Caption Contest Commentary

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…
Continue Reading…

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…
Continue Reading…

Teresa Burns Parkhurst’s drawing is set in a restaurant, where a squirrel and a dog are sitting at a table, sharing a pizza and a bottle of wine. The squirrel, wine glass in its right hand, is speaking. Assuming the squirrel’s on a first date with the dog, I came up with these four captions:…
Continue Reading…

In Tom Chitty’s cartoon, a man is directing a concert pianist’s attention to a gruesome scene. Blood is seeping out of and running down the side of the piano, and pooling on the floor near a shoe that presumably belonged to the unseen victim. I first came up with captions that include a couple of…
Continue Reading…

This week’s drawing is heaven-set. (I know, I know—and I claim to dislike puns.) An angel with two halos is addressing an angel with just one. In the background are five more angels, each of whom has two halos. None of the angels has wings. I first assumed the angels with two halos would feel…
Continue Reading…

Jon Adams’ cartoon poses an unprecedented challenge because no one in the drawing is speaking. Who, then, is delivering the line that will serve as the caption? Is someone we can’t see commenting on the bird that’s flown through the window? Should the caption reflect the bird’s thoughts? Or should the caption be the cartoon’s…
Continue Reading…