My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #939

The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #939 appeared in the issue of April 7, 2025. A couple is seated in a restaurant. Medusa is at the next table. The woman speaks; the man does not move. My entry appears below. The drawing is by Jason Adam Katzenstein—you know, JAK.

"I should let you know I'm blind."

These captions didn't last through the first course:

"You looked, didn't you?"
"Don't move—oh, you can't."
"Did the place suddenly get quiet?"
"How's the Mexican stone soup?"

April 18, 2025 Update:  The Finalists

April 26, 2025 Update:  I voted for the caption from Melbourne.

May 3, 2025 Update:  The Winner

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The CartoonStock Cartoon Caption Contest No. 169

For the CartoonStock Caption Contest #169, Jason Adam Katzenstein shows us a dog as commencement speaker at a graduation ceremony for dogs. How does one write a caption for this?

By now, you should have the rules of the monthly cash prize contest committed to memory: 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 $70 into the first fourteen pay-to-play contests and this fifteenth one brings my cash outlay up to $75. I was fortunate enough to win $200 in previous contests, so I'm still playing with the house's money. The competition is fierce and I don't know whether I can keep this up, but I'm going to work at it like a dog. My three latest entries are shown below, above the break. Below the break are my also-rans.

"It's true. You will all have your day."
"Ask yourselves why no graduating cats are here."
"With homework behind us, I ate my own speech."
* * *
"We will now all fetch our diplomas."
"Help yourselves to a diploma or a belly rub."

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My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #781

I took a shot at The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #781 from the issue of November 22, 2021. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Jason Adam Katzenstein. 

"Can you believe it? I'm also lit."

December 5, 2021 Update:  The Finalists

December 11, 2021 Update: I really can't remember if I voted this time around, but if I did it was for the caption from Brooklyn. But I probably didn't.

December 18, 2021 Update:  The Winner

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The Nelson Line New Yorker Collection for 2021

For several years now the Nelson Line has licensed New Yorker cartoon and cover art for use in gifts, cards, and stationery. Products include trinket trays, coaster sets, note pads, journals, wine totes, zipper pouches, boxed notes, gift wrap, and magnets. The large variety of items are suitable as gifts for Father's Day and many other happy occasions. What more could the humor-loving public want? The 2021 catalogue shows the complete collection of available items. With luck, a few of these can be found at neighborhood stationers.

Cover with cartoons by Teresa Burns Parkhurst, Paul Karasik, and Kim Warp

Wine tote cartoons by Michael Crawford and Jason Adam Katzenstein. Other wine totes with Shakespeare quotations.
Zipper pouch cartoons by Bob Mankoff and Leo Cullum.

https://issuu.com/papereclips/docs/newyorker_catalog_1.20.21-web

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My Entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #562

Nature-lovers everywhere should appreciate my entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #562 for March 27, 2017. The drawing is by Jason Adam Katzenstein.

"Please tell me you're a flying fish!"

And, alas, a couple of caption throwaways:

"We'd better run a background check."
"Then we're agreed: I gotta love one man till I die."

April 3, 2017 Update:  The Finalists

April 10, 2017 Update:  I voted for the first caption.


April 17, 2017 Update:  Winning Caption

Note:  Last week, Will McPhail's caption drawing went to the dogs. My caption wasn't even paper-trained. Get into Contest #561.

The blog archives have a lot more on the topics of Jason Adam Katzenstein, fish, and birds. Take your pick.

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My Entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #555

Sharpen your teeth and read my entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #555 for January 30, 2017. The drawing is by Jason Adam Katzenstein.

"I just don't see the point of the Mannequin Challenge."

February 1, 2017 Update:  The Semifinalists

https://www.research.net/r/555mca

February 6, 2017 Update:  The Finalists

February 20, 2017 Update:  I voted for the third caption. Tough choice.


February 27, 2017 Update:  Winning Caption

Note:  Last week, cartoonist Mick Stevens sent in the clown. My caption would have failed me out of Clown College. See the results of the Greatest Cartoon Caption Contest on Earth #554.

Jason Adam Katzenstein has previously appeared on this blog not as a cartoonist but as a caption contest winner!

With only about five months to go until Shark Week, you can prepare for everyone's favorite summer predator by reading my collected posts about sharks.

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My Best Columbia Surgery Cartoon Caption Contest Entries of 2015

Another caption contest? The last thing I need, I told myself, is to start documenting a third cartoon caption contest. I'm already reporting on the New Yorker's challenging weekly contest and on Moment magazine's bimonthly contest. So on July 27 when Columbia Surgery announced on its Facebook page a new weekly caption contest with cartoons created by none other than Benjamin Schwartz—that's Dr. Benjamin Schwartz—I thought I might just play the game quietly without generating another 52 blog posts each year.

I have made no secret of the fact that I don't find anything funny about medical situations—unless of course they involve psychiatrists. Dr. Schwartz's wonderful efforts have done much to change my mind about this. Now five months into the run, I find that I wrote some decent entries and even won the contest a few times. Most importantly, I enjoyed myself. Surely you'll indulge me if I share with you a selection of my captions—just the winners, mind you—as I've become quite fond of some of them.

Here's how the contest works:  there are no published rules. There are no finalists, only winners. There's no prize other than acknowledgement on social media. The contest appears simultaneously on both Facebook and Twitter, each of which usually has its own distinct winner. I enter the Facebook contest only. Twitter usually has fewer entries and may well be easier to ace. A fresh cartoon in need of a caption appears sometime on Monday and a single winner is announced for each contest sometime on Friday.

This is the only caption contest I've seen professional cartoonists take a stab at. It turns out they're not bad at this game. Here for openers are three winning entries by two New Yorker cartoonists who entered the Facebook version of the contest. The first is by Liana Finck from the very first contest that ended on July 31 and, boy, it's a beauty:

The second is by Jason Adam Katzenstein from the contest ending September 25:

The October 30 caption contest winner once more is Liana Finck:

Without further ado, here are my own winning Facebook entries. Please hold your applause until the end.

August 14:

August 28:

September 4:

September 18:

October 2:

October 23:

December 4:

Note:  Want to play along with me? Follow Columbia Surgery on Facebook or, if you're intimidated by me, Twitter.

Today is Jason Adam Katzenstein's first mention on the blog. It's not all it's cracked up to be, Jason. Here's more about caption contests and cartoonists from the blog's archive:
           Benjamin Schwartz
           Liana Finck
           The Caption Contests

           

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