The only prize is “bragging rights, but they are very good bragging rights,” says Jessica Misener, who’s won the New Yorker magazine’s cartoon caption contest twice in the last four months. Two other Ann Arborites, Kurt Markert and Rob Needham, also recently earned those bragging rightsóan impressive civic trifecta considering that about 4,000 hopefuls regularly submit captions for the untitled cartoons the magazine publishes in every issue. (Markert has also been among the contestís three finalists three times.)
Our city’s winning streak hasn’t escaped the notice of assistant cartoon editor Rachel Perlman, who muses in an email that “perhaps they [Ann Arbor contestants] have ‘cracked the code’ for the ideal New Yorker cartoon contest captions.
“You have to have a really good and really funny caption that makes sense with the drawing,” Misener says, but winning “is a mix of skill and luck.” While readers vote for the winner, she notes, the three finalists are chosen by New Yorker editors, whose decisions can be “cryptic.”
Misener, a content editor at LinkedIn, spent several hours on her winning entry published on August 14. The cartoon showed a woman in the window seat of an aircraft saying something to the passenger in the aisle seat—who’s an enormous ant. She looks distraught, while the ant’s expression might be bored or incredulous. Misener’s winning entry: “I hate going home. I have a million relatives.”
Needham won the week before with an entry he dashed off “in a matter of minutes.” In the drawing, two humanoid ears of corn are talking as a blazing sun explodes their kernels into popcorn. His caption: “You don’t have to say ‘excuse me’ every single time.”
Misener says a previous job writing viral posts for BuzzFeed sharpened her writing and editing. Needham’s career as a high-tech recruiter has no connection to cranking out punchy captions, but “I do feel I’m a pretty fair writer and that I have some degree of wit,” he says.
Not only is there no prize, there’s no fanfare: the New Yorker didn’t even notify Misener and Needham that they’d won. They learned, like everyone else, when their winning captions were published.
While nobody’s “been lining up for my autograph,” Needham says, he was gratified that a few business acquaintances congratulated him—though only after he announced his win on LinkedIn.
