For years, Roger Ebert has entered the New Yorker‘s cartoon caption contest, and for years, his wittiest efforts were rebuffed. He’s not afraid to admit that it bothered him. In fact, back in 2009, he even wrote extensively about his frustration. “I have done more writing for free for the New Yorker in the last five years than for anybody in the previous 40 years,” he lamented. “It’s not that I think my cartoon captions are better than anyone else’s, although some weeks, understandably, I do. It’s that just once I want to see one of my damn captions in the magazine that publishes the best cartoons in the world. Is that too much to ask? Maybe I’m too oblique for them. The New Yorker‘s judges seem to live inside the box, and too many of their finalists are obvious — even no-brainers, you could say.”
Well, it took him 107 tries, but the Pulitzer-Prize winning writer finally won, framing a lost couple wandering in the desert beneath an F parking-lot sign with, “I’m not going to say the word I’m thinking of.” The New Yorker recognized Ebert’s persistence in its announcement, generously including some of his previous entries.
But just as actors sometimes have a solid but not spectacular performances rewarded by the Academy for a lifetime of work, is it possible that Ebert’s winning caption isn’t his best? I’m partial to his monster-truck at the orchestra quip, and I’m rather disappointed that the magazine’s censors wouldn’t allow his naked flyer. Really? (Though I love that there’s such a thing as the Caption Contest Board of Censors. In my mind, the Board members all wear white wigs, like British barristers.) Which of his entries did you like best?
Read more:
Roger Ebert: Speechless, but far from silent
I feel his pain – I’ve also submitted and once the winning caption was identical to mine. I guess they must draw names when they get similar suggestions?
I’m thinking that maybe they ignored his entries because he’s a professional, prolific writer who has his stuff published almost daily. The New Yorker probably just wanted to give amateurs a chance to be witty and heard and they only have so many issues to give the average Joe a crack at this. Ebert is my favorite critic and he’s the last say as far as if I’ll see a movie or not, but come on. Wouldn’t it have been sweeter for him to win the caption contest without having to complain about it. Now it looks like they’re just throwing him a bone and he’s bigger than that. Now he’ll never know if you won the caption contest based on merit or because they felt this was an opportunity to pull a feature out of your rant. It always feels better to be recognized without mentioning that you’re worthy of being recognized. Once the praise is given, it just feels like they’re placating you.
If they were placating him, 2 years is still a long time to wait after his complaint!
Oh god! His grammar!
You’re right, it should have been, “I’m not going to say the word of which I’m thinking.” The thing is…nobody actually talks like that.
Exactly… especially a couple lost in the desert!
Let’s just hope that the “oh god! his grammar” guy was kidding. That ridiculous idea about not ending a sentence w a preposition has been totally discredited. There is no logical region for it unless you are trying to speak another language. And of course a cartoon should reflect language as actually spoken.
I’ve never seen any of the others listed here so I can’t vote.
Click the link at the end of the second paragraph.
Hooray for Roger!! I follow him on twitter and he’s one of the BEST out there!
Hi. Bob DiPasquale, self proclaimed caption contest expert here. While I’ve won Dave Lettermen’s online Top 10 contest three times, my continued cracks at the New Yorker always seem to fall short too. I’m an application developer by day, and I approached the New Yorker years ago on how to run a better caption contest. I think it may have been Mr Mankoff himself that agreed my idea had some merit Alas, he passed though, so I built a web site where members both judge and submit. Every caption gets ranked, and you truly learn how funny you are. I don’t have the resources yet to reach the quality found at the New Yorker’s contest, but I could at least tell Roger what his HumorQ is. You’ll have to be clever to find the site I guess. No spamming here in the comments section.
i liked the tractor/cell phone caption best.