Top 10 funniest crop artworks at the Minnesota State Fair

Crop art is no laughing matter.

Or is it?

This year, rather than select the best crop artworks, as judges do, we decided to find the funniest. Crop art, or art from seeds, beans and bits of plants, is a pretty absurd concept and naturally lends itself to humor. Some crop artists use wordplay to poke fun at crop art, while others use the medium as a way to joke about other topics, like cats, corn dogs, politics, art and bad drivers.

This year the 354 crop artworks cover three walls instead of just one in the Agriculture Horticulture Building.

Here are the top 10 funniest crop artworks in no particular order.

Meredith Keller of East Bethel offers her comical take on the battle of Pronto Pups vs. good ol’ corn dogs, framing the beefy confrontation in the style of an old western showdown. The two dogs stare at each other against a canyon backdrop, ready to duke it out. Pronto Pups and corn dogs are both batter-fried hot dogs on sticks. However, Prontos are saltier while corn dogs are sweeter, and corn dogs use a cornbread batter, while Prontos go with a thinner and crispier pancake batter. Only you can decide the real winner!

Cindy Jiban of St. Paul pokes fun at abortion opposition billboard signs around Minnesota. In her piece, a little plant sprouts from the dirt, holding a milk-filled baby bottle and looking innocent with big brown eyes. The little seeds that she used to make this art could have become real plants.

Heather Rheingans of Fridley replaces a person’s head with a Humpback anglerfish, a scary-looking deep-sea species that lives in the darkest corners of the ocean. The human-fish situation could make you even more lightheaded than crop art!

Minneapolis-based comic Brandi Brown makes crop art each year. This year she goes deep into the irregular forms category, spoofing the idea of crop art by making a crop tart in the shape of a standing Pop-Tart. Read it fast and you might accidentally just see “Crop Top.” Catch her at Acme Comedy Co. and on a recent podcast episode of comedian Jackie Kashian’s “The Dork Forest” talking about crop art.

Ike Whiting of St. Anthony goes straight for wordplay with this bright seedy sign.

Joel Alter of St. Paul pokes fun at how crop artists get ribbons with a cartoonish explanation that involves stealing your kid’s glue, becoming obsessed with seed art, and then bribing officials. He also won a third-place ribbon. Ironic?

St. Anthony-based Kate Martin takes artist Keith Haring’s iconic expression “Art Is for Everybody,” adds the word “crop,” and inserts a husk of corn. She even makes Haring’s dancing human figures out of crop art. The guide to which seeds she used includes his iconic three-eyed cube, crawling baby, pyramid, dog and flying saucer. After you look at this seed artwork, go to the Walker Art Center and catch Keith Haring’s show, which ends on Sept. 8.

One day before the Aug. 7 deadline for State Fair crop art submissions, Vice President Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. Some crop artists changed course and went full Walz with their crop art. Nell Graham of St. Paul spoofed the iconic “Make America Great Again” slogan with the very Minnesota slogan “Make America Minnesota, Tim!”

Who doesn’t love a chubby cat just sitting there in the loaf position, curling its paws under and closing its eyes halfway as a sign of relaxation? Sarah Obrien of Minneapolis calls her loafing kitty “Minnesota Beef Boy,” which made me laugh out loud. I hope that is his actual name.

It’s a well documented fact that Minnesotans can’t figure out how to zipper-merge, even though it’s the law. Zipper merging happens when two lanes become one, but some Minnesotans won’t let the merger in. Julia Hinderlie of Minneapolis felt so passionate about the merge that she made crop artwork about it. Is she also suggesting that Minnesotans need to learn how to drive, period? You betcha.