Excellent question, that!

If I saw the cover, had no context to put it in, my first impression/assumption would automatically be it was a parody/satire/April Fools issue.

Magazines that live in the publishing realm the New Yorker does are not prone to stray very far from conventional practice, even with parody and satire. No one who sees the cover could possibly take it seriously.

It is so obviously a satire/parody/spoof, I just can't even wrap my head around this spitting at each other, name calling, and general ruckus raising and brawling going on in this thread.