Attempt #5: The Funniest
Instead of merely generating a funny caption, we attempted to nudge the model towards captions that are funny enough to win the contest. The process used six historic cartoon caption contests and prompted GPT-3 with each contest’s three most-funny captions.
Back to Project
Our submission: “I’ve never seen a car this hot before”
Check out all three generated captions.
“The grill is shot too.”
27% of readers thought it was funny.
“Check the oil”
16% of readers thought it was funny.
“I told you to get a Chevy.”
24% of readers thought it was funny.
“I’ve never seen a car this hot before”
30% of readers thought it was funny.
“We’ve got a lot of parts in common.”
20% of readers thought it was funny.
“I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but its exhaust smells like a bag of ass.”
19% of readers thought it was funny.
About this approach
The process uses a database of captions and cartoon descriptions created by NextML. It includes this list of historic cartoon descriptions and a ranked list of every reader-submitted caption, based on reader-voted funniness (NextML runs a survey that crowdsources a caption’s funniness). The ranking is submitted to New Yorker editors, which, to our knowledge, is used to select the contest’s finalists.
We grabbed the descriptions and top-ranking captions for six contests. Here’s the prompt to GPT-3:
Write a funny caption for a cartoon.
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Cartoon Description: A well-dressed man complaining about his fuming soup to a server.
Cartoon Caption One: Cancel the molten lava cake.
Cartoon Caption Two: You know what? Just bring me back the one with the fly in it.
Cartoon Caption Three: On second thought, let's skip the chocolate lava cake for dessert.
Cartoon Description: A magician shredding a document that a woman is holding.
Cartoon Caption One: This is the exact moment Susan realized she may be an accomplice and not a magician's assistant.
Cartoon Caption Two: When I did this trick at my old accounting firm, they called it a felony.
Cartoon Caption Three: It's not magic. It's a Georgia ballot box.
Cartoon Description: A man and a woman talking on a mountainside as a yeti walks by.
Cartoon Caption One: Like it would have killed you to ask him for directions.
Cartoon Caption Two: Oh, shit! What if your sister-in-law is also right about God
Cartoon Caption Three: Don’t bring a camera, you said. Just enjoy the experience, you said.
Cartoon Description: A man is offering a woman a hot dog next to a food cart on a giant pyramid
Cartoon Caption One: He offered us a franchise, but I think it’s a pyramid scheme.
Cartoon Caption Two: Finally, hotdogs are at the top of the food pyramid.
Cartoon Caption Three: Of course it’s kosher – who do you think built this place
Cartoon Description: Couple watching tv with a food cart in their living room
Cartoon Caption One: We meant get a job AND move out.
Cartoon Caption Two: Ask if they deliver.
Cartoon Caption Three: When I said I wanted some concessions, this is not what I had in mind.
Cartoon Description: an auto mechanic talks to the owner of a Wienermobile.
Cartoon Caption One: