There have been a few complaints lately that the same names keep showing up as finalists in our You Write the Caption contest. Some of you probably won't believe me, but I make a strong effort not to play favorites -- I'm not sure I really have "favorites" for that matter.
That said, this contest has acknowledged from Day 1 that humor is subjective, and what strikes one person as clever or funny may leave another cold. It's why different folks can list either Doonesbury or Mallard Fillmore as their favorite comic strip. Because of that, I also try to give captions from both sides of the political debate equal consideration when judging -- which has led to as many outraged howls from the liberal readers of this site as the conservative ones (well, maybe not as many -- perhaps it's that outraged liberals howl louder). The goal is not to pick a caption that's "left" or "right", but one that fits the drawing the best.
When sorting through the pile of entries, I focus on the captions and not on the names of the folks submitting them. And I often send a compilation of captions (sans names) to my edit page cohorts seeking their input as well. The lines you see listed here on Friday are the result of a little bit of luck, and, I like to think, of a certain amount of skill.
What kind of skill, you ask? Well I'm glad you did! Here's a piece that ran at slate.com last year written by a former winner of The New Yorker cartoon caption contest, upon which our little gig here is unabashedly based. (We also linked to this piece last year when it first came out.) The writer says to focus on 3 things: knowing that humor and winning are separate matters (which some of the grumpier commentators here will happily affirm), understanding the mind of the gatekeeper (good luck with that one) and employing a little advanced joke theory.
We'll be back Friday, as usual, with the winner of this week's contest. And not to give anything away, but he's another former winner of The New Yorker contest. So maybe there's something to all this . . . .
I re-read the article. It said, "And if your goal is not to win the caption contest, why bother entering?"
I enter to show I appreciate the contest and that I've made an effort to come up with something. I think it is a lot of fun to try.
Posted by: Carolyn | July 30, 2009 at 08:49 PM
Vince Lombardi once said "winning isn't everything, winning is the only thing". That may be true in football, but I'm not so sure it applies to cartoons. I approach this contest as just an enjoyable little challenge that tends to make me think.If it achieves that, I believe it's accomplished it's purpose.
Posted by: Kenneth Irving | July 31, 2009 at 09:27 AM
The same names keep coming up because those people have the same style of humor as the judge(s).
Some winners are excellent. More are so-so, and some are just the best of a very mediocre bunch.
Posted by: Ken | July 31, 2009 at 09:58 PM
"The same names keep coming up because those people have the same style of humor as the judge(s)."
Doesn't add a lot of variety to the contest then?
I do like how there are complaints of the same people showing up on the top 5, then there's a posting of how that's justified because of a formula used by the NYP, and the winners are essentially THE SAME people again. That discourages entries, IMHO.
Posted by: brandon | August 01, 2009 at 12:41 AM
Hmmm. I'm not trying to discourage entries, I'm trying to encourage them. As in, keep trying, here's some insights that may help. Or not. The post linked to above isn't so much a formula as one guy's attempt to explain how he thinks it works. I'm not sure I agree with everything he says, but I'm a little too close to the process to be able to step outside it and know exactly how accurate he's being. But here's one insight I can pass along -- if you think you have the obvious caption to the picture, think again. If it's obvious to you, it's obvious to a bunch of other folks. Sometimes the caption "submitted by many readers" is the funniest and best of the bunch, but "many readers" can't win the contest -- only one.
Posted by: Kevin Siers | August 01, 2009 at 07:10 AM
If anyone should be discouraged it's me, I've been trying to win this cartoon for over two years....the closest I came, I lost to an 11 year old....but I'm not discouraged, disappointed maybe...I keep entering because I enjoy it, get a laugh, can't wait to see the next challenge and truly enjoy the drawings each week. Does anyone take into consideration the amount of work the artist is doing everyday, not to mention his cartoons, which by the way the lousy tee shirt one was a frig keeper...honestly I'm not as political as this caption requires and hate to admit I enjoy Dennis-the-Menance and Family Circus and truly enjoy the innocent remarks children have to say....Maybe the world wouldn't be where it is today if we listened more to children....
Posted by: suzanne & co. | August 03, 2009 at 10:55 AM