Ivan Ehlers’ cartoon is set in a restaurant, where a waiter with a menu in his hand is addressing two diners. They look like slugs, but because they don’t have eye stalks I’m assuming they’re alien life forms. All my captions are inspired by comments or suggestions that waiters make before taking orders. “Might I…
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Caption Contest Commentary
“Office Clown” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
In Kaamran Hafeez’s cartoon, a clown whose office furniture has been fashioned out of circus balloons is addressing a female colleague. I didn’t like my first idea—“I’m dressing for the job I want”—because some variation on that joke is submitted for every contest that features a character wearing inappropriate clothing. I expect to see a…
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“Easy Money” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
This contest is so challenging, Bob Mankoff received an e-mail from a former editor at The Wall Street Journal asking for help deciphering Maddie Dai’s cartoon. Bob didn’t give him or me any hints, but it looks like a counterfeiting or forgery operation. Two men are seated at a table, busy at work. Hanging above…
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“Runner’s High” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
In Kendra Allenby’s cartoon, joggers and cyclists and dog-owners are running and biking and strolling through Central Park. In the air above them is a woman with her arms extended out to the side. She’s dressed like a jogger and addressing one of the runners below her. She looks annoyed. Why is she up there?…
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“Trash Day” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
Ben Schwartz’s cartoon is set in the hallway of an apartment building. A resident holding a small garbage bag is standing in the doorway of his unit and addressing a suspicious-looking character who’s about to shove into the trash chute what looks like a dead body wrapped in plastic and secured with rope. I first…
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“Jailed Comedian” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
The Silence of the Lambs is an iconic horror movie, the only one to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, and its most striking image—an incarcerated Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter in full restraints—is the apparent inspiration for Ivan Ehler’s drawing. Lecter is in his prison cell, and he’s been propped up in front a…
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