since 1979. It\u2019s also featured on the cover of my book, which I\u2019m hoping you\u2019ll buy:<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.cartoonstock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screen-Shot-2024-07-01-at-8.16.49-AM-264x300.png\")
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In Stevens\u2019 cartoon, two anthropomorphic and identically dressed eggs are standing in front of a high brick wall. One of them has been badly injured\u2014he\u2019s using a crutch and is covered in bandages\u2014and he\u2019s saying something to the other egg.<\/span><\/p>\nStevens, a connoisseur of cartoon tropes, is alluding to one of the most common: Humpty Dumpty. If you enter that search term on the CartoonStock website, you\u2019ll find ninety-five <\/span>pages<\/span><\/i> of results, and a Humpty-Dumpty drawing by Mort Gerberg appeared in <\/span>The New Yorker<\/span><\/i>\u2019s caption contest (No. 715):<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.cartoonstock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screen-Shot-2024-07-01-at-11.51.29-AM-300x274.png\")
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The winning captions<\/span><\/p>\nThese captions are chosen by The New Yorker.<\/span><\/p>\n\n- \u201cAnd then I find out all the king\u2019s horses and all the king\u2019s men are out-of-network.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n
- \u201cIt\u2019s never over easy.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n
- \u201cNo, actually I fell off the wagon.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
While judging this month\u2019s contest, we tried not select any entries that were similar to those three finalists.<\/span><\/p>\nMick Steven\u2019s original caption was, \u201cI\u2019ve pretty much had it with walls.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThis month\u2019s entries fell into two broad categories: (1) those that alluded to the nursery rhyme, and (2) those that came at the drawing from a completely different angle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFirst Category<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThese two entries alluded to other nursery rhyme characters:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n- \u201cI saw Jack and Jill at the ER.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n
- \u201cDon\u2019t tell Mother.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The next two refer to Humpty\u2019s \u201cgreat fall:\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n- \u201cI wouldn\u2019t describe it as \u2018great.\u2019\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n
- \u201cI wouldn\u2019t call it great.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Those nearly identical versions of the same joke highlight the importance of choosing your words carefully, and \u201ccall it\u201d is far superior to \u201cdescribe it as.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThis next entry, which alludes to a philosophical question that Plutarch posed in his essay \u201cThe Symposiacs,\u201d would be much better if it made no reference to the wall and went with just the second half of the joke: <\/span>\u201cFall off a wall? No, I tried to settle an old argument with a chicken.\u201d<\/i><\/b> Never try to cram two jokes into one caption.<\/span><\/p>\nThe following caption suggests that the egg who\u2019s speaking has come back from the future to save his younger self: <\/span>\u201cI built a time machine. Stay off the wall.\u201d<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe next three entries explain why the egg fell:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n- \u201cI was pushed.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n
- \u201cMy phone was on vibrate.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n
- \u201cI forgive you, Bumpty.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
That third entry, which I initially dismissed as a stupid pun, is actually terrific, as it creates an entire story. It suggests that both eggs were on the wall together, and that the one who didn\u2019t fall accidentally knocked the other one off because he is, as his name suggests, constantly bumping into things.<\/span><\/p>\nHere\u2019s a pun I wanted to dismiss as stupid but is really not that bad: <\/span>\u201cThen, my insurance dropped me.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nThese next two captions refer to the king\u2019s horses that tried to help Humpty after his fall but only made matters worse.<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n- \u201cI wake up and some horse is giving me mouth-to-mouth.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n
- \u201cI\u2019ll never understand why he sends the horses.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
This entry suggests that the injured egg is not Humpty Dumpty, but is instead his unintentional victim: <\/span>\u201cI\u2019m the poor bastard he landed on.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nThese two captions explain why Humpty climbed the wall:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n- \u201cThe ascent was spectacular.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n
- \u201cThe view isn\u2019t worth it.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
And, while I didn\u2019t expect to see a nursery-rhyme related sex joke, we got one: <\/span>\u201cWell, it sure ain\u2019t from humpin\u2019.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nSecond Category<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nSince I ended that last section with a sex joke, I\u2019ll start this section with another, which doubles as one of the month\u2019s better puns: <\/span>\u201cAt least I got laid before I cracked.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nHere\u2019s another pun I\u2019ve decided somewhat reluctantly to highlight: <\/span>\u201cThey caught me poaching.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nSome of you may argue that this next caption is also a pun, but it\u2019s actually an example of transforming an ordinary statement into a fitting caption: <\/span>\u201cYou always look so put together.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nHere\u2019s an unexpected and pretty clever joke about race discrimination: <\/span>\u201cThere wouldn\u2019t have been so much attention if I were a brown egg.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nAnd here\u2019s this month\u2019s second joke that alludes to Plutarch\u2019s philosophical question and suggests that the egg sustained his injuries during a fight as opposed to a fall: <\/span>\u201cI should have let the chicken go first.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nAs someone who spent a few years in high school and college bagging groceries (first at P&C Foods in Manlius, New York, and then at the Food Buoy in Woods Hole, Massachusetts), I loved this caption: <\/span>\u201cI can\u2019t believe that asshole put me at the bottom of the grocery bag.\u201d<\/i><\/b> That\u2019s probably too vulgar for <\/span>The New Yorker<\/span><\/i>\u2019s caption contest, but our sensibilities are not so delicate. Also, the joke wouldn\u2019t land as well without the word \u201casshole.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThis caption is good but too long: <\/span>\u201cMaybe an egg isn\u2019t the best body type for parkour.\u201d<\/i><\/b> It would work better without such a detailed explanation. I\u2019d suggest something closer to Mick Sterven\u2019s original caption\u2014something like, \u201cI\u2019ve had it with parkour.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThis caption suggests that, while the injured egg was at the hospital, he received some more bad news: <\/span>\u201cOn top of everything, I also tested positive for salmonella.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nFinally, here\u2019s an entry that suggests the eggs are working on a movie: <\/span>\u201cDo your own stunts.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nCongratulations to ZACK WINDHEIM, who won this month\u2019s contest with, <\/span>\u201cI forgive you, Bumpty.\u201d<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe five runners-up are:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n- \u201cThere wouldn\u2019t have been so much attention if I were a brown egg.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n
- \u201cI can\u2019t believe that asshole put me at the bottom of the grocery bag.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n
- \u201cI wake up and some horse is giving me mouth-to-mouth.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n
- \u201cI\u2019m the poor bastard he landed on.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n
- \u201cI wouldn\u2019t call it great.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Watch the Judging Process<\/h3>\n
If you want to see how we made our selections, we recorded the process and posted it below<\/p>\n
![\"CartoonStock](\"https:\/\/www.cartoonstock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Mick-Eggs-4-AMCapContest-300x236.jpg\")
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