Caption Contest Commentary

In Mick Stevens’ drawing of a prehistoric couple sitting in a modern-day living room, the man is saying something to the woman. Seeing the large framed paintings in the background made me think of cave paintings, so I had the man asking, “Why do they frame their paintings?” I then imagined the man struggling to…
Continue Reading…

In Charles Barsotti’s drawing, a large bag of money relaxes on a tropical island with a drink in one hand and a cellphone in the other. He’s wearing sunglasses, smiling, and saying something into the phone. My first idea—“Money talking”—completely ignored the setting, and the setting’s always important. Tropical resorts like the Cayman Islands are…
Continue Reading…

Tom Toro has drawn two kids in a tree house. On the opposite side of the tree is a branch supporting a cubicle where a man is sitting at his desk and conducting business on the telephone. One of the kids is looking at this man, and the other is speaking and presumably explaining why…
Continue Reading…

In Lila Ash’s drawing, a young woman wearing sweatpants with the word PLINK emblazoned across the bottom is addressing (questioning? scolding?) a dog who’s looking down, as if shamed. Behind the dog are the outstretched legs of a murder victim. He’s lying in the doorway in a pool of blood, and there’s a bloody handprint…
Continue Reading…

Dr. Benjamin Schwartz has drawn a shirtless and hooded executioner introducing a kindly old woman (also wearing a hood) to his next victim: a prisoner who’s on his knees with his hands tied behind his back and his head above a chopping block. The executioner—whose expression, from what we can see, is not very threatening—is…
Continue Reading…

Kim Warp has drawn a prop comedian (he has an arrow through his head) performing a stand-up routine for that toughest of audiences: God. Because the comedian is in heaven, I first thought of the old saying that addresses both death and comedy: “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” I then thought of captions that…
Continue Reading…