New Yorker cartoon quiz

[jwgh]

I noticed this cartoon (by P.C. Vey) in the current New Yorker:



and I thought the caption was too long, so:

[Poll #934318]

Edit: To be clear, the third option is the caption actually used.

Comments

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Clearly, the kittens should be deployed before proposal failure for maximum effect.

[psapph0.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the New Yorker caption game? Its aweseome... and very much like this.

http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?sitetype=1&sid=122960&did=8§ion=gifts?mscssid=NL8DQF0NRQS99LJ53SM60L8KCB1587G2&sitetype=1

[jwgh]

Neat!

[wisn.livejournal.com]

I'm getting a broken image here and when I try to view it directly I see 403 Forbidden.

Anyway, isn't 'Christ, what an asshole!' supposed to be the caption of every New Yorker cartoon?

[jwgh]

Hmm, try now.

Also, I was waiting for someone to mention that.

[wisn.livejournal.com]

Works now. Thanks.

[jwgh]

(I thought it would be paraclsvs, though.)

[paracelsvs.livejournal.com]

I use "Jesus Christ! What an idiot!", taken from an Underworld comic strip.

[mskala.livejournal.com]

I think you need both sentences for it to work. Just the first one and it's not clear why you'd show them the kittens - are the kittens a threat or something? Just the second and that's a little better, but it's not clear why you'd have kittens at all. Both and the situation is clear - not very funny, perhaps, and it is a trifle long, but I think it's the best of the bunch.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

At least with the first sentence there's humor in the non-sequitorish addition of the kittens. The second sentence feels like Our Mortal Enemy, the HAW HAW Guy, explaining the joke right there in the punchline.

This is some kind of standard comedic mode

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

not for New Yorker cartoons but for actual spoken conversation. I started hearing it, oh, maybe 15 years ago. It depends strongly on the timing and inflection of the "everybody likes" part, so it makes sense that it wouldn't come across too well in a cartoon unless you heard people use the expression regularly.

I wonder if it came from a particular Seinfeld episode. I never particularly paid attention to Seinfeld (not that there's anything wrong with that), but it certainly seems like the way Costanza talked.

Re: This is some kind of standard comedic mode

[jwgh]

Yeah, ideally there needs to be a look of disbelief from person #2 between person #1's initial statement of the bizarre and/or stupid idea and his or her dumb, silly, or nonsensical explanation or defense of same.

or nearly so

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

I've always heard this expression used with a pause timed just to cut off that baffled reaction before it has a chance to set in, so as to accent the even more baffled response to the explanation.

[cpr94.livejournal.com]

I'd have taken a totally different approach, something like:

"I swear, Morgan, there's no better line to close a deal than 'Sign the contract or the kitten dies.'"