) and the Australian Cartoonists Association (Est. 1924) and is the Cartoon Editor for the Metropolitan Review.

His best-selling weekly newsletter New York Cartoons is one of Substack's Featured Publications for 2023 and 2024, with over 19,000+ weekly subscribers. He is also the portrait illustrator for Waking Up, the meditation app created by Sam Harris.

Scott Dooley

Scott Dooley is an Australian comedian and writer based in New York. He has toured the world as a comedian, released a critically acclaimed stand-up special and performed alongside the world’s biggest comics. Scott regularly contributes to The New Yorker, appears on television, radio and podcasts around the globe. He has written a graphic novel and once saw a fish in the wild die of natural causes. Despite all this experience this is the best bio he could come up with.