I run a caption competition on Quora. Each week, I post a picture and people post captions and vote for them. The winner is the caption with most upvotes. One of the prizes is that the winning caption is made into a poster and displayed here and on my Pinterest page.
Each week the competition has a different theme. So far we’ve had captions about Dancing, Babies, Home Defence, Star Wars, Wonder Woman, the Air Force, Pandas, Elephants, Hospitals, James Bond, Victorian Governesses, Ancient Egypt, Quora, Goldfish, Babushkas, Goldfish, School, Police and Aircraft. Some of the winners are hilarious.
If you’d like to enter the competition then follow me on Quora.
63: Modi in Silicon Valley
Indian Prime Minister Modi visited Silicon Valley. Hilarity ensued.
Halloween 2015
Halloween always brings out the weirdos.
61: Trump
Several plays on the double meaning of ‘trump’ this week, but this reference to the great man’s hair got the nod.
Special: Independence Day
60. Baboons
Bananas made a strong showing in this week’s competition.
59. FIFA
This week the captions practically wrote themselves…
58. Skyscrapers
Some really inspired entries this week.
57. British Election
British Prime Minister, David Cameron, meets a schoolgirl. Hilarity ensues.
56. Snow White
This Star Wars/Snow White crossover generated a lot of great captions, but the one that won was…
55. Tippy Toe
Probably the most surreal caption competition so far.
54. Cricket World Cup
This looks more like rugby than cricket to me.
53. Tsipras meets Merkel
Mutual incomprehension between the leaders of Greece and Germany this week.
52. Star Trek
In memory of the death of Leonard Nimoy a caption competition tribute:
51. Valentines Day
Ah, Valentines Day! How can it get any worse? I know, let’s have a caption competition about it!
50. Sony Pictures
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s the Caption Competition!
49. Physical Poets
Uninvited guests? Vampires? A horrible accident in a paint factory? Just some of the captions for this week’s competition…
48. Cars
On my caption competition this week – gridlock!
47. Clown
It’s not often that clowns are funny…
46. Baseball
I’ve heard that baseball is a religion for some people…
45. Superfamily
This was the Halloween fancy dress special competition. Can you spot the ninja?
44. Venice
This picture is actually of George Cloony’s wedding in Venice. But our captioners had other ideas…
43. Satellite
It’s a little known fact that my first word was ‘satellite’, so this competition had special resonance for me.
42. World Cup
Crazy football fans met crazier captions this week.
41. Goose
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Oh yeah it’s a bird.
40. Fields Medal
A bit of an obscure one this week unless you like maths. Maryam Mirzakhani is the first woman to be awarded a Fields Medal for “Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics”.
39. North Korea
North Korea and marathon running. What can possibly go wrong?
38. The Pope
The Pope and Israel’s President, Shimon Peres, meet. Hilarity ensues.
37. Sowing Machine
Entrants were asked to explain what was going on in this surreal photograph. They had some very strange ideas, mostly involving sowing machines.
36. Indian Voting
It’s the Indian elections, and Quora has a lot of Indian people on it, so this was a topical photo. There were several face-painting jokes but the V shape gesture inspired this winner.
35. Astronaut
Gulliver, the movie Gravity and its star George Clooney were all mentioned but the winner was…
34. Bunny
Some good captions this week about Catholic priests on the run and “bad hare” days, but this subtle threat was the winner.
33. China
Lots of jokes about lighting your farts and the Olympics this week. But this game reference won.
32. Facebook
Lots of captions about Obamacare and the NSA, but this reference to the fact that President Obama has an account on Quora won. In case you don’t recognise him, that’s Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, on the left.
31. Angel
We had the most entries ever for this one. References to smoking, Morgan Freeman and Burning Man lost to this superhero inspired caption.
30. Alien
Miss Universe, high heels, and dentists all lost out to this great caption:
29. Doctor Who
Slot machines, spaghetti, and knitting were all popular, but the winner was this clever caption:
28. Window Cleaning
These moonlighting superheroes were called on to combat Dirty Windows Man. But they were keen to get back to their real jobs.
27. Greece
This one got surreal. Prom dates, scotsmen, teapots, that rope in the top left corner. But the winner was fashionably late.
26.Penguin
Cutest picture ever. Lots of captions about tuxedos, Linux and dancing, but the winner was…
25. Chimp
Great competition this week, and a lot of good captions, but this was the standout:
24. Babysitter
James Bond, TV Dinners and Steven Spielberg lost out to this grumpy baby.
23. Bicycle
Performance enhancing drugs were a popular theme this week. Although ladies underwear also featured…
22. Tank
Wrong turns, Apple Maps, and the invasion of Afghanistan – this competition had it all; but the winner was…
21. Robot
Lots of racy captions this week. Only a handful of the seventy-odd entries managed to reference something other than robo-human romance.
20. Cocktail Bar
More elephants, and a lot of surreal captions, this week. But the winner was this play on words.
19. Dancing
Captions referencing Abba, One Direction and Go Go dancers were beaten by this one about the Harlem Shake.
18. Baby
A titanic battle of the super-captions this week. Although the person who spotted Pac Man deserved more votes too. Can you see him?
17. Home Defence
This week’s captions mostly seemed to concern sandwiches and who exactly was going to make them, but this reference to a TV series popular amongst humans beat them all.
16. Star Wars
Tupperware, father-daughter relationships, chocolate cookies… this round of the caption competition had everything, but this was the standout winner.
15. Wonder Woman
Lots of clever responses to this one, involving boob-tubes, Spiderman and Amazon, but this dream sequence snuck ahead.
14. Air Force
I knew there would be a lot of knob-gags this week, but the sheer volume was a bit terrifying. This one was one of the more subtle.
13. Panda
There were captions about disguises, bamboo and Kung Fu, but the idea that the Panda was looking for love was most popular.
12. Elephant
Last week, the winner was a caption about a shadow puppet of an elephant. This week, the real thing.
11. Hospitals
There were some great entries for this one involving petrol, vodka and Captain America. But the elephant in the room was…
10. James Bond
9: Victorian Governesses
Captions for this one referenced Game of Thrones and American Apparel advertisements. But in the end old-fashioned innuendo won.
8: Ancient Egypt
Captions involving surfing and beaches were popular, as well as bizarre resemblances to Nintendo and iTunes. But this horror film reference won:
7: Quora
Unsurprisingly, captions were focussed on Quora, its lack of monetisation and Quora Credits, the site’s internal currency:
6: Goldfish
There were captions about Pink Floyd and Finding Nemo, but this Star Wars reference won:
5: Babushkas
The foibles of internet dating and Nigerian scams were popular, but this reference to the sometimes fickle upvoting system on Quora won.
4: Puppies
This was a close one, lots of captions about bad breath and kissing, but this more subtle joke won:
3: School
Captions about cone-heads, superglue and North Korean missiles lost out to this:
2: Police
This reference to the US government’s budget problems cleaned up.
Caption Competition 1: Aircraft
Want to join in the fun?
If you’d like to enter the competition then follow me on Quora. If you think the captions are funny then please share the post using the buttons below.