The winner, in this case, is: “Yeah, actually there is an interesting story behind this. I like to fuck dolls. See ya Monday.” — David John
So, have you seen this? Probably. Because, as with so much else of great cultural value, I’m way behind the times. But even I know that the New Yorker, on the last page of the book, now runs a weekly contest to come up with the best caption for an uncaptioned* cartoon. Many people find the contest and its results cloying. I am one of those people. So, too, is Daniel Radosh, proprietor of this site. Each week, he runs his own contest: a challenge to submit “the worst possible caption for this [week’s] New Yorker cartoon.” If you don’t mind off-color humor, you might want to check it out. Oh, and here’s a quick meditation on how to win the actual New Yorker caption contest. If that’s your thing. Of course, as Eric points out, the winning answer should always be, “Christ, what an asshole.”
Also: is Daniel Radosh related to Ron Radosh? I bet everyone knows — except me. Because I’m behind the times.
* A word? No, I doubt it. “Blank” would have been better. Whatever. You people need to back off. Or I’ll cut you.
[Author’s Note: Thanks to “anonymous,” who — with revelations of super-cool jurist Alex Kozinski’s public relations troubles in mind? — sent me a link to Radosh’s site. Keep the tips coming people.]
[Update: Ben Wolfson gently reminds me in the comments that I initially saw the Slate piece linked above while reading a post of his over at Unfogged. I regret having not credited him earlier.]
22 comments
June 12, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Vance Maverick
Also: is Daniel Radosh related to Ron Radosh?
There’s this thing called Wikipedia I’ve been meaning to tell you about.
June 12, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Larry Cebula
I forget who said it first, but the one-size-fits-all winner of the New Yorker caption contest is “Christ, what an asshole!” Try it–it works on 90% of the cartoons.
June 12, 2008 at 3:45 pm
urbino
I remember when this site used to be safe for work.
June 12, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Robert Halford
Another one that works for — literally — every New Yorker cartoon:
“What the fuck is this shit?”
Try it and you’ll see.
June 12, 2008 at 4:26 pm
grackle
Daniel Radosh is John Carlos Rowe’s uncle by marriage.
June 12, 2008 at 4:35 pm
grackle
Many people find the contest and its results cloying.
A nicely turned phrase. My reaction is that they are a form of pandering that the New Yorker used to have enough restraint to avoid. I have marveled at how few of the cartoons seem funny to me these days and cannot decide whether I have lost my sense of cultural value in old age or that, like so much else that was good about the New Yorker, the person in charge of funny stuff died some time ago, probably a prim old lady who was too frail for the move a few years ago. It might have been Whitney Balliett for all I know.
June 12, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Vance Maverick
Which disturbs you more, urbino — a line drawing of a blowup doll, or video of a burning monk? I too pine for the days of work-safe Civil War and Indian massacres.
June 12, 2008 at 5:20 pm
urbino
Me? I have no problem with either. It’s not me that counts. It’s the pointyheads in the corner offices.
June 12, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Walt
New Yorker cartoons were never funny.
June 12, 2008 at 6:06 pm
The Modesto Kid
But, but Charles Addams! James Thurber! …Well ok, James Thurber was not technically speaking “funny”, by and large. But Addams frequently was.
June 12, 2008 at 6:15 pm
ari
Every fourth or fifth issue, through the years, there’s a funny cartoon. That’s not a good batting average, I’m afraid. Shorter Ari: Walt is right.
June 12, 2008 at 6:37 pm
learnlotsbetty
I used to flip through the New Yorker looking for cartoons in my therapist’s waiting room. All the trying to find what’s funny in the cartoons really got me warped up for trying to find what’s effed up in my head.
June 12, 2008 at 6:37 pm
learnlotsbetty
*warmed, but warped works too
June 12, 2008 at 7:05 pm
shadowcook
Having grown up with the big anniversary anthologies of New Yorker cartoons (as well as with the magazine — I can’t remember not knowing the NY’er or what it looks like), I don’t think the point of the cartoons was always to be funny ha-ha. Very often wry, yes. Mirror of society, cultural barometer, whatever. NY’er cartoons occupy a unique place in American culture. I, too, am not happy with the cartoon contest, but I figured that was because I was traditionalist who didn’t want the NY’er to change after Mr. Shawn died.
June 12, 2008 at 7:46 pm
ben wolfson
Even though you obviously only found out about Radosh’s thing through the comments to my post on unfogged about the slate article, you give me no credit. Ari, why do you do me like you do?
Also, the last honorable mention to this one was great.
The New Yorker Anti-Caption Contest is really just another iteration of the same phenomenon as the Dysfunctional Family Circus and, later, It’s a Dysfunctional Life.
June 12, 2008 at 8:26 pm
ari
Crap, you’re half right, Ben. I did see the Slate piece in your post and then, when I put this post up, forgot that’s where I had come across it. No disrespect intended. Really, I’m sorry about that. I’ll put an update in the post above.
June 12, 2008 at 9:14 pm
grackle
George Booth , George Price and Jack Ziegler were often funny. Steinberg and William Steig were almost always worth perusing. Those days are mostly gone. I think Mr. Shawn was sent to pasture anumber of years before he died. It was one of the 80’s series of signs of the apocalypse, but that was several series ago.
June 12, 2008 at 10:18 pm
andrew
New Yorker cartoons were never funny.
But they’ve always done a pretty good job of signaling class.
June 12, 2008 at 11:18 pm
PTCruiser
I think New Yorker cartoons are funny. In fact, I think they are, in the main, much funnier than much of what passes for comedy on the little and big screens today. I don’t, however, find the cartoons with the winning captions funny. The drawings are funny but the captions lack a certain sense of the absurd.
June 12, 2008 at 11:20 pm
ari
I have a caption for a cartoon, but no cartoon for it to caption: “The oyster is my world.” Good, right?
June 14, 2008 at 10:30 am
sysrick.com » links for 2008-06-14
[…] New Yorker Anti-Caption Contest […]
July 4, 2008 at 7:26 am
justin case
Yes, I know this vinyl doll makes my butt look big.