Cartoon critics Phil Witte and Rex Hesner look behind the gags to debate what makes a cartoon tick. This week our intrepid critics take a look at Cars. The proliferation of cars has been a hallmark of modern society for over a century. They represent freedom and adventure, and reflect the personalities and values of…
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Recent Posts
What’s so Funny and Why AI?
First off, I wish everyone would calm down about AI. It’s not going to destroy humanity– that’s our job. Or, to paraphrase FDR, “Humanity has nothing to fear but humanity itself.” There are real dangers, of course. First and foremost, it could replace cartoonists. But if AI has any real sense, it wouldn’t. Too much…
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“Closeted Brains” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
In Amy Kurzweil’s cartoon, a young woman in a bathrobe is showing another woman, who’s fully though casually dressed, her bedroom closet. Inside the closet, neatly arranged on the shelves, are several large jars, each of which contains a human brain floating in some kind of solution and attached to tubes. The woman in the…
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“Cat House” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
This month the cartoonist, Lynn Hsu, joined our panel of judges. Her drawing is set on a residential street where a realtor is showing to a potentially interested buyer a huge cat tower that’s for sale. The realtor is gesturing toward the property and saying something. Hsu’s original caption reconciles the disparate elements (cats and…
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“Tiny Aliens” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
This month the cartoonist, Juan Astasio Soriano, joined our panel of judges from Madrid. His drawing is set on a busy sidewalk, where two tiny aliens with ray guns have emerged from their flying saucers. They’re surrounded by and at risk of being squashed to death by huge pedestrians, whom we see only from the…
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