Talk:Spy (magazine)

There's a sub-stub here at the moment, but this deserves an article. -- Jmabel 04:01, 10 May 2004 (UTC)

I'm removing the excessively comprehensive list of every single issue published, as not one of them is a link. Without any actual content, it's irrelevant that Spy was published four times one year, six the next, and so on. R 01:17, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Is that naked picture of Ah-nold part of the article, or just vandalism? I see no reference to it in the article. I REALLY hope it's vandalism, because it nearly blinded me. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.218.138.95 (talk • contribs).


 * It's part of the article. And it is discussed: "Some of its features attempted to present the darker side of celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger (printing a nude photo of him and a picture of his father's Nazi party membership card)…" - Jmabel | Talk 23:27, 25 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, it's part of the article, but that doesn't mean people need to see it- it's one thing to know that the magazine printed a nude picture, but it's another to show it. Paladinwannabe2 20:59, 23 January 2007 (UTC)


 * From What Wikipedia is not (which is policy): Wikipedia is not censored. Wikipedia may contain content that some readers consider objectionable or offensive… some articles may include objectionable text, images, or links if they are relevant to the content…" - Jmabel | Talk 18:41, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

Spy was not a copy of Private Eye
Spy: The Funny Years, p. 9:

That voice, improvised as we went along, was a hash of H.L. Mencken and A.J Liebling and Wolcott Gibbs from the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s; parody-Time-ese of the ’40s and ’50s; New Journalism of the ’60s and ’70s; Private Eye, the scabrous (and much jokier) British fortnightly; and the ways we just happened to write.

A Washington Post article of 1986.02.13 is quoted (p. 23) as saying “E. Graydon Carter and... Kurt Anderson have been among the ranks of those yearning for an irreverent publication on the order of Britain’s naughty Private Eye.”

P. 37: “Spy’s tone was in place from the start, a little bit of Americanized Private Eye, some updated 1930s New Yorker, a lot Graydon, and a lot Kurt.”

I don’t feel like looking up any more references in this, a firsthand account of Spy’s formation. It was never a copy of Private Eye. Influenced by, sure. But not a copy. – joeclark 21:56, 16 October 2006 (UTC)


 * The article says only that Spy was "loosely based on" Private Eye, and previously said that a single feature, Separated at Birth, "imitated" a similar Eye feature, Lookalikes (and, indeed, the two features are themselves lookalikes), although the phrasing in the latter instance has now been changed. There is no assertion (and there never has been) that Spy was a "copy" of Private Eye. (PS: Loved 10 Years Ago in Spy. Any chance you'll continue?)   Pr oh ib it O ni o n s   (T) 15:38, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Pejorative epithets of celebrities
Another popular favorite was the description of Jackie Collins as a "celebrity typist." 71.162.200.102 (talk) 20:27, 27 December 2016 (UTC)

Missing part of the story
I do not know the content specifics that are clearly missing, but some discussion of why the magazine ceased publishing is needed here. I recall it was vibrant to the end. What is the story? DulcetTone (talk) 00:40, 12 January 2022 (UTC)