Efren Carrillo Cartoon Caption Contest!

[Sara S]

Okay, all you humorists; The New Yorker's Caption Contest (on the last page) this week has a cartoon that readers will submit a caption for, and guess what this week's cartoon is?

A woman reading a book, sitting on the couch with her dog, and saying something to a naked man who is stepping into the room through her open window......

---

From Barry:
Sounds like a contest to me!
Let's play by the The New Yorker's rules which calls for 250 characters or less.
Captions need not reference Efren's escapade.
We're shooting for funny, not mean!

Winner chosen this Friday evening by Barry and Mrs. Wacco.
"Gratitudes" received will be considered, but does not strictly determine the winner.

Prize is 2 free tickets to choice of:

• Saturday, Aug 17th, Laguna Farm Fest
• Friday, Aug 23rd - Tom Finch Group and Achilles Heel at Hopmonk
• Friday, Sept 20th, Sweat Your Prayers
• Any movie at the Rialto in Sebastopol, excluding Friday and Saturday nights, during August.
  {I highly recommend 20ft from Stardom, which is returning but not yet listed on their website}

Have fun!

[dialula]

I can totally appreciate why and how this can be turned into a joke but i find that i'm not at all comfortable with that due to the fact that there is a strong suggestion that he was attempting sexual assault - and that is not something to be trivialized or made light of. Had the circumstance been more obvious drunken stupidity without that predatory overlay, i'd say go right ahead and poke fun. But as it is, i don't think there is a way to deal with this incident humorously that wouldn't be disrespectful or dismissive of the victim and her experience.

[Barry]

I can totally appreciate why and how this can be turned into a joke but i find that i'm not at all comfortable with that due to the fact that there is a strong suggestion that he was attempting sexual assault - and that is not something to be trivialized or made light of. Had the circumstance been more obvious drunken stupidity without that predatory overlay, i'd say go right ahead and poke fun. But as it is, i don't think there is a way to deal with this incident humorously that wouldn't be disrespectful or dismissive of the victim and her experience.

I can understand your discomfort, dialula, if you think that sexual assault was his intention. I'm more in the "drunken stupidity" camp. Granted that "drunken stupidity" could easily turn into sexual assault, even if that wasn't his original intention. Anyway, I encourage people to approach captioning this cartoon from either Efren's drunken stupidity orientation or something unrelated to Efren.

[[email protected]]

"After all those drinks, I was hoping that the Ambien would
help me sleep like a baby, but this dream is getting downright weird!"

[Sara S]

Hey, if he'd tried to come through my window I'd be laughing, but then I'm not scared by politicians.....

I can totally appreciate why and how this can be turned into a joke but i find that i'm not at all comfortable with that due to the fact that there is a strong suggestion that he was attempting sexual assault - and that is not something to be trivialized or made light of. Had the circumstance been more obvious drunken stupidity without that predatory overlay, i'd say go right ahead and poke fun. But as it is, i don't think there is a way to deal with this incident humorously that wouldn't be disrespectful or dismissive of the victim and her experience.

[Valley Oak]

"Good evening! As your elected official,
I believe that representative government
should have more of a "personal touch."

[Valley Oak]

"I demand greater access to my government
representatives but this is going too far!"

[Alex Temple]

"Fifty shades of 'nay' "

[sandoak]

I can't find words for how inappropriate this is.

[Barry]

I can't find words for how inappropriate this is.

This is just some fun. This is not as bad as the things that have been written elsewhere about Efren. And it may not be your cup of tea, Sandy and dialula. You are most welcome to unsubscribe from this thread, or continue to read this thread and post your comments.

If Efren was a higher profile politician, say a congressman, do you really think Jon Stewart, Colbert, even Leno, wouldn't be skewering him with even sharper comedy? Would that be inappropriate?

I think this is pretty tame and I appreciate the submissions so far.

[Valley Oak]

Gee, Barry, you sound just like a political scientist! Great observation.

Edward

This is just some fun. This is not as bad as the things that have been written elsewhere about Efren. And it may not be your cup of tea, Sandy and dialula. You are most welcome to unsubscribe from this thread, or continue to read this thread and post your comments.

If Efren was a higher profile politician, say a congressman, do you really think Jon Stewart, Colbert, even Leno, wouldn't be skewering him with even sharper comedy? Would that be inappropriate?

[rossmen]

As you can see, i prefer wine, not beer. This is not classy, Efren!

[Valley Oak]

"I'm another victim of getting
screwed by those in power."

[Dixon]

Ah, the candidate with the common touch!

[Dixon]

A hands-on approach to politics, eh?

[Dixon]

Forget it, buddy--I'm bored of supervisors.

[Dixon]

Visor? Maybe. Super? Apparently not.

[Dixon]

Quit Efren around!

[Dixon]

I knew if I didn't fix that screen insects might get in.

[Dixon]

Run, Fido, run!

[Dixon]

I see you're "stumping for wee erection".

[Dixon]

A super vision you're not.

[Sara S]

What if his last name was Weiner?

I can't find words for how inappropriate this is.

[Sara S]

The first step to enlightenment is to lighten up! (Swami B.)

I can't find words for how inappropriate this is.

[occihoff]

I must say I agree with sandoak, although I don't know exactly what she meant by "inappropriate." Piling on someone who has lost his grip in some way and done something crazy that turns him into a laughing stock and ruined his career seems to me to be, frankly, cruel. Efen Carillo is in enough pain. He doesn't need to have salt rubbed into his wounds by jeering crowds. I would ask all of you who enjoy all this jeering to look into your hearts and imagine how you would feel if you had done something in a fit of drunkenness that exposed you to public humiliation. Are you all so perfect that you have never experienced humiliation? Barry says "This is just some fun." Why is it fun? What is the fun in piling on someone who has gotten drunk and fucked up and ruined his life? To me this feels like psychological bullying. It's like the old practice of putting people in the stocks so that crowds can gather around in the public square and mock them. I would feel differently about someone who has gotten in power and puffed himself up and persecuted others and ruined their lives for something that later turns out to be something that he himself does, for example a closet homosexual who exposes and persecutes homosexuals. Hypocrites who ruin other people's for something that they themselves do secretly are the hardest for me to forgive, although in the final analysis they too can't help being who they are and doing what they do.

This is just some fun. This is not as bad as the things that have been written elsewhere about Efren. And it may not be your cup of tea, Sandy and dialula. You are most welcome to unsubscribe from this thread, or continue to read this thread and post your comments.

If Efren was a higher profile politician, say a congressman, do you really think Jon Stewart, Colbert, even Leno, wouldn't be skewering him with even sharper comedy? Would that be inappropriate?

I think this is pretty tame and I appreciate the submissions so far.

[Sara S]

You agree with sandoak, although you don't know what she means? This alone is enough for me to discount the rest of your post, but good heavens, man, don't you know the difference between citizens' disappointment with their elected official and "jeering crowds"? Inflammatory rhetoric seems to be your specialty, not that of the intelligent posters calling for Carrillo's resignation.

As Barry pointed out, had Effen been more prominent every comic on TV would be making jokes about him; do you write condemnatory letters to them about Anthony Weiner, et al? Why not, since you seem to feel so strongly that "they can't help being who they are and doing what they do"? Do you feel the same sweet empathy for hardened criminals?

Sara

I must say I agree with sandoak, although I don't know exactly what she meant by "inappropriate." ...

[Dixon]

I must say I agree with sandoak, although I don't know exactly what she meant by "inappropriate." Piling on someone who has lost his grip in some way and done something crazy that turns him into a laughing stock and ruined his career seems to me to be, frankly, cruel. Efen Carillo is in enough pain. He doesn't need to have salt rubbed into his wounds by jeering crowds.

Richard, I appreciate your concern for people's feelings. However, I cannot wear the mantle of cruelty with which you attempt to dub me (or at least my behavior). When people choose to do destructive things, they make themselves appropriate targets for derision. Such public disapprobation is one way society helps people control their baser impulses. And if we can get a laugh out of it, so much the better. If I had done something similar to what Carrillo has apparently done, I would expect numerous social consequences, including jokes, and would not complain about those natural consequences of my behavior. And if, by some miracle, we find that he did not really try to break into a woman's bedroom nearly naked in the middle of the night, or that he was really not responsible for his behavior (for example, due to a brain tumor or something), I will publicly apologize for making fun of him.

I would ask all of you who enjoy all this jeering to look into your hearts and imagine how you would feel if you had done something in a fit of drunkenness...What is the fun in piling on someone who has gotten drunk and fucked up and ruined his life?

If you mean to imply that someone isn't fully responsible for their bad behavior because they were drunk, I must vehemently disagree.

It's like the old practice of putting people in the stocks so that crowds can gather around in the public square and mock them.

I would LOVE to see the stocks return, as long as they're used for those whose destructive behavior has really earned derision. If, for example, Wall Street pigs and their political puppets got less of the admiration they're used to getting and more derision, we might actually see a decrease in corruption.

Hypocrites who ruin other people's for something that they themselves do secretly are the hardest for me to forgive, although in the final analysis they too can't help being who they are and doing what they do.

Here you bring up a huge issue: free will (and responsibility) vs. determinism. That's too big an issue to go into here (and I don't have any easy answers to that one anyway), but until I get around to writing a column on the issue, suffice it to say this: If you REALLY don't believe people are, at least to some degree, responsible for their actions, shouldn't we release everyone from jail and take away all rewards people get for their behavior, from Nobel Prizes to the worker's paycheck?

[Dixon]

I can totally appreciate why and how this can be turned into a joke but i find that i'm not at all comfortable with that due to the fact that there is a strong suggestion that he was attempting sexual assault - and that is not something to be trivialized or made light of. Had the circumstance been more obvious drunken stupidity without that predatory overlay, i'd say go right ahead and poke fun. But as it is, i don't think there is a way to deal with this incident humorously that wouldn't be disrespectful or dismissive of the victim and her experience.

Dialula, with all due respect, I think you may be causing yourself distress by inferring some attitudes on the part of us jokers that aren't really true. As a lifelong joker who has occasionally been criticized for presumed insensitivity to this or that issue, let me tell you this: For many of us (I think more men than women), joking about something dark and ugly is not an indication of insensitivity to the issue. Quite the contrary; it's a way for us to process our deep feelings of pain, horror, rage, etc, by spinning the straw of rape, war, murder, disease, death, racism, sexism, etc. into the gold of laughter, just as blues musicians turn dark feelings into music.

I remember that it was just days after the space shuttle blew up, killing several occupants, that the space shuttle jokes were making the rounds. Some of them were hilarious, and I incorporated them into my repertoire, though I wouldn't have told them to the deceaseds' surviving loved ones. Such "black humor" isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I urge you to question your negative assumptions about what it means about the attitudes of the joker. Keep in mind that the joking doesn't hurt anyone, especially since those who are bothered by it can refrain from reading it.

I do get bothered when, due to the content of the joke or the way it's told, it looks like the teller really is racist, sexist, or insensitive in some other way. But the fact that someone is joking about something nasty like, for instance, sexual assault, really tells us nothing, in and of itself, about that person's sensitivity to the issue. If only life could be so simple.

Most of us have issues that are so sensitive to us that we can't enjoy jokes about them. I recently stopped participating in a Facebook group partly because of mohel jokes and other jokes about circumcision. But I'd never suggest that people shouldn't tell whatever jokes they want--even in those cases where their behavior clearly shows insensitive attitudes such as racism, sexism, support of child genital mutilation, etc. Censoring people's expression of their nasty beliefs won't make the beliefs go away. FWIW, I'll be writing a column about censorship one of these months here on Wacco. (BTW, dialula, I'm not necessarily implying that you were calling for censorship here--just addressing the overall issue.)

[Dixon]

...do you write condemnatory letters to them about Anthony Weiner... Do you feel the same sweet empathy for hardened criminals?

Heh heh.

[edie]

I can't find words for how inappropriate this is.

Yes, I agree.
Efren Carrillo has enough problems right now as it is.*
He is still part of the community- he could use a helping hand...
It is easy to squash a fly laying on his back legs up.