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“Charmingly eccentric.\u201d That\u2019s what <\/span>Kirkus Reviews<\/span><\/i> called me in its review of my book on The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest, which will be released on June 4, 2024. \u201cWood,\u201d <\/span>Kirkus<\/span><\/i> states, \u201chas a great time here, mixing the bizarre, the jocular, and the wise into a clever package.\u201d The book is available for pre-order here: <\/span>https:\/\/us.macmillan.com\/books\/9781250333407<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n With that plug out of the way, let\u2019s move on to this month\u2019s CartoonStock contest, which was quite challenging. It featured a terrific drawing by <\/span>New Yorker<\/span><\/i> cartoonist Jack Reilly<\/a>, who joined our judges\u2019 panel to help select the winning entry and five runners-up. His drawing is set outdoors, where a family is watching a production of <\/span>Romeo and Juliet<\/span><\/i> that\u2019s being performed by an all-simian cast. In the far distance a plane is flying through the air. The father is addressing his wife.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Reilly\u2019s original caption was, \u201c<\/span>I\u2019ve never understood Shakespeare.\u201d<\/span><\/i> A couple of you went after a similar joke:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n There were several good sex jokes this month:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n And there were a surprising number of good puns: The best played on the homophonic terms for a group of monkeys and a group of actors:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Here are some others we liked:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n That last entry would have been so much better without the word \u201cactually,\u201d which is completely unnecessary. In the context of the caption, \u201cactually\u201d is synonymous with \u201cliterally.\u201d You wouldn\u2019t write \u201cliterally literally,\u201d so why write \u201cactually literally?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While I\u2019m in a hypercritical mood, let me rant about the misplaced apostrophe in this entry: <\/span>\u201cI hope the actor\u2019s strike is over soon.\u201d<\/i><\/b> That\u2019s a good joke, but it\u2019s undermined by the implication that only one actor refused to work. Here\u2019s a superior and grammatically correct version of the same joke: <\/span>\u201cThe actors\u2019 strike was good for everyone.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n I thought the next entry was just OK, but my fellow judges loved it: <\/span>\u201cThis is not historically accurate.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n There were a lot of scatological jokes, but here\u2019s the best: <\/span>\u201cIn this performance, the Montagues and Capulets throw feces at each other.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n There were also many references to the infinite monkey theorem, which holds that a monkey hitting random keys on a typewriter for an infinite amount of time will eventually type out the complete works of Shakespeare:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n I like that last joke, but I don\u2019t care for colloquialisms like \u201cdunno.\u201d They\u2019re cute, and I hate cute humor. I love dark humor, though, and that\u2019s why my favorite entry was, <\/span>\u201cThis is the part where Romeo rips her arm out of its socket and eats her face.\u201d<\/i><\/b> Mankoff said that I should be ashamed of myself for highlighting that entry because monkeys have in the past viciously attacked people. Trevor Hoey came to my defense by noting that one of his cartoons, which can be purchased on the Cartoonstock<\/a> website, referred to such attacks:<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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