Whichever way around it happened; pictures for words or words for pictures, images and captions seem to have gone hand in hand from this point onwards and form a close relationship with each other. A picture does not say much on its own, and text does not provide any atmosphere alone, but when together, a scene is brought to life. They have become such a common part of modern culture that you don't even identify them as captions when flicking through a magazine, and don't realise just how much they're used until you stop to think about it.

Types Of Captions

• The most obvious sort of captioning is when text is put alongside an image, for the purpose of describing the image. This is undoubtedly the most common sort of caption. This is increasingly being used to make light of a situation with the use of a funny caption (see below).
  
  
• A second form is one called 'Closed Captioning', otherwise known as Subtitles in the UK. These as you will know are put at the bottom of the screen during a film or TV show to help those who have impaired hearing mainly, but also for use in a noisy environment, to view a transcript and for those learning a new language or beginning to read. The term "closed" is used because they are not always shown, but need to be switched on, as opposed to open captions where they are visible all the time.
  
  
• Finally, a type of caption that is increasingly used in the media is so called 'Funny Captions'. I'm sure you can think of where you have seen a picture in a newspaper or magazine that would be boring on its own but when its caption is added it turns an apparently boring situation into a funny picture with the addition of the funny caption.
  
  

Funny Captions

Like with the whole caption thing, nobody is really sure how funny captions first crept into use. They are most commonly used to accompany cartoons and photographs in newspapers, magazines and on many websites. Every day pictures can become funny pictures with the use of a funny caption.

One of the oldest publications that consisted solely of funny captions is Punch. This magazine was first published in 1841 and was laid full with images drawn by some of England's best cartoonists, often mocking and taking an irreverent view on the world at the time. The complete gallery is now held by the British library as of 2004 following the magazine's closure in 2002, but a selection of the images can be seen in the gallery at the punch website. The illustrations on display there show just how a simple caption turns what is a brilliant but nonetheless dull image into something amusing.

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