The New Yorker Finally Gives Ebert Cartoon Caption Two Thumbs Up

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Image via The New Yorker

Roger Ebert's winning cartoon caption.

At last, film critic Roger Ebert has finally achieved his several-year-long goal: His 107th entry into The New Yorker‘s weekly cartoon caption contest has won.

A couple of years ago, Ebert blogged his frustration at not making headway in the world of New Yorker cartoon captions. He explained that he had “entered the New Yorker’s cartoon caption contest almost weekly virtually since it began and have never even been a finalist.”

(More on TIME.com: See the best cartoons of the week)

The New Yorker‘s Robert Mankoff writes that “Roger was being a bit hyperbolic when he claimed to have entered practically all of the contests since its inception. Out of a possible two hundred and eighty contests leading up to his win in No. 281, the Bureau of Cartoon Caption Contest Statistics reports that he entered only a hundred and seven”.

So it would seem that the old adage is true: if at first you don’t succeed, try, try (and try) again.

Or perhaps The New Yorker just wanted to prove Malcolm Gladwell’s ol’ 10,000 hours of practice makes perfect theory correct. (via The New Yorker)

(More on TIME.com: Forget cartoons, Ebert is a champion at tweets)