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John Klossner\u2019s cartoon is set in a conference room where a horde of Vikings, who have burst through the door, are standing around two men and a woman who are seated at the conference table. One of the men is looking at his computer tablet and saying something. John\u2019s original caption\u2014\u201c<\/span>But first, some old business<\/span><\/i>\u201d\u2014addresses both the office setting and the fact that Vikings haven\u2019t been around for about a thousand years.<\/span><\/p>\n Bob Mankoff, Trevor Hoey, Joel Mishon, John Klossner and I judged this month\u2019s entries, and we began by sending Trevor our top-ten lists. Trevor then identified captions that appeared on more than one list, and we reviewed those first. Then each of us got to advocate on behalf of entries that appeared on just our list. We were all steeling ourselves for the inevitable \u201chostile takeover\u201d captions\u2014there were even more than expected\u2014but not one appeared on any of our top-ten lists. Just too obvious.<\/span><\/p>\n Several of you transformed an ordinary statement into a line that took on an entirely new and fitting meaning within the context of the drawing:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n There were also a few clever twists on common statements:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n This is a decent pun\u2014<\/span>\u201c<\/b>The workers demand a raze<\/i><\/b>\u201d<\/b>\u2014but it\u2019s too close to the winning caption from Contest #662, which featured another Klossner cartoon:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about time they settled down and razed a village.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n A better and less expected pun, and a nice reference to the Scandinavian origins of Vikings, is, <\/span>\u201cSo that\u2019s three coffees, and two dozen Danish.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n I liked this entry\u2014<\/span>\u201cLegal wants us to try negotiating with them first\u201d<\/i><\/b>\u2014but Bob said that\u2019s only because I\u2019m an attorney. I also liked, <\/span>\u201cBefore my clients kill, rape, pillage and burn, they have a few demands to avoid any unnecessary unpleasantness,\u201d<\/i><\/b> but the other judges convinced me that it would be much better without the word \u201crape.\u201d They\u2019re right, and I\u2019m not just saying that because I don\u2019t want to be known as a defender of rape jokes. The word\u2019s unnecessary, and it interferes with one\u2019s ability to enjoy what is otherwise a solid caption. Removing the word \u201crape\u201d also improves the joke by turning it into a fine example of the comedy rule of three. Here\u2019s are two more good examples of that rule:<\/span><\/p>\n That second caption would be better without the first sentence. Also, \u201cwork well within teams\u201d is an awkward phrase, but I\u2019m not sure how to improve it. Maybe by substituting \u201cin\u201d for \u201cwithin?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bob liked, <\/span>\u201c<\/b>Nobody expects the Viking expedition<\/i><\/b>,<\/b>\u201d\u2014a reference to an old Monty Python line\u2014but he shouldn\u2019t have, and I\u2019m not just saying that because he criticized the \u201cLegal\u2026\u201d caption I liked.<\/span><\/p>\n This next entry could have come from <\/span>The New Yorker<\/span><\/i>\u2019s fact-checking department: <\/span>\u201cYes, I am sure. It says right here\u2026 Vikings never wore helmets with horns.\u201d<\/i><\/b> That reminds me of a story <\/span>New Yorker<\/span><\/i> cartoonist David Sipress told Terry Gross when she interviewed him on <\/span>Fresh Air<\/span><\/i>:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n SIPRESS<\/i><\/b>: Years ago, I did a cartoon of – it’s sort of an ancient scene with a ancient building in the background, and it’s a guy with a sword leading a goat. And he – the goat is turning to another goat and saying, I’m having my entrails read – really excited. Well, I got a note from the fact-checking department that corrected – that said the knife was incorrectly drawn. It should be a single-bladed knife – blah, blah, blah. They even sent me a picture – and that on the building there were five columns. And there were always only even-numbered columns, so they asked me to change the number of columns. So I wrote back to the fact-checking department, and I said, \u201cI understand your problem with the knife. I understand your problem with the number of columns. Why didn’t you have a problem with the fact that there’s a talking goat?\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Here\u2019s the best reference to the January 6 insurrection: <\/span>\u201cHelen, could you show our new State legislators their offices?\u201d<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The best insurance joke: <\/span>\u201cYour ship policy does not include collision.\u201d<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The best joke about Twitter\u2019s new boss: <\/span>\u201cThis is still better than Elon Musk buying us.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n And the best pandemic joke: <\/span>\u201cIt all started with the COVID beard competition.\u201d<\/i><\/b> That last entry is also a reference to hyper-masculinity, as is this caption: <\/span>\u201cI have an update on the testosterone trials.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n This next entry is not exactly a pandemic joke, but it refers to a phenomenon that became more common during the pandemic: <\/span>\u201cSo much for quiet quitting.\u201d<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This caption isn\u2019t really specific to Vikings, but it made us all laugh: <\/span>\u201cWe\u2019ve got to find a better doorman.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Here are three versions of a joke that will resonate with anyone who\u2019s struggled to reserve a meeting space at work:<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019d like that last entry better without the questions mark. It\u2019s an example of the high rising intonation (or upspeak) that I find grating, though I suppose it does accurately reflect the way some people talk. But most of the people who end a declarative statement with a question mark are younger than the man in the cartoon.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Speaking of annoying ways of talking, someone submitted, <\/span>\u201cWelp, looks like the \u2018nays\u2019 have it.\u201d<\/b> I have heard people say \u201cwelp\u201d instead of \u201cwell\u201d\u2014God knows why they do it\u2014but it\u2019s a ridiculous word that detracts from an otherwise interesting caption.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This next entry notes that the Vikings were the first Europeans to reach North America, and that some people still object to celebrating Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day on the second Monday of October: <\/span>\u201cComplain all you want. It\u2019s still Columbus Day.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n I\u2019d like this caption even more without the second \u201cour,\u201d but it\u2019s great as is: <\/span>\u201cIf Google translate is correct, they want our women and our cattle.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n The next six captions all do a nice job of reconciling the disparate frames of reference (corporate offices and Vikings):<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Finally, we have a reference to a provider of shared work spaces: <\/span>\u201cWeWork is getting out of hand.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n It\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve highlighted that many entries, about ten percent of the total received. This week\u2019s winner comes from David Mayerovitch: <\/span>\u201cIf Google translate is correct, they want our women and our cattle.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n The five runners-up are:<\/span><\/p>\n For those of you who are interested in how we made our selections, we recorded the process with cartoonist John Klossner and you can view it here<\/p>\n\n
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Watch the Judging Process<\/h3>\n