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Lonely at the top
Published: 4/17/2012 10:51 AM
Last Modified: 4/17/2012 10:51 AM


This is one funny guy. Seriously.

Exactly six years ago this week, I achieved a goal that no other Tulsa resident has ever attained.

I won the weekly New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest.

A dozen words that I personally didn’t think were all that hilarious when I submitted them were chosen as the best caption for an Alex Gregory cartoon depicting two soldiers in full battle gear and a mime in face-paint, beret and striped shirt peering around a bomb-shattered wall.

My contribution: "It's not good – looks like they've got a full interpretive dance troupe."

I have been continually surprised at how long-lived those 12 words have been. For months afterward, people who heard my name spoken would ask if I was the James Watts who won the New Yorker contest.

When Gregory’s cartoon was included in “The New Yorker Caption Contest” book, the “Are you the guy…” questions started up again for a couple of weeks.

Then, in 2010, when the New Yorker published what it deemed the best Caption Contest entries for the past decade, my contribution was chosen as the best of all winners for 2006.

If I add up all the times I’ve been asked if I was “the guy who won the New Yorker contest” since 2006, it would probably work out to exactly 15 minutes. Which means my time as the lone winner from Tulsa is about to end.

Here’s where you come in. One of the finalists for this week’s contest is Barry Friedman, a stand-up comedian by trade who has written two books about life on the road making people laugh, has a regular column in Tulsa People magazine, and contributes commentary on all kinds of subjects for the “Studio Tulsa” program on KWGS (89.5 FM).

His entry for this year’s contest is – and I say this in all honesty – very funny. When I first read it, I literally laughed out loud.

So. Go visit the New Yorker’s website and vote for Barry. He deserves to win.

And besides, it’s been lonely here at the top…..



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ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

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