[2][3] Based in New York City, the magazine was founded by Kurt Andersen and E. Graydon Carter, who served as its first editors, and Thomas L. Phillips Jr.,[4] its first publisher.
[8] Pejorative epithets of celebrities, such as "Abe 'I'm Writing As Bad As I Can' Rosenthal", "short-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump",[9] "churlish dwarf billionaire Laurence Tisch", "antique Republican pen-holder Bob Dole", "dynastic misstep La Toya Jackson", "bum-kissing toady Arthur Gelb", "bosomy dirty-book writer Shirley Lord", and "former fat girl Dianne Brill" became a Spy trademark.
[11] In March 1989, Spy published "The Pickup Artist's Guide to Picking Up Women: A Case-by-Case Look at Movie Director James Toback's Street Technique."
In 1990, NBC aired a TV special Spy Magazine Presents How to Be Famous hosted by Jerry Seinfeld and featuring Victoria Jackson and Harry Shearer satirizing American celebrity culture.
In October 2006, Miramax Books published Spy: The Funny Years (ISBN 1-4013-5239-1), a greatest-hits anthology and history of the magazine created and compiled by Carter, Andersen, and one of their original editors, George Kalogerakis.