What’s the Reverse Caption Contest?

The Reverse Caption Contest is run by me, Rusty Epstein — I'm a cartoonist and writer with a love of fill-in-the-blank comedy. I launched the first contest back in 2023 as a fun little experiment to see what would happen if you gave a bunch of cartoonists the same exact prompt and forced them to invent the punchline themselves. The results? Amazing! Ingenious! Other positive descriptors!

For that first contest, we had just 13 artists participating. Since then, more than 120 artists have joined in, from professional cartoonists to amateur hobbyists and everything in between. I always want to ensure there's no barrier to entry here — if you can make pencil scratches on a piece of scrap paper, you can enter the Reverse Caption Contest.​

And, please do! We all want to see what your weird little brain comes up with.

The contest runs quarterly, and if you sign up for the mailing list right here, you'll be notified when submissions are open and when voting begins. It's the best way to stay in the loop, whether you're an interested artist or just someone who wants to get some hilarious cartoons delivered right to their inbox.

Let's get doodling!