Tuesday, August 30, 2011

A Swing and a Miss

Once again, I struck out in The New Yorker's 298th "Cartoon Caption Contest."


But I still like mine best: 
"François, we're going to need another one of your fabulous sacrifice bundts."

The finalists:
  • "O.K., we learned a lot this game, including you can't rush a soufflé." - I don't really see the baseball connection

  • "First base wants to know if you have anything gluten-free." - Meh.

  • "I trust you know what to do when you get to the plate." - A forced baseball reference at best.

2 comments:

Jahn Ghalt said...

Hi to fellow MAD fan at BoK:

First, I'll say that except for Angell, The New Yorker is not baseball savvy. If you check the DVD archive for first ten years or so (1925-35) only a supernova like Babe Ruth got any notice - a feature.

Second, I agree that your caption rocks (rocked). The so-called finalists are not in the same league.

Third, I'm not "cool" like the New Yorker literati, so puns work well for me.

Fourth, in case there's any doubt (given that I have the DVD set) I think the New Yorker rocks, too.


Jahn Ghalt
jahngahlt()yahoo()com

Jahn Ghalt said...

One other thing:

I seem to recall (from an NPR live audience show with Mankoff - Arts and Lectures? ) that caption contest cartoons are pulled from the usual several hundred weekly submissions. The final toon is purchased, but the cartoonist's catpion is decapitated (capitated, caption - same root).

Generally the author is not happy but cashes the check anyway.