June 19th, 2016

ID Cartoon Caption Contest

The New Yorker magazine is justifiably famous for its fine writing, with its contributors a veritable Who’s Who of famous authors and journalists of the past century. Truman Capote, Ann Beattie, J.D. Salinger, John Cheever, John Updike, Dorothy Parker, E.B. White, Philip Roth, Alice Munro, John Hersey, Malcolm Gladwell, Roger Angell, James Thurber … you get the idea.

But for many (OK, I admit it, often for me), it’s mostly just a print vessel for the cartoons. These offer some of the most brilliant commentaries on the world you will find anywhere — witty, profound, whimsical, silly — and my web browser has this link bookmarked in case I’m feeling glum.

The magazine also has a Cartoon Caption Contest, in which readers contribute captions for a drawing that changes weekly. I’ve entered the contest dozens of times, and have won the same number of times as I’ve won Wimbledon.

Oh well. You might think this brilliant entry could have done the trick:

"I need the miles."

                                   “I need the miles.”

I share this low success rate with my sister Anne, who in my unbiased opinion should have won with this one:

"You were right -- I'm STILL not free."

                             “You were right — I’m STILL not free.”

Admittedly motivated by our failure, we hereby offer our own ID Cartoon Caption Contest. The drawing is Anne’s (I’ve featured her art before), and it was inspired by a certain white coat controversy.

Submit your caption either in the comments section, to my Twitter feed, or if you want to keep it secret, email me at id.caption@yahoo.com.

We’ll judge them on funniness using only the most highly objective and scientific criteria. In addition to widespread fame, the winner will receive a free lifelong subscription to this blog.

Here’s the drawing — have at it:

LabCoats

125 Responses to “ID Cartoon Caption Contest”

  1. Patrick McCann, MD says:

    “You’ve forgotten the cloaking device again…. Look at all those Klingons!”

  2. Eduardo Geyer says:

    “Do you think you could still write me that letter of recomendation?”

  3. Paul Edelson says:

    The new patient-centered board exams are murder.

  4. Bruce Fisher says:

    Do you think that a bow tie and short-sleeved gown would make up for the other stuff?

  5. Bruce Fisher says:

    Don’t even think of asking what bugs him!

  6. Daniel Pfurtscheller says:

    I See, you are still Working for the Public Healthcare.

  7. Vino says:

    A very resistant enterodoctor.

  8. Tanu Duggal says:

    Our intern’s presentations are no better.

  9. Laura Tommaso says:

    “Totally unacceptable appearance for an attending, but for a PGY-3, rather well turned-out indeed”

  10. Anees Benferhat says:

    “You know, when I was an intern, they made us crawl through TWO piles of elephant poo.”

  11. Patrick Cudahy says:

    “Chuck, you’re a walking never event”

  12. Teófilo Quispe says:

    “Well done , I think now you’re ready for the real work “

  13. Ehren Ekhause says:

    “Time to round.”

    “C.diff! Should have used the soap.”

    “Son, you should have picked upper GI.”

    “Oh yeah, and you’ll being covering the weekend shift.”

  14. Joe H. says:

    A recent fecal transplant accident left Dr. Drosophila a walking poopsicle.

  15. Joe H. says:

    “Time surely fliles when you are having fun on ID rotation, young grasshopper!”

  16. marvin sager says:

    He was the only doctor who volunteered to work on infectious diseases on Block Island, and was subsequently forced to leave!

  17. Julian O says:

    I have made myself such an attractive target that even the flies have become kamikaze

  18. marvin sager says:

    #16
    He was the only doctor who volunteered to work on infectious diseases on Plum Island, and was subsequently forced to leave!

    (This entry used “Plum Island.” It should be noted Plum Island was shut down years ago, and may be confusing to understand the pun.)

  19. Dr Piyush Ostwal says:

    Drosofila Behaviour: Bench to Bedside !

HIV Information: Author Paul Sax, M.D.

Paul E. Sax, MD

Contributing Editor

NEJM Journal Watch
Infectious Diseases

Biography | Disclosures | Summaries

Learn more about HIV and ID Observations.