In Evan Lian’s cartoon, two storks are making their deliveries. One is carrying a baby. The other has a pink mustache—a reference to the ride-sharing service Lyft—and carries a young man with a backpack on his lap. The stork with the mustache is speaking.
This cartoon has three frames of reference: baby-delivering storks, the young man, and Lyft. Addressing all three is not easy.
Because fewer babies are born every year in this country, I thought the stork might work for Lyft to supplement his primary source of income: “Until birthrates pick up, I need the extra work.”
And because Lyft passengers rate their drives, I also imagined the stork saying, “I usually get five stars if I don’t drop them.”
Now let’s see how you did:
There were a lot of Lyft captions. Like I did, some of you suggested the stork needed supplemental income because of the declining birthrate:
- “With the birth rate down, I had to expand my business model.”
- “With birthrates falling, we have to look for new sources of revenue.”
- “With the birth rate down, I had no choice but to branch out.”
A similar set of captions addressed the stork’s need for a second job but didn’t explain why:
- “Ridesharing is my side hustle.”
- “This is just a side hustle.”
- “It’s my side hustle.”
Several of you explained why working for a ride-sharing service beats delivering babies:
- “Newborns leave a mess and don’t tip.”
- “Newborns are terrible tippers.”
- “Heavier, yes, but they tip.”
As I did, one of you addressed the fact that Lyft drivers need good passenger reviews: “5 stars or I drop you.”
That’s it for the ride-sharing captions. The rest of you explained why the stork who’s speaking is delivering a young man instead of a baby.
There were religion-themed puns:
- “He’s a born-again Christian.”
- “These born-agains really strain my neck.”
- “These born-agains are the worst.”
- “I deliver Born Agains.”
Suggestions that the young man is not being delivered to his birth-parents:
- “He’s being adopted.”
- “Adoption.”
Captions implying that the young man was not what his parents wanted:
- “I’m handling returns today.”
- “This is the first time I’ve been asked to return anybody.”
- “Generous return policy.”
And entries suggesting that the stork is running way behind:
- “I’m a bit late with this one.”
- “I lost his parents’ address.”
- “Better late than never.”
Like that last caption, the next two entries take a common phrase and give it a new and fitting meaning within the context of the drawing:
- “Life begins at 30.”
- “Mine keeps saying he wasn’t born yesterday.”
Here’s the week’s best sex joke: “With that backpack, it will be 16 years until either of them have sex.”
And here’s a terrific reference to children who never launch: “I take them to their parents’ basements.”
Though I really liked many of the captions that explained why the stork was delivering a young man instead of a baby, I decided that the winning entry also had to address the pink mustache, which is (or was) a symbol for Lyft. And the best Lyft caption was, “Heavier, yes, but they tip.”
ENTER THIS WEEK’S CAPTION CONTEST
Lawrence Wood has won The New Yorker’s Cartoon Caption Contest a record-setting seven times and been a finalist two other times. He has collaborated with New Yorker cartoonists Peter Kuper, Lila Ash, Felipe Galindo Gomez, and Harry Bliss (until Bliss tossed him aside, as anyone would, to collaborate with Steve Martin). Nine of his collaborations have appeared in The New Yorker, and one is included in the New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons.