{"id":4028,"date":"2024-09-26T14:44:56","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T18:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/10q\/?p=4028"},"modified":"2024-09-26T14:44:56","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T18:44:56","slug":"chicago-lawyer-writes-about-being-goat-at-new-yorker-cartoon-caption-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/10q\/chicago-lawyer-writes-about-being-goat-at-new-yorker-cartoon-caption-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Lawyer Writes About Being GOAT at New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

September 26, 20204<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a cartoon with a dolphin panhandling on a street corner. A man is reaching into his pocket to give it money. His female companion looks irritated. Chicago lawyer Lawrence Wood put words to her displeasure: \u201cIf he\u2019s so damn intelligent, let him get a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that line, Wood won The New Yorker<\/em> Cartoon Caption Contest in 2007. He\u2019s repeated the feat seven more times\u2014and placed second or third in seven other competitions.<\/p>\n

Now in its 25th year, the esteemed literary magazine\u2019s weekly competition features a wordless single-panel cartoon\u2014often displaying disparate frames of reference. Contestants submit a caption for the image. The publication\u2019s editors choose their three favorites from the 5,000 to 10,000 entries. Online public voting\u2014more than a half million votes cast\u2014determines the winner.<\/p>\n

Wood is the contest\u2019s most successful participant\u2014by a lot. The contestant in second place has won three times.<\/p>\n

In June, Wood, 61, published Your Caption Has Been Selected: More Than Anyone Could Possibly Want to Know About the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest.<\/em><\/p>\n

In a recent interview, he offered advice to participants to increase their chances of winning and shared how captioning is a little like lawyering.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour job is to use language to persuade a judge that what you have to say is better than your opponent\u2019s argument,\u201d he says. \u201cYou are trying to make sense of this bizarre drawing. Lawyers are taught to take complicated situations and make connections that other people might not notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cA good caption eliminates every unnecessary word to make its point.\u201d This, he adds, is \u201cnot unlike what lawyers do when streamlining legal arguments.\u201d But despite this, Wood notes that he also knows \u201ca lot of really smart lawyers\u2014lawyers who are a lot smarter than me\u2014who are terrible at the contest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over 29 brief chapters, the grand champion offers tips to increase one\u2019s chances of seeing their caption appear in The New Yorker<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In a chapter titled \u201cEverything Matters,\u201d Wood writes, \u201cEverything that appears in a drawing is important. The cartoonist put it there for a reason and you shouldn\u2019t ignore it, but many contestants disregard this rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

He cautions that captions should not be too predictable. \u201cResist the urge to submit one that comes to mind immediately,\u201d he writes. Besides, he adds, \u201cIf it\u2019s obvious to you, it will be obvious to hundreds of people you\u2019re competing against, which means your entry will likely get lost in the sea of similar or even identical submissions.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Wood has a lot to say about how to win the distinguished contest, participants should never forget this one piece of overarching advice: \u201cYour caption should be funny. You don\u2019t want someone to just admire it. You want someone to actually laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

With so much talent for it, I ask Wood if he is sometimes surprised that his entry didn\u2019t get chosen as a finalist. \u201cWeekly,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cI imagine that many people participating in the contest feel the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>The article was first published on abajournal.com and its original form can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Randy Maniloff (LAW \u201991) is an attorney at White and Williams in Philadelphia and an adjunct professor at the Temple University Beasley School of Law. He runs the website <\/em>CoverageOpinions.info<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 26, 2024
\nRandy Maniloff (LAW \u201991) reveals how Chicago lawyer Lawrence Wood\u2019s profession has led to his success in cartoon caption contests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":4029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1842,12],"tags":[2859,2860,2861],"coauthors":[2858],"class_list":["post-4028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice","category-alumni-authored","tag-argument","tag-language","tag-persuasion","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"yoast_head":"\nChicago Lawyer Writes About Being GOAT at New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest - The Temple 10-Q<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/10q\/chicago-lawyer-writes-about-being-goat-at-new-yorker-cartoon-caption-contest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chicago Lawyer Writes About Being GOAT at New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest - 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