Monday, May 09, 2011

Caption Contest

Wow...wow...wow! The entries last week were so awesome that I've found it extremely difficult to make a decision, in fact, at this precise moment, I still don't even know who the winner is.


I'll start with my favorite strip...Annie and the peculiar Mole Man. What in the world is this comic about? I haven't read the original, so I'm not even sure; though, I can't imagine it can hold candle to what all of you wrote. I love that Cat turned Daddy Warbucks into a mole, AC had them eating a dead body, JPX's wonderful dialogue for Sir Mole, and JSP's dirty mind (though, I must agree that it does look like they are doing what he says), and he also scores points for pointing out the uncanny resemblance between Sarah Jessica Parker and Mole Man. However, as great as all of these entries are, the much deserved win for the Annie strip goes to Octo for this beauty:

Annie


Panel 1

Daddy Warbucks: ...but I'd trade it all to have my beloved teddy bear sled Rosebobo back.

Swami: Tough darts, old man. I'm two kids in a genie suit.

Panel 2

Narration panel up top there: So as Daddy Warbucks limped away, crying softly, The Swami Boys headed back to their subterranean home to await another victim...

Panel 3

Annie: Leapin' LIZARDS! That's so nice of you to offer one of your sons for me to marry. Gosh WOW! Should I pick the demin-wrapped pile of lard next to me or the hideous ferret man?

Panel 4

HFM: Chomphff b-hoomff! (Pffthss!) Pa fubba fufth chBOOMth! Buffuaffth wuuhg! (Pffthss pfthss!)

DWPOL: Wait, is this my belt? Before it looked like I was sitting in a chair. Am I glued to the chair?

I love everything about it...Daddy Warbucks searching for his teddy bear, Annie getting married off to one of the slobs, Mole Man's dialogue of chomping, and the best part, Octo bringing to our attention that DWPOL is wearing the chair (I'm still laughing at that). Definitely one of the best of the competition.

Blondie


Winner is JSP:

Panel 1:
"HONK!!!"

"Oh dear God, I know that honk. Blondie wants me to help with the groceries.”

Panel 2:
“I HATE carrying groceries more than anything in the world."

Panel 3:
“You can’t make me help you if you can’t find me! And don’t look in the closet ‘cuz I’m not there!”

Panel 4:
“Who the hell are you and why are you staring at me?”

His already hilarious strip became even funnier after JPX informed me that JSP used to hide in the closet when his mother returned from the grocery store.

I should also mention that Cat and JSP were neck and neck for this one. Cat had me rolling at the beginning with Dagwood's stinky farts, but JSP snatched it by having him address the reader at the end.

One Big Happy



Winner is AC with one of my favorites of the entire contest:

Panel 1
"has anyone seen my cat (air quotes) "mr. tibbles"? i've looked in every room of the house..."

Panel 2
"i've looked for (air quotes) "mr. tibbles" in the closet, in the fridge..."

Panel 3
"i've looked for (air quotes) "mr. tibbles" in the basement and the attic... i'm getting frantic!"

Panel 4
"what the hell are you doing?"

"my bad! "mr. tibbles" and i were playing a little game i like to call "find the gerbil"... just yell his name real loud and he should pop right out."

Mutt & Jeff


Winner is JSP.

“I distinctly asked for a ‘new door’, not a ‘nude whore’. Frankly I’m outraged!”

“Fuck off and give me 10 minutes alone with the little guy."

Zits



There weren't too many contributors for this one, but even if there had been, I can't imagine JPX could have been beat. The following was another one of my favorites:

Panel 1
Hector: “Dude, I just love weed! It’s all I think about. Last night I even dreamt about it.”

Panel 2
Hector: “Did you know that weed is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre, for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a recreational drug…”

Panel 3
Jeremy: Uh, while I appreciate your passion for weed you do realize that you just planted some on pavement, right?

Hector: “The word cannabis is from Greek, which was originally Scythian or Thracian…"

It's fantastic because it fits the strip flawlessly and it's so unexpected coming from the mouth of JPX.

Zippy


Winner AC with this very clever one:

Panel 1
“No matter where you go or what you do, you live your entire life within the confines of your head!”

“Because they know the name of what I am looking for, they think they know what I am looking for!”

Panel 2
“We are all but recent leaves on the same old tree of life and if this life has adapted itself to new functions and conditions, it uses the same old basic principles over and over again. There is no real difference between the grass and the man who mows it!!”

"Everything leads us to believe that there is a certain state of mind from which life and death, the real and the imaginary, past and future, the communicable and the incommunicable, height and depth are no longer perceived as contradictor!!"

Panel 3
“Lean immortality, all crêpe and gold, Laurelled consoler frightening to behold,
Death is a womb, a mother's breast, you feign
The fine illusion, oh the pious trick! Who does not know them, and is not made sick
That empty skull, that everlasting grin?”

“Hélas, Lui, comme mille anges blancs qui se séparent sur la route, s'éloigne par delà la montagne ! Elle, toute froide, et noire, court ! après le départ de l'homme !”

Panel 4
“what th’FUCK is going on here?”

“Haven’t you heard? We’re pitching “Zippy” to th’ New Yorker!”

I'm at the end and I have to choose a winner, so I guess I'll free write as I work this out. Do I choose my favorite strip or the Horrorthonner that is the winner of the most comics? There's a tie since AC and JSP each won two...that's a dilemma, so maybe I should choose my favorite of the entire contest...I have too many favorites, so that's an impossible choice. I've reached a decision. The winner is....

In case any of you don't recognize the above pic, its turn-of-the-century AC, and I chose her because she wrote two of my favorites, which includes Zippy, the most challenging strip of them all, I think. I loved the philosophical quotes she chose, and the punch line was beyond fantastic. AC, ever think about quitting the psychology profession and becoming a comic strip writer?

Almost forgot, here are the original strips:

ORIGINAL ZIPPY


ORIGINAL ONE BIG HAPPY

ORIGINAL MUTT & JEFF

ORIGINAL BLONDIE

ORIGINAL ANNIE

ORIGINAL ZITS

8 comments:

JPX said...

Congrats, AC! I love your New Yorker captions, top-notch! I look forward to seeing what strips you come up with this week - I think this little contest is really fun and quite hilarious. Everyone really brought their a-game this week. I'm still laughing...

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Congrats and nice work AC! I thought my old lady filth was a shoe in to win One Big Happy but when I saw yours I was like "oh crap".

Damn Whirly, you really stepped it up a couple of notches in the difficulty department last week. It took me like a day to come up with my Annie caption and Zits was equally challenging.

AC said...

thank you whirlygirl- this totally makes my day, and i'm truly honored! and i agree there was a lot of great stuff this week, sooo many laughs. now to put on my thinking cap for wednesday....

JPX said...

By the way here’s the explanation for “turn of the century Anne”. Whirly and I collect vintage photographs, which we find at the various antique shops and flea markets. We’ve amassed quite a collection over the years. One day we were in a large antique shop in Vermont and Whirly stumbled across a picture that strongly resembled an older version of Anne, which is how we imagined her great grandmother might have looked. Ever since, we’ve been on the lookout for other “turn of the century” horrorthonners.

Catfreeek said...

Excellent Hump day fun, great strips and the difficulty level was a great challenge.

Great job all around and a huge congrats to you AC, can't wait to see what's in store for us tomorrow.

AC said...

i thought all of our entries were funnier than any of the originals... so maybe we need to start a horrorthon comic strip!

i have my lineup for tomorrow, thanks to mr. ac's technical skills... very curious to see what you will make of them!

Whirlygirl said...

I agree that the originals are not as funny. I actually didn't read any of them until yesterday because I thought it would be funner to read what you all wrote before knowing what the originals said.

Octopunk said...

Excellent stuff all around, people. I will sheepishly admit I found the Mutt 'n Jeff one kind of hot.

Congrats AC!

Malevolent

 2018  ***1/2 It's 1986 for some reason, and a team of paranormal investigators are making a big name for themselves all over Scotland. ...