What if "The New Yorker" gave you a caption and asked you to come up with the image for a cartoon?

"We will always have Paris."

by Ken

Finally I can suggest why I love New Yorker carton editor Bob Mankoff. It's not because he does such a brilliant job as cartoon editor. Probably he does, but how would I know? And even if it's so, that wouldn't give me any strong feeling about him. But then he'll do stuff like declare the magazine's recent cliché cartoon contest "such a rousing success, discounting, of course, those who thought it was a rousing failure."

The context is Bob's announcement, in his latest weekly blogpost, "You'll Always Hve Paris (If You Entger This Contest)," of a new contest, which I imagine he's hoping will be jsut as rousing a success as well, or perhaps as rousing a failure.

Since our cliché cartoon contest was such a rousing success, discounting, of course, those who thought it was a rousing failure, I've devised another contest for all the cultivated wits who read this blog. This contest is the reverse of the caption contest that runs every week in the magazine. Rather than dreaming up a caption for the image, you have to dream up an image that goes with the caption.

THEY'VE ALREADY DONE A VERSION OF THIS, BOB NOTES

In one of the magazine's annual Cartoon Issues, some of the pros were given a caption to create a cartoon for. Bob offers examples of the result:

"No wonder we could get tickets."

"No wonder we could get tickets."

"No wonder we could get tickets."

"O.K.," BOB SAYS. "NOW IT'S YOUR TURN."

And the caption is:

"We will always have Paris."

"What," Bob asks, "would be a funny image to go with that caption?" And to get us going, he offers a published cartoon that used this very caption -- the one by Sam Gross that I've put at the top of this post.


LAST WORDS TO BOB:

Send your idea for a cartoon image to newyorkercartoon@gmail.com with the subject line “reverse caption contest.” Soon you’ll get to vote on our favorite entries, and we’ll have the best one drawn up.

Or maybe, if history is any guide, they'll have the best several drawn up. (Just a hunch. I've watched the way this fellow Mankoff operates.)

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