The June 4 Cartoon Caption Winner!

Click image to enlarge.

The winner:

"First you applaud during high school graduation, and now this!"

-- Ross Levin of Charlotte

The runners-up:

"So, selling gas isn't enough for you?"

-- submitted separately by Billy Fisher and Ray Otstott, Charlotte

"I see you're still at it, Scooter, leaking for the bushes!"

-- Kenneth Irving, Kannapolis

"When you waste the water...the terrorists win!"

-- Larry Connelly, Charlotte

"Why work here?  I hear CMS has an opening."

-- Nathan Wheatley, Charlotte

Thank you for all your entries.  While a couple of other entrants compared illegal lawn watering with applauding during high school graduation ceremonies, Mr. Levin's caption seemed to say it most succinctly.  Mr. Fisher's and Mr. Otstott's captions weren't exactly the same, but phrased so similarly that it was impossible to choose between the two.  Here's a selection of some of the other better lines we received this week:

"The neighbors also want us to pick up their newspaper while they're away.  Apparently, there's a burglar loose in the neighborhood."

"Let the bushes die!  I don't wanna end up in the clinker with Paris Hilton!"

"You'll probably be charged with armed watering!"

"If you think this is criminal, you should see what they did to the Coliseum!"

"So you're the new Union County Public Water Dept. Director?"

"You're as low down as the water supply!"

"Are you going to siphon my gas tank too?"

"Well, well, well, lookee here -- Jim Black, Sprinkler of the House!"

"Water you doing?'

Disagree with the judges?  Got another caption to add to the list?  Want to judge these yourself, and let us know your winners?  Feel free to click on the little blue "Comments" link just below this post to discuss or comment on any of this.  Please visit us again Monday for a new cartoon caption challenge.

Comments

[jba]

I think it is sad that these captions completely ignore the truth. We are dumping millions of gallons of perfectly good drinking water on shrubs and plants when there is a developing drought and an overarching water crisis that has us fighting to transfer water from other basins. Shame on everyone for having such vain and wasteful attitudes toward something as precious as water.

[LT]

Very sad !! Maybe the lack of rain, and oppressive heat have taken more of a toll than we thought. I must say that the more I look at the winner, the more I like it. If you've ever been at a graduation ceremony where people in the audience are screaming like banshees, and totally sucking the enjoyment out of it for everyone else, it could be considered criminal !!! I do wish the judges had focused on the WATER issue, and not padded it with references to other important(except for Paris Hilton) but unrelated issues. Maybe they are saving the heavy hitting ones for when we are actually under mandatory water restrictions.

The 2 I sent in were inspired by a busy body neighbor. I took Kevin's input from last week to heart, and tried to imagine what the lady in the cartoon might be saying to the man. She sees him as a criminal because he is wasting water with unmitigated gall !!! Love that term.
Here they are...
"I see you are doing your part to ensure mandatory water restrictions!!"
AND
"It's a gardenia...not a camel !!"
I wonder if anyone else is as confused by this week's choices as I am?

[Kenneth Irving]

I submitted several captions regarding the local water supply and the NC/SC tussle over the use of the Yadkin and Cabawba basins. Unfortunately, they weren't funny. They were, as the above comments stated, SAD!

I wonder if Kevin Siers had something particular in mind when he drew this cartoon. Wouldn't it be nice if he would share it with those of us who are trying so hard !!! I would love to see the captions that were submitted (or should I say rejected) with only the water issues in mind. While clever, most of the ones here are stretches. It's not easy to make funny about a natural disaster. Anyone feel like sharing?

[Randy Thomas]

I don't know if I would use the word "sad" to describe this week's captions, but I do wonder why so many of them seem to wander so far off the point. Jim Black? Paris Hilton? Scooter Libby? CMS? Certainly they're all important issues (OK, not Paris), but it seems to me that pairing them up with the water crisis just deflects attention from the main point. Maybe some people just feel the necessity to flog their own agendas no matter what Kevin Siers draws.

[cam]

Most succinctly said Randy Thomas !!!

[Kevin Siers]

I've always felt that the cartoon caption contest isn't about what I draw -- it's about what you, the reader, see. The sketch that I provide isn't necessarily about ANYTHING -- it only has the meaning you decide to give it. Granted, the set-up this week was the drought, watering restrictions and the possible criminalization of keeping your gardenias green. And this drawing would have been a good opportunity to make a statement about those topics, and we did receive many that referenced them. But most didn't really grab us -- I wouldn't call them 'sad', but they weren't all that funny either. Sometimes, by sticking too close to the topic as drawn, the caption writer simply says in words what the drawing shows -- not adding much creativity to the mix. Plus, as someone above mentioned, perhaps it's just not that easy to joke about a "natural disaster". On the other hand, Freud has said that humor is found in the unlikely connection between two separate ideas -- perhaps this explains why captions that make references to other topics seemed funnier this week. Of course, this isn't easy to pull off either -- sometimes the connection is indeed too great a stretch to be funny, or even to make sense. Luckily, Mr. Levin pulled it off perfectly this week, connecting the criminalization of two commonplace activities, making his caption one of my favorites of the last few months.

[Nick Danger, 3rd Eye]

Well, I think the entries should be judged by their humor and wit.

I'll let you know when I see some.

[Kenneth Irving]

Hey Nick, we're all waiting with baited breath for your approval.

[LT]

Thanks Kevin Siers for the awesome post. You make it sound soooo easy !!! We'll just keep hitting them, and hope that one clears the net every now and then !!

[Ross Levin]

To me, Mr. Siers set the stage so well when he portrayed the man as a criminal. My thought was here is this man watering a bush, and he's a crook. I remembered as a youth my parents setting up the sprinkler and we would run back and forth through it. Now, that's tantamount to a crime! I thought that was just crazy, as crazy as those people getting arrested for cheering at the Fort Mill High School graduation. Bingo! The hard part was putting the two together using as few words as possible. At first I excluded the words "high school" but felt this was needed to keep the cartoon regional. Surprising that the thread of comments for the most part take issue with a pot shot at water conservation and high school graduation applause? Hmmm, maybe that's what makes the caption work?

[LT]

Thanks Mr. Levin for the input. While I had a totally different take on your winning caption, I really appreciate the explanation of how you came up with it. Be careful, you may be inadvertently helping the competition ! HA HA !!! Those good old days of running through the sprinkler are still with me too !!!