Have you heard about the contest that the New Yorker is sponsoring, all with the intent of getting otherwise famous individuals to enter a caption contest? It’s produced some interesting results, to say the least. One of the more interesting ones involves Adam Scott.
The first thing that you’re likely to notice if you watch the piece where he’s sitting and trying to come up with captions for various drawings is that it’s a lot harder than it looks like it should be. As he struggles to come up with something, you actually sort of find yourself struggling to think of something that’s better than whatever he comes up with. Inevitably, it seems virtually impossible to think of something that’s truly funny. Even Scott admits that the things that he came up with aren’t funny, either. This is definitely an exercise that will teach you how hard it is to be truly funny. It gives you a whole new realm of respect for those individuals that do this kind of work, day in and day out, and make it look easy.
Most people that are involved in anything that’s supposed to be funny will tell you that appearing funny to others is truly some of the most difficult work out there. It’s supposed to look easy because they go out of their way to make it look that way. In reality, it’s a lot easier if you’re serious and look at things from an analytical perspective than it is to create something that will make other people laugh, whether that involves a caption on a drawing or a stand-up routine.
The New Yorker has done these types of captions for years, even to the point that most people can’t remember a time when they didn’t do it. It’s interesting when they start making it a competition and giving other people the opportunity to do it for themselves. It also teaches most people that they’re not as funny as they think they are, especially when they’re left scratching their heads trying to figure out what was previously thought of as nothing more than a simple caption.
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