Now that The New Yorker's weekly Cartoon Caption Contest has hit the century mark (100 weekly contests, that is), it lends itself to some statistical analysis--and I'm just the man to screw that up!Nevertheless, I'd like to offer some observations...and probably offer more down the road. I'm confident enough about my figures and findings to feel that they're "in the ballpark" but not confident enough to say that they're error-free.
GEOGRAPHY
My regular readers know that I've been maintaining a rough map of the winners as well as a tally (scroll down here). At a glance (especially using the Zoom feature) you can see how the contest is dominated by two states. California has more winners than any other state, but New York comes in second (with the Big Apple taking all but two of the Empire State's votes) and the region around New York is thoroughly peppered with many other winners.
City-wise, the Big Apple is the big winner (The New Yorker subcategorizes by borough, but I'm resisting that practice). Significant caption clusters can be also found in and around metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, while some other localities are noteworthy for producing multiple winners: Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New Haven, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC. Deserving a special mention is Atlanta-Norcross, as Norcross is home to two-time winner Carl Gable.
Then there are states and regions that remain barren of caption contest winners. On my map (which bears some resemblance to this map--and, perhaps, The New Yorker's circulation figures), you can see a lack of success just east of the Continental Divide. And Alaska and Hawaii still have no Caption Contest winners.
FIRST 50 VS. SECOND 50
New York has gained on California since Caption Contest 50, but another significant advancement came from New Jersey, which gained six wins to secure the third-place spot while Pennsylvania, which had been tied for second place with New York, accumulated no victories and fell back into a fourth-place tie with Massachusetts.
22 states were represented in the First 50; now there are 30 states plus the District of Columbia (whose citizens deserve equal voting representation in Congress).
CARTOONISTS
The captioners get a lot of the attention, but who drew the cartoons? Mostly men, with Tom Cheney leading the pack.
11 Tom Cheney
9 Frank Cotham
9 Leo Cullum
8 Mick Stevens
8 P. C. Vey
8 Gahan Wilson
6 Danny Shanahan
4 Alex Gregory
4 Mike Twohy
3 Harry Bliss
3 Michael Crawford
3 Drew Dernavich
3 Lee Lorenz
3 Victoria Roberts
3 Jack Ziegler
2 Matthew Diffee
2 Robert Leighton
2 Michael Maslin
1 Charles Barsotti
1 J. C. Duffy
1 J. B. Handelsman (RIP)
1 Edward Koren
1 Arnie Levin
1 Robert Mankoff
1 David Sipress
1 Robert Weber
1 Christopher Weyant
CARTOON "PROTAGONISTS"
All of the cartoons feature a "protagonist" who speaks the caption. I've had a little trouble hammering out some of their biological identities (a touchy subject anyway), but here's a guesstimate. Even with the vagaries, you should get the gist of it.
71 Male (includes lion, minotaur, werewolf, man with tail, pregnant man, and 9 from Yoga)
25 Female (includes plucked fowl)
1 Bird
1 Butterfly
1 Dog
1 Monster
"PROTAGONIST" TYPES
Moving somewhat beyond gender into an even iffier zone, what more do we know of the cartoon protagonists? Many are gray-flannel types. As far as we can tell from our isolated glimpses into their lives, many are straight and in recognizable intimate relationships even when they have a twist. There are doctors in the house, and enough legal types to conduct a trial. And of course there are those adorable talking animals and freaks and monsters. Plus assorted others.
30 Business (includes surfer and werewolf and assorted men in suits)
19 Wife/Female Partner (includes Jane)
9 Husband/Male Partner (includes Adam)
7 Doctor (includes this man in corridor with children on walls)
5 Animal
2 Judge
1 Angel
1 Anthropomorphic Number
1 Bartender
1 Boxing Fan
1 Brave
1 Cop
1 Father
1 Golfer
1 Guy in Desert
1 Hotline Worker
1 Lawyer
1 Man in Tree
1 Monster
1 Mother
1 Musician
1 "Mythic" Character (Minotaur)
1 Neighbor
1 Old Gent
1 Peasant
1 Person in House
1 Pet Owner
1 Pirate
1 Politician
1 Priest
1 Salesman
1 Scientist
1 Soldier
1 Traveler
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
So we got our business cartoons, our couple cartoons, our doctor cartoons, our...jurist cartoons. Where were they located, located, located? More often than not, our protagonists could be found in (or just outside) the office as well as the living room, the bedroom and the boardroom, the medical facility, and the sidewalk.
17 Office (including corridor, tightrope, and pregnant man)
13 Living Room
8 Bedroom (including cubicle and jail cell, not that there's necessarily much of a difference)
6 Boardroom (including subway car and room with piano)
6 Medical Facility (including corridor with children on walls)
4.5 Sidewalk (including sidewalk café also under Eaterie)
3 Bar
3 Court
3 Floating Vessel
3 Stoop/Home Entryway
2 Auto Plant
2 Church (including bar in church)
2 Road or Street (includes ladies and shoes)
1.5 Eaterie (includes sidewalk café also under Sidewalk)
1 Airplane
1 Apartment
1 Boxing Ring
1 By Fishtank
1 Cave
1 Circus
1 City
1 Concert Stage
1 Desert
1 Eden
1 Firing Squad
1 Forest
1 Golf Course
1 Heaven
1 Hotel Room
1 Hotline
1 Jungle
1 Lab
1 Ledge
1 Old West
1 Plants
1 Practice Room
1 Rapture/Nutley, New Jersey
1 Room
1 Stockholders Meeting
1 War Zone
THE SITUATIONS
I'm not prepared to break down 100 cartoon situations...but here are some observations:
Crazy things sure do happen in Offices and Boardrooms.
Boardrooms and Bedrooms established situations about 14% of the time.
In at least 6 of the 8 Bedroom scenes, the "protagonist" is female.
Perhaps nothing provides a break from the workaday like freaks and monsters and animals.
There were 2 tiny men, but many of the other cartoon humanoids would fall into the Average White Collar category.
THE SHOCKING CONCLUSION
The first hundred cartoons in the Caption Contest, drawn mainly by men, tend to depict male, light-skinned, and apparently heterosexual "protagonists" in work and home situations. However, in the bedroom scenarios, the "protagonists" tend to be female.
COMING SOON (AT A LATER DATE)
Still more analysis! [Here it is!]
Image by David Marc Fischer using Samsung cameraphone
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14 comments:
Bravo, David! This is a tour de force. You're right about D.C., and I'd like to say (as I'm known to do) once more that I strongly believe Canadians should be permitted to enter the competition. My Vancouver-based intern John, for instance, is excluded from the competition. Where's the justice? What about NAFTA? Are we just scared because we know they're funnier?
I've been following the cartoon contest faithfully, but it never occurred to me to analyze the demographics. I wonder why it occurred to you?
Yes, Emily, it is preposterous that even though the US has waged wars (and continues to wage wars) in the name of democracy, it still denies full representation to citizens of Washington, DC.
And I am also puzzled that The New Yorker only allows competitors from the USA.
As for why I have followed The New Yorker's demographics so closely...is there really any way to explain one's true calling?
Well I don't know who made the rules at the New Yorker but has anyone noticed that when Canadians win a contest they always have to solve a math problem or something before they can claim the prize? (I'm not making this up, you can probably find it on the internet somewhere.)
I'm just guessing here...but maybe it's because "Canada" sounds so much like "Can add...duh!"
"apparently heterosexual"
Boy you must have some very highly developed gadar if you can tell that a black and white drawing of 6 guys sitting around a conference table contains only heterosexuals. Funny, I happen to know a few gay men who wear suits from time to time an sit at conference tables, and I was shocked to realize one day that they looked just like everyone else - almost human even.
Or, looked at in a different way, do you suppose the only way homosexuals appear is when they are buggering one another?
No, I don't suppose the only way homosexuals appear is when they are buggering one another.
I think I actually share your concerns. I didn't even assume that the male-female twosomes are 100% certifiably straight, and I wondered whether anyone was an intersex individual.
I thought I was being reasonably cautious (although I now see that I used the personally dreaded first-person plural) when I wrote "As far as we can tell from our isolated glimpses into their lives, many are straight and in recognizable intimate relationships even when they have a twist" and "The first hundred cartoons in the Caption Contest...tend to depict male, light-skinned, and apparently heterosexual 'protagonists' in work and home situations." So I'm sorry if my wording was poor.
I do think that I am on to something--a bias or tendency in the cartoons that, incidentally, seems perpetuated by the captions that make the cut. I mean, it's possible that the people in the boardrooms are not board members but actors in scenes set in boardrooms, but aren't there "most likely" meanings to an illustration even though captions and other types of interpretations could depart radically from those "most likely" meanings?
But maybe I messed up. I'm certainly open to other phraseologies and other points of view. Anybody?
Any analysis that would encourage the delectable Ms Roberts to publish more cartoons definitely has my vote. I recall her wonderful impersonations of the rich and famous talking about how they spent their Sundays in Australia's "Nation Review" 30 years ago!
Victoria Roberts did Contest 8 (female "protagonist" with little man in fishbowl), Contest 50 (female "protagonist" with tree bark wearing husband in living room), and Contest 66 (male "protagonist" and wife reading tablets in living room).
The lion is androgynous.
The lion has a mane. Right?
Is there any way to know how many submissions are entered each week?
It's been averaging about 6,724. For more info, you could try Emdashes or The New Yorker itself.
I can't see as the winners would be picked by the area they live in. It's interesting I live in one of the high contributing states, but that makes sense. I just figure they'd have to hire someone nearly full time to actually read over 6K submissions per week. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they are reading only the first couple hundred, or a randomly selected couple hundred, or they are selecting cartoons that say something they wanted, like address the insurance subject in the cartoon.
It makes sense that the cartoons published are along the doctor, lawyer, businessman subjects since they are catering to their customer base. I think it's a mistake that they have almost all white and predominantly men portrayed in their cartoons.
I personally have noticed that they often select very obvious captions as winners. They're not funny because there is no surprise in that.
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