CARTOON CAPTION/ANTI-CAPTION CONTESTS CONTINUE!

Let's hear it for Brooklyn women! The winner of Caption Contest 113 (Harry Bliss hotel maid with gun outside door) is

"Oh, now you want to talk, when all week it was 'Do Not Disturb.'"
Diane Ferraro (Brooklyn, NY)

So second-place New York keeps pace with first-place California, while poor New Jersey wallows in third place, winless since Caption Contest 88.


In Caption Contest 115 (Leo Cullum's man in radiation suit in bar), the nominees are perhaps more distinctive than usual.

"Ever have the feeling you forgot to turn something off?"
Preston Thomas (Chicago, IL)

"The way I see it, I'm the miner and you're the canary."
Melissa Muntyan (Tampa, FL)

"Trust me, background radiation—it's the new secondhand smoke."
James Gamble III (New York, NY)

My loser:

"Are you sure there are no peanuts?"

In Anti-Caption Contest 116 (Gahan Wilson's cartoonist aliens), the winner is

"Ha! That’s brilliant! Of course we’ll run it - thanks for submitting! Do you have any others?"
Deborah

My losers:

"I don't care what Mr. Shawn would think. You're fired! And by the way, where did you get your turtle neck? I'm starving!"

"I know I'm new at this, but don't you think a caveman would be funnier?"

"Looks like you had a great vacation! So why the big frown?"

John Bucher of Emdashes interviews Caption Contest 111 winner David Wood here.


Caption Contest 117 is here. Anti-Caption Contest 117 is here.


THE STANDINGS

Here is the current New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest breakdown by state. You can find it all mapped out here.

20 California

17 New York (15 from the Big Apple)

9 New Jersey

6 Massachusetts
6 Pennsylvania

4 Connecticut (two from New Haven, two not)
4 Maryland (none named Mary)

3 Georgia (includes two-time winner Carl Gables)
3 Illinois
3 Minnesota (Minneapolis 2, St. Paul 1)
3 North Carolina
3 Ohio
3 Virginia

2 District of Columbia
2 Mississippi
2 Missouri
2 New Hampshire
2 Oregon (both named Eric, both from Portland)
2 Rhode Island
2 Texas
2 Utah
2 Vermont

1 Alabama
1 Alaska
1 Arizona
1 Florida
1 Iowa
1 Kentucky
1 Michigan
1 Nevada
1 New Mexico
1 Oklahoma
1 Washington

Map Introduction

Thanks to Andriy Bidochko for Map Builder.

Image by David Marc Fischer using Samsung cameraphone

CARTOON CAPTION/ANTI-CAPTION CONTESTS CONTINUE!

We can now welcome Michigan to the Winners Circle thanks to Caption Contest 111 (near-naked man wearing shoes and socks):

"On second thought, it's more of a sandals day."
David Wood (Marquette, MI)

(As for winner Montana (James Montana, that is), John Bucher of Emdashes offers a charming interview here.)


In Caption Contest 113 (hotel cleaning woman with gun), the nominees come from front-runners California and New York.

"Oh, now you want to talk, when all week it was 'Do Not Disturb'."
Diane Ferraro (Brooklyn, NY)

"The time is 11:59. You have one minute to check out."
Lance Dickson (San Jose, CA)

"I can fluff your pillow the easy way or the hard way."
James Gendron (Syracuse, NY)

My loser:

"Someone's about to be 'disturbed.'"

Pretty close to Diane Ferraro's nominee, don't you think?


In Anti-Caption Contest 114 (Drew Dernavich lifeguard talking with woman while perched near giant cloud-enshrouded tower), the winner is

"That's the tower for your fucking cell phones, so you fucking out-of-towners don't have to suffer through five fucking minutes of being without your precious fucking cell phones. However, please note that despite my obvious contempt for your privileged lifestyle, I will still save you from drowning, should it come to that."
Francis

My losers:

"It is true that I am a lifeguard, but there is also a greater lifeguard, One who guards the lives of all lifeguards. Even though this Great Lifeguard cannot be seen, I have a deep and abiding faith in His higher presence. Would you like a pamphlet? It's waterproof."

"That's right. It’s the ill-fated lifeguard tower-to-nowhere project."

"Please move out of my line of sight. I’m on duty."

"For some obscure reason I want to call you Didi."

And I shan't let this pass without acknowledging these from B'nai the K:

On my nose? Zinc oxide. And (snif) coke.

I wasn't really into swimming as a kid. But do you remember this band called BLOTTO?

OK, let me see if I've got this right. A "caveman" wandered over from the comic strip "B.C.," went into that outhouse, slammed the door shut, stank it up something awful, and apparently wiped his ass with the pages of the Koran? Here are the two biggest things wrong with your story. First, this is the New Yorker, not the New York Post -- we don't carry "B.C." or any strip that Johnny Hart creates, and we never have. Second, though you'd be forgiven for thinking so, this actually isn't the New Yorker CAVEMAN Cartoon (Anti-)Caption Contest, they just got lazy and used caveman scenarios several times over a short period, so no, you don't have to make up stuff about cavemen who don't even appear in the drawing. And finally, you know, I'm not the caveman police, I'm not the outhouse police, I'm not the cartoon p.c. police. I'm just the lifeguard. See what it says right here? "Lifeguard."

Caption Contest 115 is here. Anti-Caption Contest 115 is here—with prizes!


THE STANDINGS

Here is the current New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest breakdown by state. You can find it all mapped out here.

19 California

16 New York (14 from the Big Apple)

9 New Jersey

6 Massachusetts
6 Pennsylvania

4 Connecticut (two from New Haven, two not)
4 Maryland (none named Mary)

3 Georgia (includes two-time winner Carl Gables)
3 Illinois
3 Minnesota (Minneapolis 2, St. Paul 1)
3 North Carolina
3 Ohio
3 Virginia

2 District of Columbia
2 Mississippi
2 Missouri
2 New Hampshire
2 Oregon (both named Eric, both from Portland)
2 Rhode Island
2 Texas
2 Utah
2 Vermont

1 Alabama
1 Alaska
1 Arizona
1 Florida
1 Iowa
1 Kentucky
1 Michigan
1 Nevada
1 New Mexico
1 Oklahoma
1 Washington

Map Introduction

Thanks to Andriy Bidochko for Map Builder.

Image by David Marc Fischer using Samsung cameraphone

CARTOON CAPTION/ANTI-CAPTION CONTESTS CREEP AHEAD!

This is one of those weeks when The New Yorker doesn't start a new contest, so many of us must seek another object of obsession.

The ever-thoughtful Dan Radosh fills the gap by recycling a James Thurber cartoon for recaptioning and promises to reveal the original caption as well.

I'd be willing to wager that Emily of Emdashes already recognizes it.

She and Radosh have also linked to this interesting profile of Caption Contest winner Fairleigh Brooks of Louisville, Kentucky. Here's the winner that put Brooks on the map.

ADDENDUM And now Emdashes offers an original (and funny) interview between intern John Bucher of Canada and Caption Contest 98 winner Richard Hine of New York. Hine, it turns out was also a nominee in Caption Contest 82 with "It's like paradise for the first few days. But you wouldn't want to live here."


Caption Contest 101 is here. Anti-Caption Contest 101 is here.


THE STANDINGS

Here is the current New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest breakdown by state. You can find it all mapped out here.

17 California

14 New York (13 from the Big Apple)

9 New Jersey

6 Massachusetts
6 Pennsylvania

4 Connecticut (two from New Haven, two not)

3 Georgia (includes two-time winner Carl Gables)
3 Illinois
3 Maryland (none named Mary)
3 Minnesota (Minneapolis 2, St. Paul 1)
3 North Carolina
3 Ohio

2 District of Columbia
2 New Hampshire
2 Texas
2 Utah
2 Virginia

1 Alabama
1 Arizona
1 Florida
1 Iowa
1 Kentucky
1 Mississippi
1 Missouri
1 Nevada
1 New Mexico
1 Oklahoma
1 Oregon
1 Rhode Island
1 Vermont
1 Washington

Map Introduction

Thanks to Andriy Bidochko for Map Builder.

Image by David Marc Fischer using Samsung cameraphone