New Yorker caption contest update

[jwgh]

You might remember that a couple of weeks ago I asked about the New Yorker caption contest with the picture of a caveman being pulled over by a police officer.



I asked how many people thought that one of the finalists would have a loke about the wheel being a giant doughnut. Five out of the 16 people who responded said yes, four said no, seven said they hoped it wouldn't.

Well, the finalist captions were announced and they are:

"Yeah, yeah—and I invented the ticket." -- Scott Gerschwer, Redding, Conn.
"I'm going to let you off with a warning, since you have no prior history." -- Chas Kikel, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
"Mind if I look in the hole?" -- Jennifer McLellan, Kansas City, Mo.

For what it's worth, I think Chas from Ohio has both the best caption and the coolest name.

Anyway, I hope that at least seven of you out there are happy with the result.

While I'm at it, I might as well ask about a cartoon in the current issue:



[Poll #964496]

Comments

[saucypunk.livejournal.com]

clearly your friends seem biased toward knitters.

(not that this is a bad thing.)

[jwgh]

I guess I find the caption puzzling because I think that if I had a tyrannosaurus rex who was willing to help me wind yarn then I wouldn't really need help with ANYTHING.

[doctroid.livejournal.com]

As one who has been in the t-rex's shoes a few times over the decades, I think I can say with authority its willingness is open to question.

Also, those shoes are too big for me.

Also also, I liked Scott's caption perhaps just slightly more than Chas's. All three are substantially ahead of even the winning captions in many previous New Yorker caption contests.

[doctroid.livejournal.com]

Or perhaps I should say "of especially the winning captions".

[saucypunk.livejournal.com]

i agree. the caption seems unnecessary and not at all funny.

a confused-looking t-rex with yarn is a wonderful thing.

[crazyanimallady.livejournal.com]

yeah, the caption is not funny. but the t-rex is super cute. i want one to help me with my knitting.

[jwgh]

I've been thinking about this. You'd want a T-Rex that ideally had adjustable arms (so it can hold different-sized skeins) and who could swivel back and forth (if you've ever had someone feed you yarn like that then you'll know what I'm talking about, hopefully) -- I think probably ideally the swivelling would be operated by a foot pedal.

It seems like it should be possible to make one of these, but it would probably be more expensive than a standard yarn baller and would be harder to use.

Hmmmm.

[crazyanimallady.livejournal.com]

but a t-rex yarn baller would be so much cuter!

[pjamesharvey.livejournal.com]

I would say that the lack of funny is down to the comic timing of the drawing. We've missed the part where the dinosaur first appears and is threatening, whereupon someone asks him, in a Scooby Doo manner, to help him wind some yarn, and the dinosaur, baffled by the request, agrees, if only because the request is baffling. Then we get to the drawn frame.

Or, rather, the caption should be said whilst the dinosaur is threatening and before the yarn is thrown over its ineffective arms, and presumptively asking it to wind the yarn is the action peformed after the caption.

It's just a mess of timing, mixed with a Scooby Doo-era joke.

[ceruleanst.livejournal.com]

Chas is very clever and funny. The other finalists are very, terribly, tragically New Yorker.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Those first two captions for the policeman and neanderthal are pretty good. The third one is weak, but I can see what it was getting at.

As for the new one, when I first loaded the page (on my friends page, I skimmed through and clicked on the comments, apparently fast enough that the lower cartoon didn't finish loading -- it cut off just below the ball of yarn in the woman's hands. At first I thought you had erased the lower part of the picture to hide the caption, but then I realized it was just incomplete. Since I spent half a minute looking at it without the caption, well, I think it's not much improved by that caption at all. (Maybe you should trim off future captions as a separate image and drop it behind a cut.)

The dino doesn't look that threatening, really, so my first attempt would be someone talking about not having flushed it into the sewer 20 years ago, either regretfully or happily.

Also, glad to note that the T-Rex is not dragging his tail-- the cartoonist is clearly up on his modern paleozoology.

[jwgh]

I think in the past I've only scanned in the cartoon and then had the caption as text, which makes sense. I will return to this practice in the future.

But really I don't get it

[pootrootbeer.livejournal.com]

It looks like the world's least challenging game of cat's cradle to me.

Re: But really I don't get it

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

The dinosaur is sad because he can't do cat's cradle with his teeny little arms.

Re: But really I don't get it

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

YM "leetle"

Ever since that "Meet the Robinsons" trailer, the teeny arms of the T.Rex have been an endless source of amusement to me. And as you may know, as an employee of SCIENCE, I work with a replica T.Rex, which I walk by about 6 times a day, giggling.

We've got even more dinosaurs coming to visit SCIENCE soon-- it's gonna be hilarious!

FWIW

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

I have to confess that the T.Rex cartoon is exactly the meanderingly absurd kind of New Yorker cartoon I love. That said, I chortled out loud at Chas's pointedly punning caption.

Re: FWIW

[jwgh]

I like it too (admitting that the caption could be almost anything); mostly I was just wondering how many people looking at it would recognize that the T-Rex is assisting in yarn-ball-making.