In Avi Steinberg’s cartoon, a magic trick has gone wrong. The magician is nowhere to be found, but his hat and wand are on the stage. A worried rabbit is looking out of the hat and addressing the audience. Avi’s original caption—“Folks, did he by any chance say when he would REappear?”—suggests that the magician had started the show by making himself vanish.
Magicians encourage audience participation by saying, “For my next trick I’ll need a volunteer.” Because the rabbit needs help getting out of the hat, many of you submitted variations on that line (which is also the title of a great Warren Zevon song):
- “I’ll need a volunteer from the audience.”
- “May I have a volunteer from the audience?”
- “I need a volunteer from the audience with a cozy home.”
The following entries also suggested that the rabbit needs help:
- “Would anybody like to pull a rabbit out of a hat?”
- “Bear with me, I’ve never done this by myself.”
- “Does anybody know how to use a wand?”
- “I regret splitting up the act.”
This entry went in the other direction by suggesting that the rabbit doesn’t need assistance: “I will now get myself out of this hat.”
Some of you referred to an idiom—“Is there a doctor in the house?”—that is traditionally used when an audience member needs medical assistance (the house being the part of the theater where the audience sits):
- “Is there a magician in the house?”
- “Is there a detective in the house?”
Bob Mankoff and Trevor Hoey and Joel Mishon and I judged this contest, and we debated the relative merits of those two captions. The first is probably better, but it’s also more obvious (as evidenced by the fact that many of you submitted it). The second variation is unexpected, and it adds an interesting twist because it suggests that the rabbit is looking not for a replacement for his partner, but for someone who can search for and find his partner. When judges are reviewing hundreds or thousands of entries and they keep seeing the exact same caption, that caption loses its power to amuse (even if it’s a good joke), and a slight twist can surprise the judges and make the slightly modified caption seem superior.
The following set of captions explain why the magician is not on stage:
Because he got offended and stormed off: “Perhaps the heckler can pull me out?”
Because he’s a drunk: “No, but he is making a quart of vodka disappear.”
Because he’s under the weather: “Due to illness, the part of the magician is also being played by me.”
Because he was blown clear off the stage when the rabbit accidentally discharged a firearm: “I was cleaning it and it just went off.” (I love dark humor.)
Because he can never see anything through to the end: “The real trick is getting him to finish what he started.”
The following entry is similar to that last caption, in that it suggests the magician is unreliable: “This must be why the doves quit.”
These captions suggest not that the magician has left the stage, but that he hasn’t yet arrived:
- “When he comes out, nobody clap.”
- “Then, after college, I joined the navy. Wait. I think I hear him coming.”
That first caption is good, but it’s not consistent with the rabbit’s worried expression. The second caption is outstanding, and a good example of the kind of joke that takes a moment to sink in and is therefore at risk of being overlooked during crowdsourcing, when people are rating captions very quickly. It’s even at risk of being overlooked by judges. At the risk of offending Bob Mankoff, I will tell you that this entry was not initially among his top ten. When I told him I loved the caption and thought it was one of the best I’d ever seen, he asked me why. I started to explain and all of a sudden he got it and said, “Oh, he’s vamping for time. That’s great!” It really is.
This caption also suggests the rabbit is vamping for time, and while it made us all laugh it’s really just too bizarre: “Welcome to my very special performance of ‘The Vagina Monologues.’”
Here are the best examples of transforming an ordinary statement or common expression into a line that takes on a new and humorous meaning within the context of the cartoon:
- “The student has become the master.”
- “He’s nothing without me.”
And here are the best puns:
- “We are experiencing magical difficulties.”
- “Stay tuned for the comeback tour.”
- “I’m still learning the tropes.”
The next two entries explain the magician’s disappearance by alluding to another common magic act:
- “Voila. He cut the show in half.”
- “Last week, he sawed himself in half.”
I especially like the way that last caption suggests the magician is incompetent.
The following caption works well because it matches the rabbit’s expression perfectly: “Let’s talk for a moment about separation anxiety.”
These captions acknowledge, very concisely, that the trick didn’t work:
- “Well, that really backfired.”
- “Oops, let me try this again.”
I especially like the way that last caption suggests the rabbit was in charge.
Finally, we have a clever reference to the fact that rabbits multiply quickly: “Rabbits can also subtract.”
This week’s winner comes from Michael Holmes: “Then, after college, I joined the navy. Wait, I think I hear him coming.”
The five runners-up are:
- “Is there a detective in the house?”
- “I’ll need a volunteer from the audience.”
- “Bear with me, I’ve never done this by myself.”
- “The student has become the master.”
- “I regret splitting up the act.”
For those of you who are interested in seeing (and critiquing) how we made our selections, we recorded the process this week and is posted here.