Word: caption
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...Whiskey, a Travelogue Q & A: How to Win the New Yorker Caption Contest...
...projection you're talking about calls to mind a great Slate article in which a caption-contest winner explained that the trick to winning was using common cliches about the cartoon subject. A colleague emailed me that article, by Patrick House. That killed me - he had a great caption, but I really loved that cartoon and my caption was almost identical to his, and mine was shorter...
...could've been a four-time winner. There could have been 100 people who sent in something along the same lines. There was one time when I turned in what ended up being the winning caption, but perhaps 1,000 people sent it in; I think it was a pretty obvious fit for the cartoon. When more than one person submits the winning caption, they just choose a winner at random. That's just the luck of the draw...
What are the top two or three tips you have for caption writers? Be brief. Try to incorporate everything that's going on in the cartoon. Sometimes somebody will submit a caption that addresses one thing going on in the cartoon, but not something else that's pretty obvious. I think the more successful captions address everything that's going on. I'll depart from Patrick House here. He said not to try to be too funny. I think you should try to be as funny as you can. He's right that sometimes you see a winning caption that...
...often do you come up with a caption that you're pleased with? I think about 10 times I've submitted something and thought I might get a call. The odd thing is, I don't think the ones I've submitted that were selected as finalists were as strong as some that were ignored. I don't mean to sound ungrateful. I'm so happy that three of mine were selected as finalists. The last thing I want is for the New Yorker to say, "That ungrateful bastard...