Having unfortunately collided with myself in the bathroom mirror, I had to ask: If we were to make AI cartoons, how would they differ from memes?
Quality? Restraint? A new angle on text and image doing the nasty?
We did this, to test ourselves: We ginned up some one-panel cartoons. Most captions are from published New Yorker funnies. Other captions by us.
Can you identify our handiwork? Are you up to the task?
Might this become our worst post yet?
Anything’s possible.
Answers follow polls. Don’t forget to vote.
Round 1
Clue: Jack Black is not a toilet.
Answer: Can’t-shit-here guy, a superhero nobody wants to encounter in a jam.
Best cartoon stolen for that bit follows. Please note I’m linking to the Condé Nast Store so I don’t get sued:
Round 2
Clue: I’m not sure I believe in clues, actually. The song Kiss by Prince is playing in the background where I’m sitting. I just want your extra time and your (…) kiss.
Answer: Rapunzel Rapunzel, let down your hair, that I may climb thy golden Conan stair.
Best stolen cartoon, with another Condé Nast Store hotlink:
Round 3
Clue: Droids! you say. What the fuck is a droid?
Answer: The droid bit, OBVIOUSLY.
Stolen cartoon (plus link):
Bonus round
Clue: Where we’re going, we don’t need clues.
Answer: All original, trick question, take that!
— Colin Sullivan
Kicker: We discovered Donald Trump’s bigfooted origin …
New Yorker version:
21st Century Index: A “comics section” refers to how newspapers were sub-divided, back when we read them. Sports had its own section. Business. Style. And sometimes comics, especially on Sundays. Hence the expression “Sunday comics.” Reporters wrote the copy, editors edited. Opinionators were called “columnists.” They were separate from reporters, much like ad and sales departments were separate. Today, all these jobs have merged into Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, whose lust for “democritized” billions has destroyed media we might trust. Progress this is not. Now we’re left with operations like Substack, which means “writers writing about writing in circles, while other writers watch” in Old German. Also accurate to say Substackvergnügen, if you don’t believe in the whole brevity thing.
Grumbles the old reporter, grumpily.
I do love Substack. I think. Let’s call it love-hate hate-love. Just as long as I get to do stuff like this:
Xoxo.
You are unironically the best content creator via AI I have seen.
🙌🏽💥🙌🏽 & the glory of online publishing!