In the CartoonStock Caption Contest #179, a fairy-tale princess and a unicorn share a couch, a TV program, and a dismal life together. The rules of the monthly cash prize contest have not changed (and neither has my description of them): five dollars buys up to three entries. Real cash prizes are $500 for first place and $100 for each of five runners up. As of this writing, I've put $120 into the first twenty-four pay-to-play contests and this twenty-fifth challenge brings my total cash outlay up to $125. Having achieved runner-up status with two previous entries, I've collected $200 from CartoonStock, so I'm still playing with the house's money, thank goodness. In fact, so few contestants enter that the odds are generally favorable even for us less-gifted caption writers. My three entries are shown below. The cartoonist is Glen LeLievre.
"Happily ever after, my ass." "Don't you despise fairy tale endings?" "You haven't worked a day since 'Fantasia.'"
May 18, 2024 Update: The Winner
None of the four judges picked any of my captions in their lists of ten. But the cartoonist, Glen LeLievre, picked only one caption and it was one of mine! The judges had already decided they hated it. Listen from 23:40 for about a minute to find out which caption masterpiece it was.
It seems fairy tales are always being rewritten to meet the needs of the day. Here's cartoonist Eldon Dedini in the August 1952 Esquire with a new version of the happy ending.
"And then she got a settlement of a million dollars from the prince and lived happily ever after[.]" Eldon Dedini Esquire, August 1952
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