Thank you all for playing my caption contest yesterday. Your suggestions tended to group around the themes of urine, oranges, squirting lemon juice in eyes, rubbing lemon juice in wounds, and chucking lemons at people. These were all worthy attempts that followed the 2 of 6 humor rule that I described a few days ago.
But here are a few of my favorites.
Payne suggests…
Sourpuss: “If life gives you lemons…”
Sourpuss: “Give them to me”
Sourpuss: “This pucker takes maintenance.”
I like this one because Payne took his cue from the drawing and stayed consistent with the character. Payne’s dialog is clever, bizarre and unexpected. Pucker is a funny word and pucker maintenance is a great bizarre concept that keeps no more than one toe in reality.
John Armstrong had a nice take…
Sourpuss: “If life gives you lemons…
Sourpuss: “I had a lemon once, when I was young. Those were the days.”
Sourpuss: “Sweet, tasty lemons…”
I like it because it’s clever, bizarre and recognizable. We all know some old sourpuss who can’t stop talking about the good old days. John’s dialog would work best on a sitcom, spoken by an experienced comic actor, say Jerry Stiller. It works less well in print, but it’s still great.
Vogon Poet suggests…
Sourpuss: “If life gives you lemons…”
Sourpuss: “Say ‘Thank you for the pretty giraffe eggs!’”
Sourpuss: “Then life might finally leave you alone.”
Vogon Poet gets bonus points for taking the reader someplace totally unexpected. It’s bizarre and clever, with ample supply of both.
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You’ve probably already seen my version on dilbert.com, but in case you haven’t, here it is.
I used a subtle form of the “recognition” element of humor that’s applicable to anyone who has had a debate on the Internet. Sourpuss starts out talking about life and ends up calling Dilbert stupid for being a lemon-eater. Most of my philosophical Internet conversations end with me being accused of something absurd. And Sourpuss is cruel about it. It’s clever, cruel, bizarre and recognizable for some people.
A typical Dilbert comic appeals to about 20% of Dilbert readers. But luckily that 20% cycles through the entire group so lots of people get something to like at least once in a while. So if this one falls flat for you, take comfort in being in the majority.