PicoBlog

Many of the cartoons I submit to The New Yorker aren’t actually all that funny. Not on purpose, of course. Not every spaghetti strand you throw at the wall sticks. But I keep throwing. In fact, sometimes I feel that improving as cartoonist just means getting better at throwing spaghetti.

Besides for making me hungry, this brings me to my next point. Even if a cartoon of mine isn’t funny, there’s still a chance for something amazing to happen, because, on a rare occasion, The New Yorker thinks that although the whole thing doesn’t work as a cartoon, they think the illustration could work for the caption contest.

They’ll strip the caption (usually doing that particular cartoon of mine a favor) and ask me to redraw the rough as a final illustration. Then, I wait. And one day, they run it in the back of the magazine for the caption contest. That’s when I get to see what all of you come up with.

The right kinds of things have to be going on in the picture. The illustration usually has one or two interesting details to give the hopeful caption contest contender some direction. In my case, it was a tree wearing a tie.

I was delighted to see what people came up with for my first caption contest.

I happen to love trees. They’re just like us. They grow, have texture and history, and sometimes get hugged. Here’s my first New Yorker tree cartoon.

This is a daily that I drew.

Here’s another (that I might have shared before.)

I was then invited to be a guest on a wonderful podcast called New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Podcast, all about, you guessed it, The New Yorker caption contest. The hosts (Vin Coca, Beth Lawler, Paul Nesja, and Nicole Chrolavicius) were so welcoming, curious, and kind. I was nervous, as it was the first podcast I had ever been on. Also, as a kindergarten teacher, I am not used to talking to other adults for more than three minutes at a time.

And it turns out, listening to dozens podcasts still does not prepare you to be on a podcast, let alone talk about yourself on a podcast. And don’t even get me started about listening to the recording of yourself talking about yourself on a podcast. Hearing your own voice is like staring into the abyss. But you are the abyss. It’s the MCU multiverse. Who is that guy talking? It ain’t me.

In the end, I had a great time. And you aren’t me. (Lucky you.) So if you’re curious, give a listen.

And guess what, I’m also in this week’s caption contest, right here!

And this is the illustration itself, because that page will change. And depending on when you are reading this, you still might have time to submit your own caption! (Entry must be received by 11:59 P.M. E.T. on March 3, 2024.)

But here’s the best part. Some of my coworkers at school were so excited that I was the caption contest this week (we’re a very supportive bunch) that one early childhood teacher even showed her students the illustration and wrote down her students’ responses. Oh, and her students are four years old.

Buckle up, because here’s what they said:

“He’s pipping that, and then he hit a cow.”

“There’s a swing coming out of the teapot. And half a person on the end.”

“There’s a person, and a draggy, and he’s holding the draggy.”

“He’s taking him out of the teapot. Maybe he was hiding inside.”

“A person grabbing a person’s leg. And there’s a paper on a person’s leg.”

“There’s a man made of soup for the other man.”

“A person holding a teacup, and a person says, “Hey, do not put me back into the ocean!”

Forget AI, these kids coming for my job.

This is all to say that I love being a teacher, a cartoonist, and an occasional hugger of trees. I also love podcasts. If there’s anything to tie this week’s newsletter together, it’s that our unique perspectives, senses of humor, and curiosities crisscross and overlap deep down like roots and branch out to express themselves on the surface, exposed to one anothers’ similarities and differences, swaying together in the breeze.

Thanks for reading, and have a good weekend!

-Avi

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