I found this to be funny and informative. I think almost everyone knows the New Yorker Caption Contest, and while I can’t say I ever submitted a caption or was too terribly interested in it beyond middle school, this book really made me appreciate the hard work and the history of the unique contest. I really found this book to be an easy read with lots of the cartoons included throughout to illustrate points the author made. A solid 5/5 read for me and I think perfect for anyone who has an interest in cartoons, the New Yorker, or contests in general.

I really enjoyed reading Your Caption Has Been Selected. I have multiple coffee table books about the NY cartoons, so I was thrilled to hear more behind the scenes info. A fun read

An amazingly interesting book sharing anecdotes and the ins and outs of getting a caption selected for the New York Times. Humorous at times but always cleverly filled with witty history of caption publishing and the individuals behind that comical post.

"Your Caption Has Been Selected" is written by Lawrence Wood who has won the New Yorker Caption Contest the most (which made Roger Ebert upset because he too had tried multiple times). This book can best be described as a quirky, fun, and informative read. Throughout there are examples of different cartoons with captions that were successful and captions that were not successful. He also includes tips for writing a better caption. A couple of the tips include using fewer words, making sure to not "bury" the main point, and to pay attention to who is speaking in the cartoon. Even though I don't plan on submitting captions to the New Yorker for their contests, I enjoyed the analysis and dissection of what makes a caption work. I also particularly loved that throughout the book, we get to see many New Yorker Cartoons (yes, I admit, every year I buy the daily calendar of New Yorker Cartoons). A fun read!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

As should be expected from a book about the New Yorker cartoon caption contest, Lawrence Wood hits the mark between funny and informative through out. As an 8 time winner and finalist many more times since the shift to a weekly contest in 2005, Lawrence Wood has watched the contest evolve as an active participant for nearly two decades.

Wood doesn’t promise a be-all-end-all formula to winning the contest, in fact he emphasizes the difficulty in winning frequently. There are thousands of submissions every week, and nowadays the public helps control the algorithm that weeds out the pool for editorial consideration. Nevertheless, *Your Caption Has Been Selected* provides fascinating into what makes a good caption and the process that many winners and professional captioners go through to find the right answer.

The first half of Wood’s book is largely about what makes a good caption. At the end of the first half, Wood has laid out 29 rules to follow to help readers create successful captions. Some of these rules are obvious, #15 - eliminate unnecessary words and #4 - address every important aspect of the cartoon, but others range from fair but unhelpful points (#19 and 20 are don’t be obvious and don’t be too unpredictable respectively) to humorous anecdotes (#29 - “never loan anything of value to a University of Chicago student”). Each rule correlates to a case study that Wood gives in the first half of the book, often with accompanying visuals in the form of one or more contest cartoon.

Throughout the book, Wood gives insights from various cartoonists, New Yorker staff members (past and present), and contest winners. But I’m the second half of the book, he begins to go more in depth into topics such as the perspective of the cartoonists who had their captions removed for the contest and the legacy of cartoons in the New Yorker. It is obvious, however, that, as Bob Mankoff (the creator of the contest back in 1999 and overseer of it through 2017) told us in the foreword, Lawrence Wood had the first draft of this book back to Mankoff in 10 days but it did not include the behind the scenes perspective or further elaboration on what lessons can be learned from it in the era of AI (topics Mankoff wanted to be included). Wood remains an engaging writer but the second half lacks some of the clear focus and wittiness that was evident in the first half.

There are occasionally times when the visuals (in the ARC at least) are poorly placed in relation to its captions, or is fully absent and only receives a brief description. Additionally, one of the sections in the second half seems to appear out of order in the ARC as the ending of the section titled Anti-Humor is “Speaking of such critiques, let’s talk about puns.” And then there is a full section on an AI experiment before the chapter ‘Puns.’

Overall, this book is a wonderful addition to the library of anyone who enjoys the New Yorker, cartoons, the Far Side comics, and similar media.

I love seeing what the finalists in The New Yorker Caption Contest have come up with. Looking at the upcoming cartoon is another story. My mind goes blank. Not so for Lawrence Wood who has won eight times. And here he is, giving tips on how to write a good caption. They enabled me to quickly figure out why a cartoon didn’t quite work (it wasn’t from The New Yorker - wink). That is only one part of the story Wood has to tell. He includes history of the contest, cartoonists’ opinions on the contest and collaborations, as well as other tidbits of interest. Yes, there are plenty of cartoons throughout. A very enjoyable book

Your Caption Has Been Selected by Lawrence Wood is a behind-the-scenes look at The New Yorker cartoon caption contest, its history, how it's judged, and the secrets to writing a winning caption.
So this was beyond interesting and very entertaining.
The history was intriguing and I found myself nose deep in this book.

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

HOW FUN. This is such a cool inside look into the New Yorker Cartoon caption contest and really makes me want to enter!

As a reader of the New Yorker, I enjoyed this inside look into how winners of the weekly caption contest are selected. A bit of a niche pick, but certainly to do well among die-hard New Yorker fans.

They say the best part of The New Yorker magazine are the cartoons. I’ve been a subscriber for years, but since the publication added FaceBook and Instagram accounts, the cartoons have reached a much wider audience., and with the expansion of their cartoon captioning contest to a weekly affair, the audience has gotten even larger. Now the magazine receives between 5,000 and 10,000 submissions for each week’s competition. As a result this book has a built-in audience curious about the process of selecting the winners and increasing their odds of claiming the title.
I have never entered the contest, but I have participated in the crowdsourcing that winnows the entries to the much smaller group from which the final three are chosen, and I often vote for my favorite in the final three.
This is such a fun book balanced between examples of winning captions and anecdotes about the artists and the caption writers. The author is the GOAT of caption writing — the Ken Jennings of Captions — winner of eight contests and finalist fifteen times, Lawrence Wood. Lawyer by day, funny guy the rest of the time, Wood does a great job demystifying the process of increasing your odds of winning bragging rights in this contest. ( No prizes are actually awarded.) Although Wood is of the opinion you can’t teach being funny, you can learn how to craft a funny idea into a better vote-getter.
The subtitle for this book is ‘More Than Anyone Could Possibly Want to Know About The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest.” I disagree. I loved every page and could have easily kept reading for more insights and studied more cartoons.

I knew of The New Yorker's cartoon caption contest (I follow their cartoon account on IG and had seen it mentioned), but I had no idea it was such a big deal.

The writing style is a bit dry and sardonic at times, much like The New Yorker, but it is rather thought-provoking and provides interesting insight into the process of crowning a caption contest winner. I was really surprised to learn just how much of an impact crowdsourcing had on the final results of each contest. Again, despite seeing The New Yorker post about this, it never occurred to me that it was so extensive or complicated.

Although surprisingly interesting, the section on what makes a good caption reads like Sheldon Cooper's attempt to create a unified theory of comedy, though this is just as endearing as Sheldon's wayward attempt.

If you enjoy The New Yorker's cartoons, I highly recommend this book. It's an easy read (with lots of cartoons!) but is surprisingly insightful. Many of the lessons on how to brainstorm creative captions would be applicable to "regular" creative endeavors.

Interesting insights into what makes a good caption and how to compete in New Yorker contests from a champion in that hobby.

Neat information, appreciated seeing the cartoons as I don't regularly read The New Yorker or its online outlets, but a bit too inside baseball for me. Sometimes I felt a little lost, not knowing all the ins and outs and details.

It also feels like it could/should have been 2 or 3 different books, as the topics wandered a bit. Maybe another editing pass would have been helpful. I really appreciate finding out where "back to the drawing board" came from, though.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book dealing with the history of the New Yorker cartoons, the popular caption contest and how to write the perfect line to accompany a drawing.

As a child I was a big reader. So on weekends we would also hit tag sales and flea markets to feed this need. My parents liked looking at stuff, my brother got toys, and later books, and I got material for my addiction. One time I found a photo album, with a cartoon glued to the front. Inside were more cartoons, all carefully cut from The New Yorker. I had no idea at the time, I just knew I wanted it, and for .50 cents it was mine. Much of the humor was over my head, but some I could get, and my Dad thought it was the greatest thing we had ever bought. This started my love of cartoons, one that has stayed with me. I have never entered the New Yorker cartoon caption contest, my ego couldn’t handle the loss. However I am sure that I have seen the captions that Lawrence Wood has written, as he has won eight contests, and been a finalist fifteen times. Your Caption Has Been Selected: More Than Anyone Could Possibly Want to Know About The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest, is a look at the history of the cartoons, of course the popular contest, a guide to writing humor, and a look at some of the famous creators.


The book begins with a history of the caption contests, some of which had big prizes, unlike The New Yorker, the prize being that one’s name appears in The New Yorker. Wood started with captions for the contest, but has worked with cartoonists also whose work appears in the magazine. Wood discusses his love of cartoons, especially The New Yorker, and how he started entering the contest when it was only a yearly event. The behind the scenes information is interesting, going into how choices are made, the use of crowdsourcing for finalists, and what makes a good caption. There are interviews with cartoonists, editors and other caption writers, both successful, and ones who labor away trying to make it. There is also quite a lot about writing, and what works in humor, captions and in everyday interactions.

A book that had quite a lot going on. I loved the information about the captions, the cartoons and the contest, but the information about writing made this one of the best references for writers I have read. Wood is not only good at creating captions, but is a very good writer, able to share a lot of information, and make everything interesting, and helpful. Wood shares how he writes, and makes it quite clear that he asks for help, tries out ideas on others and likes advice to be given. This is something more writers need to admit, and try to do more for their writing. Also something else, Wood has had success in captions, because he never let rejection take him out of the game. That is another thing writers will have to face, and Wood makes it quite clear that while it bothers him, it makes him push on.

A great look at cartoons, and fans will enjoy this quite a bit. However the advice about writing, the rejections, the looking for advice, even the little things like grammar and voice, really come through here. A fun and funny book about cartoons, but a really good book about writing in general.

I really enjoyed this book! I knew literally nothing about The New Yorker’s Caption Contest (or really, cartoons in general) before reading this book, but the subject seemed too fun and random to pass up. And fun and random pretty much sums up my experience. I now know quite a bit about cartoonists, comedy, and AI capabilities (or lack thereof) when it comes to humor. And I enjoyed learning every bit of it. Many cartoons were included as examples, and I found them genuinely funny and entertaining. The New Yorker has a new fan.

I highly recommend this book for getting out of a reading slump, or if you happen to love fun facts or quirky history. I read this book in one sitting and it was a hilarious start to my weekend.

Before I understood (or cared about) the articles in The New Yorker, I read the cartoons with great enthusiasm, as so many other children have for generations. I clearly recall when the caption contest began as a yearly endeavor. I recall too when it became a weekly opportunity. And like so many other readers, I've often dreamt about entering but have never actually sat down and done it. This book, then, scratches the itch that I have had since the contest began. It's a walk through each step of the process, both on the magazine's side and on the hopeful submitter's side. It's a reference manual of pro tips for coming up with the perfect caption. It's a history of the caption contest and how it's evolved over the years (particularly interesting: how shifting early voting from internal staff to external crowdsourcing has impacted the content and style of the captions that make it to the final round). And of course, it's filled with plenty of great cartoons.

My favorite in the book is one of Wood's own captions (that did not win nor place, but he shares it in the book). The drawing shows two bald eagles looking at another bald eagle nearby who's wearing a pompadour-style toupee. One of the pair of bald eagles is saying to the other, "He uses every part of the rodent." I laughed out loud, which according to Wood, is one of the ultimate goals of caption-writing for cartoons - evoking laughter. I only wish Wood had chosen that one to submit, but then again, humor is indeed subjective. Perhaps the idea of a rodent-fur toupee for a bald eagle wouldn't be as hilarious to others as it is to me. That's the joy of cartoons, isn't it?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC for unbiased review.

How are all these people so clever? The best part of the caption contest is how different some captions are. This fun little coffee table book talks about the process and the different captions that were submitted. There is a lot of advice on what makes a winning entry, with some surprises, like how it's better to suggest something not too unusual. The most clever ones made me wish I could have come up with them myself.
Reading this was so much fun that I went ahead and found a book with some of the rejected captions so I could continue my fun later. Thanks so much to NetGalley for letting me read this ARC

Every week the first thing I and my family look at is the captioning contest at the back of The New Yorker. Before the captioning contest I always read different parts of the weekly magazine in this precise order: Cartoons, Anthony Lane’s film reviews (the best I know, still), poetry, the humor page, then go to the opening essays and get to the fiction if I can (though having it available online read by the authors now makes it more likely I will do it. I’ve been a fiction writer off and on all my life and I have been rejected by them many many times, so it is not just a pleasure to read these stories, but rich work, close reading, so I have to commit to the time).

But the caption contest is a delight we in this house all marvel at for the brilliance of the finalists, and we vote on them and inevitably appreciate the winning ones, marveling at the humor as something we just can’t quite master. Never submitted, nope, as this is not how my mind works. I recall a brilliant English professor I had, Professor Richard Tiemersma, at Calvin, who had submitted entries to Readers’s Digest for years--Humor in Uniform, as he was a vet--and had never once been accepted. He was a great writer, but it takes a certain kind of mind to do a one-liner.

Okay! So when I saw this book on NetGalley I got it right away, and it is delightful. You know Ken Jennings and Alex Trebek? Well, Lawrence Wood is to captioning what Ken Jennings is to Jeopardy, and the originator and log time manager of the contest Bob Mankoff is its Alex Trebek. Mankoff told Wood to write this book and in ten days handed him a manuscript, and in a year he had a revised manuscript to market.
This is an amazing book I had a hard time putting down, one of my faves of the cartooning variety that I highly recommend. A kind of niche book, maybe? I dunno, but tens of thousands of peoipke have participated in the contest and there are Facebook and other social media groups devoted to studying (and figuring out how to win) this process.

Even if you aren’t interested in captioning cartoons yourself, Wood’s book is still very funny. Even if you wanted o skip the text altogether, you would still have more than 150 cartoons to enjoy! But the book is written in accessible, bite-sized chapters focusing on the history of the contest, including fun anecdotes, and advice on how to win (or even just do better). It looks at lots of related issues: Can AI create funny comics? (not yet) He looks at anti-humor sites where people come up with the most deliberately worst captions possible, or cartoonists come up with uncaptionable cartoons. Is captioning “collaboration”? Aee solo-cartoonist cartoons better than collaborations? He looks at the crowdsourcing (winnowing the thousands down to three finalists) process. Are puns a good way to go? Is clever as good as funny in a cartoon?

Wood has a short section on every piece of advice, then usefully makes a handy check-off list for you to have in hand when creating. His advice is useful, but he even more usefully admits there are exceptions to every rule. In that spirit, he acknowledges some cartoonists such as Roz Chast and Gross hate the contest.

I love the contest; I love cartoons; I love a good joke; I love pithy writing; will I now try the contest? I doubt it but I still loved this book.

Thanks to Net Galley, St. Martin's Press, and Larry Wood for the early look.

Wood commentary one one cartoon:

https://www.cartoonstock.com/blog/top-down-caption-contest-commentary-with-lawrence-wood/

Here’s Wood on captioning:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/tnyradiohour/segments/nobody-writes-caption-larry-wood

Wood captioning blog:

https://www.cartoonstock.com/blog/author/lwood/

Some of his award-winning captioned cartoons:

https://www.cartoonstock.com/blog/lawrence-wood-caption-contest-winner/

A behind the scenes look at the New Yorker caption contest a contest that so many people enter every week. This is an extremely competitive contest people trying to win.I really enjoyed delving in to the. history and a guide to what makes a winning caption.#netgalley #st.martins

"Your Caption Has Been Selected: More Than Anyone Could Possibly Want to Know About The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest" is an entertaining and engaging introduction to the New Yorker's famous, perhaps infamous contest. Author, Lawrence Wood, the individual with the most wins and nominations in the history of the contest, provides insight into the contest's history and provides detailed analysis on constructing a winning caption. The book also delves deeply into the contest cultural importance and examines its current and potential future impacts. This book is recommended for anyone who loves New Yorker cartoons and wants to know what makes them tick or just plan wants to learn how to write a better joke.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martins Press, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.