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About The Crazy Caption Contest
Please choose from the following quick-links to find out about that topic!
The
Basics:
What
is the Contest?
How to Enter
Terms
and Conditions
The NEW
CC!
What
was Changed
Using the
CaptionScroller!
Using the CC Archive
Using the CC Entry Form
Maniacal Months
Running-Gags and
Ideas
The
Subway Joke
Waldo!
___ =
Priceless
Eric
Speech
Bubble
The
Hufflepuff Common Room
Character Reactions / Two-way Jokes
------------------------------------
The
Basics
------------------------------------
What is the
Contest?
The
Crazy Caption Contest first began in late October 2002, when Emerson the
webmaster decided to have a bit of fun with our visitors. A Caption Contest was
surely a great way to get people's minds scrambling, also giving them the chance
to participate in something fun, entertaining, and best of all, rewarding. After
the third week, MuggleNet was expanding rapidly in many other areas, and I
(Eric) was given control of the contest, Emerson's idea of entertaining and
having fun with the fans holding true even today (I
hope!).
A picture, usually a screenshot directly
from one of the HP movies, is taken each week and put up on the Caption Contest Main
Page. Visitors are to think up the best lines
they can for the characters in the picture, and even, perhaps, elsewhere. The
funniest and most original captions are designated as the 'winners' of that
week, and put up on the main page for everybody else to read and see, hopefully
enjoying the captions as well. The best part is, winners get credit for their
captions, and also gain a spot in the ever-growing Caption Contest Archive,
where all of the previous weeks' captions are stored! The Caption Contest is
updated every Sunday.
How to
Enter
To enter the Caption Contest, first think up your best idea for a humorous
caption entry. Maybe something you'd like to see happen, a spoof of a cliche, a
parody of events from the book, or anything humorous at all!
(excluding; See Terms and Conditions). Once you have one, you can fill out the
CC Entry Form, just
recently constructed to ensure your caption arrives! Be sure to include your name as well, or I may have to
either discard your caption or name you something really weird based on
your email account names! And no, that isn't a goal that you should
have!
Because of the extreme amount of captions
recieved each week, I also ask that all caption entries be sent to me prior to
Thursday of each week, so that I may have enough time to properly view each and
every one before the week is over.
- When the captions are chosen, the
following conditions may apply:
- If your caption contains high levels of profanity or references to what may be viewed by others as "offensive content", I'll either get rid of the entry, or in some cases censor/cut certain parts out. Your caption would really have to be funny for me to do that, as there usually are about 1200 other fish in my sea!
- If your caption lacks a name, as stated before, I may usually move on, or in the same cases as above, give you a name based on your email address.
Also, please try and
give your real name, or a close variation for your entry. Names such as "Ron's
Girl" are, apart from being seemingly appropriate, entirely random!
Sadly enough I believe there may be more than just one who would like to be
known as that name, and this is the Caption Contest -- the one place on
MuggleNet where you can get your name out to the world as belonging to a funny
person!
Because the Caption Contest can't
be the only thing I do (though it almost always is!), some weeks I
may not have been able to judge the captions on my own. This happened mostly
around the time leading up to Book Five, when much of the staff (Including I)
were immersed in plans for the MuggleNet Bk5 Parties. A very good friend of
mine, Maegan, put her hand in and helped. The weeks which she judged for me are
marked in green stars by the week, just as a bit of
thanks.
The Caption Contest, though I try, still may
have some content that you see as being more offensive than humorous. For these
cases, I'll state that the contest has a vague PG-13 rating. There are
references to relationship concepts, the morality of today's actors and/or
political leaders, and those of the past. You may find that I've let some things
slip, but I try to keep the Caption Contest's content down to nothing that you
wouldn't see in television or film these days. After all, this is a Harry Potter
website, so let's have
fun!
------------------------------------
The NEW
CC!
------------------------------------
What was
Changed
After re-designing how the Caption Contest has looked for the past ten
months, I've added two things that I believe are very useful. One is a little
gadget I call the CaptionScroller, and another being an easier way of navigating
the Caption Contest Archive! Both of them are to further enhance your HP
Humor-seeking needs!
Using the
CaptionScroller!
The number of winning captions each week has
been rising since the CC was started. From 6 a week, to 15, and now at a
weekly average of 30, the list of winning captions was taking up a great
deal of the Caption Contest Main Page, almost as much as my above Terms and
Conditions! Anyway, many of you have been informing me of the lack of
reinforcement--even I would forget who was in the caption picture, and reading
the winners would sometimes confuse me, making me look back up top (yes, an
entire scroll away) just to make sure a certain character was indeed
in the pic, or to see what expression everyone was making. I looked for
a while, and finally came up with a code for the
CaptionScroller!
The CaptionScroller, shown below,
is easy to use (not so easy to code!), and allows each caption to be right up
next to the image of that week! Now you can be sure to get the idea the first
time instead of having to read someone else's caption over and over again
because of extra characters!
Click the buttons to view the different caption
winners!
It may not look like much, but it does the trick, and serves it's purpose to what I'd describe as 'uncanny'. Click the Next and Previous (or 'Prev') buttons of the CaptionScroller, and you can cycle through the winning captions. Try a little button-clicking action now if you'd like to get used to how it works. I've added the CaptionScroller to every week in the archive as well, so you can also go back and read the older winners just as good as today's!
Using the CC
Archive
The
CC Archive, now made easier to navigate, is just as easy to
explain. The tables made on the Archive Main
Page consist of buttons for each month of the
year. As the Contest only began in October of 2002, the 2002 Table is only the
three remaining months. When the time has come, a 2005 Table and so on will be
added. Clicking the button of a month that hasn't arrived yet may lead you to a
dead-end page, a copy of an old page, or something to which I can advise you
"Just don't click that".
After you've chosen a month
of winning captions, you may further go on and choose the week that you want to
view! A thumbnail of the image of each individual week should show up, aside the
days of each month included in the week to the right. Both the image and the
hyperlink should link to the page itself. You may use the navigation at the
bottom of each individual page and archive, or the back buttons and such to
choose another week/month of the Caption Contest! I highly recommend that
everybody view the Caption Contest in order, as different and new things develop
each week, and you may realize something you hadn't before as an added
bonus!
Using the CC Entry
Form
The CC
Entry Form is the new and improved way to send in captions to be judged! All you
have to do is fill out the form by including your name
and email address, and writing down the best caption you can think of! This can
be done multiple times per week, especially if more ideas come to you. The CC
Entry Form automatically forwards your caption to the mail account used to judge
captions, so you don't have to remember any extra email addresses. It's also
conveniant because it allows those of you without active email accounts to send
in your captions.
Actually, if you're at school
during study hall or in the library with free time, you can also send captions
in from there (as this is a paid site and their sensing equipment usually
doesn't block it)! Though, I must stress that I shouldn't be held accountable
for any trouble whatsoever caused by your doing this, just to keep it fair to me
for telling you about it!
Also, if you for some
reason do not get redirected to the "sent, thank you!" page after entering your
caption, or you prefer to email, you can do so by mailing mugglenetcc@yahoo.com. I can't guarantee
the account won't go crazy or I won't accidentally delete something crucial to
the Entry Form working, so this is something to fall back on if everything else
just don't work.
Maniacal
Months
So
far, two months of the Caption Contest's history have been classified as
"Maniacal Months". These are months during which the caption pictures are done
in a non-traditional way - they are created using Adobe Photoshop or other
image-editing software. The Maniacal Months so far (March, 2003 & May, 2004)
have both started with weeks preceding the actual month (February had a week
halfway between both months), so to view all of the images in the CC Archives
you'll have to view the previous months' as well.
In
May, 2003, when the idea first dawned on me, I used images which Andrew of
MuggleNet Staff had created for fun as Caption Pics, both because I thought it
would be something new, and also because I was currently rendering masterpieces
in MS Paint, but even my best creations couldn't do the magic that
Photoshop could! The month was a success as far as the number of caption entries
and general public liking, and now this March I've decided to use images which I
do (using Photoshop now that I've er... adjusted my defaults) based on what the
fans suggest!
Caption Pics during Maniacal Months,
as far as the Caption Contest is concerned, do have to include HP in some
obvious way - otherwise, they wouldn't be appropriate! Also, it is ideal that if
any characters from other films be present in the picture, they should be
characters from well-known or "big-budget" films. This is not to say that other
characters aren't suitable for a match-up, but is a must so that the greatest
majority of people entering the contest know who the people are. These
guidelines are sometimes bent, but if they are it is for an express purpose
(like maybe nobody's supposed to know who or what the other occupants of
the picture are).
To suggest a picture for Maniacal
Months, email your suggestion to mugglenetcombox@yahoo.com,
ONLY during those months. If I get a suggestion in the middle of winter
that doesn't belong, I will... er... just don't! Furthermore, try and keep
things appropriate and accordingly to the rules and regulations (blah, blah,
blah) of this contest.
------------------------------------
Running-Bits and Ideas
------------------------------------
The Subway
Joke
This
particular joke is one I'm sure all of you are tired of! It spread like
brushfire through the CC and has now actually been banned upon your request.
There's a television advertisement for Subway, an Italian-sandwich based food
chain, which is the heart of this punch-line.
A man
is driving with his wife to a family reunion, and notices that she's been
snacking on some food. He asks her about it, but she replies "It's okay, I had
Subway for lunch", implying that the low cholesterol count of a Subway sandwich
makes up for that of the snack's.
But her husband
sees it as a reasonable excuse for doing something out-of-line, or different.
Once at the reunion, he takes it upon himself to play tackle football with the
elderly relatives, smashing a few of them to the ground! Of course his behavior
is completely inappropriate, but when the relatives give him their funny looks,
he replies "It's okay, I had Subway for lunch!", thinking of it as a perfect
explanation for his deeds.
In the CC, any character
who is doing something peculiar or suspicious has probably used this as an
excuse sooner or later since this commercial's debut.
Waldo
The popular children's book by Martin
Handford, "Where's Waldo?" and many other variations, has become another running
gag. The books' objective is to find the red & white striped character in a
crowd of varyingly-themed people and places. A character in the CC will have
just found Waldo, or uses him as an excuse to justify their actions.
Priceless
A television advertisement for MasterCard
features several connected ideas or happenings throughout the duration of
itself, listing the monetary price for each of these items as well. At the end
of the advertisement, a quirky, humorous, and connected object or idea is
announced, and its monetary value is "priceless".
Captions featuring this gag will include several objects relating to the caption
pic, as well as the priceless one. At the end of the commercial there's also an
announcement saying "There are some things money can't buy; for everything else
there's MasterCard." These may or may not be used in the captions.
Eric
Well, what can be said about this
one? A bunch of you think it funny to openly criticize, trick, make fun of,
intrigue, interest, humor, or be humored by none other than me! Keep it
relatively clean and, if I think enough people would enjoy the caption (which I
do take into consideration) your caption may just win!
Speech
Bubble The HufflePuff Common
Room Character Reactions
/ Two-Way Jokes Finally, I'd like
to say that you have an even better chance of winning if you
don't use these running-bits in your captions! The idea of this section
was to explain what has happened in the past, and if history kept repeating
itself, I'd have more people with the same caption than I could possibly allow
to win! What really counts is your effort and ingenuity, tangled in with all of
your unique personal sense of humour!
The first
CC pics used speech bubbles to convey the idea of who was speaking. However, as
the pictures included more and more people, and the speech bubble took a lot of
space to include, they were removed a few months in. Many captions openly
questioned why they'd been removed, and some explained that they were stolen.
For some reason these captions are still being sent in, but very rarely
will they win now!
This is
one of the older but still entered running gags of the CC. Having first
begun in late December by "Nick", and reinforced by myself several times (to my
ultimate demise), the Hufflepuff Common Room, as far as many Caption
Participants are concerned, is the one place among Hogwarts where
'Extra-curricular' activities take place. Following the gag, please be assured
that once again there isn't any direct associations to anything inappropriate.
The funny parts of this gag are that we know close to nothing about
Hufflepuff besides the characteristics of those who are in it (daring for one),
and that the HP Books have never really given these guys a fair shot at the
action. Even Ravenclaw has a bit more as of Book
Five.
To no avail, I've tried to stop this gag about
twenty times, but not because I'm annoyed with it. I'm still allowing entries
based on this, but you have a greater chance of winning if you steer clear of
Hufflepuff for a while!
Another couple running-bits of the Caption
Contest throughout it's time have been based on what we know (or think we know)
of different characters. The likeliness of them to appear even when they aren't
in the caption picture may add to the humour.
Snape
is always popping up to take points away! It's like a video game that won't give
you a 'Game Over!' (Which is bad!)! You can add him in your captions wherever a
blood-sucking edgy character is needed, as there is always points to
take away from Gryffindor!
A very funny
technique that's been used in the past is what i call "two-waying". Basically,
if a character throws some verbal mud at another, a future week's winner may
display the opposite! An example of this also took place in a December 2002
Caption. In week 1, Ollivander is suggesting that Harry go to Gringott's for a
lollipop (which Harry had been seeking), and jokes along the old habit of
banks to actually have candy (which seems funny now that we think about
it). Sure enough, though, in Week 4, the Head Goblin at Gringotts is telling
Harry that they don't have any lollipops, and suggests checking at
Ollivander's. This type of "back-and-forth" is always a
riot.
An old running-bit which I hope stays dead,
and I'll tell you why, is commenting on the state of a Caption Picture. My
methods of getting screenshots from the movies have been rough in the past, and
only recently have I started finding them in DVD Quality to use for the Caption
Contest. Dumbledore needing to use his glasses because the "Picture's too
fuzzy!" or Voldemort being "reduced" to a rather low-quality image instead of
his reign of power were both occurences (and funny ones, too!) that have
happened.
 
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