Brooke Bourgeois’s cartoon is set under the sea, where a disgruntled octopus has been put in a pillory with nine holes, one for each of his eight tentacles and one for his head. Swimming around the octopus are several fish, one of whom, in the lower-left corner of the drawing, is speaking. Here’s a pun…
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“Lyft Stork” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
In Evan Lian’s cartoon, two storks are making their deliveries. One is carrying a baby. The other has a pink mustache—a reference to the ride-sharing service Lyft—and carries a young man with a backpack on his lap. The stork with the mustache is speaking. This cartoon has three frames of reference: baby-delivering storks, the young…
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Anatomy of a Cartoon: Fairy Tales
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 fairy tale cartoons. We first hear fairy tales at an impressionable age, usually before we can read. The characters and their magical stories are part of our collective…
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“Terrifying Election” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
Bob Eckstein’s cartoon has three distinct frames of reference — Halloween, the election, and the pandemic. Addressing all three is a challenge. The woman who’s next in line for the voting booth is speaking. She’s also pointing with her left index finger, but at what? The skeleton? The man in the voting booth? Or is…
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Anatomy of a Cartoon: Unsocial Distancing
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 social distancing cartoons. Mid-pandemic, it feels there’s no end to the upending of our lives. Someday, looking back, we’ll marvel at the strange customs we adopted to cope…
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