A Parade of Bad Judges

The cartoon you see to the left of this post is one that was published as part of a contest in Parade Magazine about a month ago. The contest asked readers to send in their best caption for the cartoon. The winner would get a framed copy signed by the artist. In addition the winner's caption would be published in Parade Magazine.

To me it looked like in the cartoon Batman was the one speaking. There was only one thing that could have been the topic of conversation between Batman and Superman while sitting at a bar.
I sent in the caption: "His name was Robin. How was I to know he couldn't fly?" I thought it was a very very funny line. One of the funniest I've written in a long time. My wife agreed.

Yesterday when I get the Sunday paper the winning caption was published. It wasn't my caption. That wouldn't bother me so much if the winning caption was anywhere close to being as funny as mine. The winning caption: "You're waiting for Wonder Woman? I'm waiting for Wonder Woman? Does that seem funnier to you than mine?

Perhaps there was some problem with my submission when I sent it in online through the magazine's website. Maybe it never got there. Maybe the publishers of Parade and or judges of the contest just don't have a sharp sense of humor. After all they continue to publish Howard Huge cartoons. Okay, the dog is really big and he eats a lot; enough already. It's not funny after the first hundred cartoons.

Perhaps it's just sour grapes for me. But I don't think the contest judges at Parade Magazine would know a good joke if they tripped over the punchline. But I'm not bitter. Congratulations to the winner a guy in Arizona. Hope he doesn't hang up his prize expecting dinner guest to do a spit take when they read the winning entry. Or maybe that's what will happen when he hosts the dinner party he promised the Parade Magazine staff.