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Bob Mankoff is feeling much better but was again unable to join the judging panel this month, so <\/span>New Yorker<\/span><\/i> cartoonist Ellis Rosen took his place. Ellis is talented and funny, and you can see three of his cartoons and read his thoughts on <\/span>The New Yorker<\/span><\/i>\u2019s caption contest in my book, <\/span>Your Caption Has Been Selected<\/span><\/i> (pages 60, 182-84, 192). That\u2019s one of the last plugs I\u2019ll make for my book, which I will mention no more after June 4, the one-year anniversary of its publication.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Grant Meikle<\/a>, who goes by the alias \u201cScribbly G,\u201d submitted the drawing for this month\u2019s contest, but he was on a flight to Spain when we recorded our judging video. His cartoon is set in a psychiatrist\u2019s office. Both the doctor and patient are cats, and each is sitting in his own cardboard box. The psychiatrist is taking notes, and the patient (whose box has a large arrow above the words \u201cTHIS WAY UP\u201d) is speaking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Meikle\u2019s original caption alludes to the myth that cats have multiple lives: <\/span>\u201cMy biggest fear is that my next eight lives will be as boring as this one.\u201d <\/span><\/i>One of you submitted essentially the same joke\u2014<\/span>\u201cAnd all nine are going to be like this, generally?\u201d<\/i><\/b>\u2014which would have been much better without the last word. The\u00a0 caption should end with the punchline, which will rarely if ever be \u201cgenerally.\u201d One more thing about this entry: the first word is also unnecessary. Here\u2019s a better version: <\/span>\u201cAre all nine going to be like this?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n These captions also allude to the \u201cnine lives\u201d myth, but highlight the patient\u2019s regret:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n We liked all three of those entries but thought the last two were the strongest. And though we typically prefer shorter entries because they\u2019re punchier, in this case the slightly longer version\u2014\u201cWhat am I doing with my lives?\u201d\u2014seemed closer to what a psychiatrist\u2019s patient would actually say.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here are two entries that put an especially dark twist on the \u201cnine lives\u2019 joke:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This \u201cnine lives\u201d joke is good\u2014<\/span>\u201cWhat if there\u2019s no after-after-after-after-after-after-after-after-afterlife?\u201d<\/i><\/b> \u2014but perhaps too similar in structure to the winning caption from the <\/span>New Yorker<\/span><\/i> contest that featured this drawing by Lars Kenseth:<\/span> You all know how I feel about puns\u2014I could do without them\u2014but these are terrific:<\/span><\/p>\n Rosen initially objected to that third entry because he thought the inclusion of the word \u201cshit\u201d was a lazy way to elicit a response. I understand that objection, but in this case that word\u2014and its double meaning\u2014was central to the joke. Even <\/span>The New Yorker<\/span><\/i> has published a \u201cshit\u201d caption, and it was great:<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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