HUMOR-O-RAMA

Look no further than the book: “Inspired by Cats.”

As all The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest contestants know it’s very hard to come up with an original thought. With the number of captions entered in the weekly Contest ranging between approximately five and fifteen thousand, it’s difficult to find that funny, clever, or witty caption. But, alas, we endeavor.

This week’s Contest cartoon by Christopher Weyant, is two dogs, one speaking to the other, and looking up at a moon with a cat face. Immediately I thought of Bob Eckstein and Nava Atlas’s EXCELLENT book: “Inspired by Cats.”

It’s a fantastic read with really great illustrations of your favorite writers and their cats. I especially enjoyed the story on Mark Twain. (HumorOramaLOL likes Mark Twain. See the Mark Twain quote on the HumorOramaLOL About page.)

Here’s the @wordsbelowapp Instagram post about “Inspired by Cats” direct from the Humor Hammock.

“Inspired by Cats” by Bob Eckstein @bob_eckstein and Nava Atlas is a book filled with interesting stories and beautiful illustrations. The illustrations perfectly capture the unique cat relationship to the human they owned!

One of my favorites in the book is the story and it’s incredible illustration of Mark Twain. Growing up with my sister’s uniquely named cat, “Flowers that Bloom”, I could relate to this story.

To the novelists, poets, humorists, short story writers, and memoirists collection in the book, I propose adding software developers. My pal, Kolohe, was great at spotting code bugs and was always faithfully by my side through late nights and long weekends.

This bar chart shows how many cartoonists have had 1, 2–9, 10–19, or 20+ cartoons featured in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest.

Checkout LEADERBOARDS below to see how many cartoons your favorite cartoonist has in the The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest.

With baseball opening day right around the corner, it looks like the bluejays are getting an early start.

This chart tracks individual city names. To make this chart the contestant is from that exact city and spelling. In HumorOramaLOL we have a name and city mapper to correlate when a contestant has changed their location or name. That way credit is given when credit due!

Interesting enough, is how many cities other than New York City are on this chart. Care to take a guess at which state has the most Contest winners?

Check out the TNYCCC Leaderboard below to see the Finalists leading the funny, clever, and witty charge.

The number of repeating Finalists is typically consistent each year. That pattern shifted from 2021 to 2023, peaking in 2023 when ten Finalists accounted for twenty-nine Contest appearances. The numbers returned to normal in 2024 (four Finalists, eight Contests) and 2025 (five Finalists, ten Contests). Unlike 2021–2023, when some Finalists repeated multiple times, each repeating Finalist in 2024 and 2025 appeared exactly twice.