This month our panel of judges included the cartoonist Pat Byrnes, who created what is, in my opinion, one of the best New Yorker cartoons of all time:
His captionless drawing for our contest is set in Africa, where two zebras with the traditional black and white stripes are looking at a zebra whose coat appears to be a wall of bricks. One of the striped zebras is talking.
Pat’s original caption connected the brick wall to urban environments: “You sure have adapted to city life, haven’t you?” Several of you made the same connection:
- “Well, look who just got back from the city!”
- “This is my cousin. He works in the city.”
- “You must be the city gal.”
- “So, how was New York?”
The next two captions present different attitudes toward urban sprawl:
- “Hey, I like the adaptation to urban encroachment.”
- “There goes the savannah.”
A couple of you submitted a pun that doubled as a sex joke:
- “One of us just got laid.”
- “Look who got laid.”
They’re juvenile, yes, but they work. I think the following caption is also a sex joke: “Though yes, for a 9-inch chameleon that’s still pretty damned impressive.” I interpreted that line to mean that the lizard is the zebra’s father, and that the striped lions are impressed by such a small creature’s ability to impregnate a much larger animal. My fellow judges think I’m crazy. They insist that the zebra who looks like a brick wall is the chameleon. They’re insane.
Here are some of the best non-sexual puns:
- “Since when do you wear foundation?”
- “Too much foundation.”
- “He’s well built.”
- “She’s had work.”
- “You’re maybe a little too exposed?”
I especially like that last caption because it reconciles the disparate elements (brickwork and zebras) in an especially clever way—by noting that zebras are vulnerable to attack.
This next entry also alludes to the fact that zebras are prey, but it doesn’t really address the bricks (other than noting that they look ridiculous): “What I fear most about a hyena attack is the laughter.”
As a lawyer who represents public housing residents, I felt guilty about laughing at this entry: “Excuse me—which way is the Serenghetto?”
Many (way too many) entries referred to “Brick House,” a 1977 hit for The Commodores, and now I can’t get the damn song out of my head. The best such caption was, “I would never describe her build that way.”
Here’s another reference to a popular song: “How was the Pink Floyd concert?”
I like this caption, but it loses points for failing to address the zebras at all: “I tried talking to him. Know what that’s like?”
Finally, here are a few solid entries that don’t fit neatly into a particular category:
- “In this climate you’d do better with aluminum siding.”
- “If a lion’s close, she’ll probably shit a brick.”
- “You put on weight.”
Congratulations to DON SYMONS, who submitted this month’s winning caption, “She’s had work.” Here’s an excerpt from his Wikipedia page:
Donald Symons is an American anthropologist best known as one of the founders of evolutionary psychology, and for pioneering the study of human sexuality from an evolutionary perspective. He is one of the most cited researchers in contemporary sex research…. Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker describes Symons’ “The Evolution of Human Sexuality” as a “groundbreaking book”…. Symons is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Symons may be best known, however, for losing The New Yorker’s cartoon caption contest to me back in 2013:
To be fair, Symons has had a good amount of success in The New Yorker contest, making it to the finalists’ round five times and winning once.
Here are the five runners-up:
- “This is my cousin. He works in the city.”
- “You’re maybe a little too exposed?”
- “You look so well put together.”
- “There goes the savannah.”
- “One of us just got laid.”
For those of you who want to see how we made our selections, we recorded the process and posted it here.
I’ll end by continuing the shameless self-promotion I started last month, when I announced that St. Martin’s Press is publishing my book, “Your Caption Has Been Selected—More than anyone could possibly want to know about The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest.” Though it doesn’t hit the shelves until next June, it’s available for pre-order and you can learn more about it (and see the cover) here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250333407