Laughter is a civic duty.
Authoritarians of every stripe share one weakness: they cannot bear to be laughed at. Satire punctures grandeur, exposes hypocrisy, and reminds the powerful that they answer to the people. That is why it is so often the first target of those who would silence their critics.
On our clock, the extremes meet at 12. Twelve o'clock is also midnight. Midnight Dispatches is where we aim our humor: at the authoritarian convergence, wherever it appears. We feature political cartoons and short satire on this site, in our Substack, and on our podcast, and we want yours.
What we're looking for
- Political cartoons: single panels or short strips.
- Short written satire: up to about 600 words.
- Targets: anti-democratic extremism, abuse of power, corruption, hypocrisy, and the absurdities of political life. When we set a monthly theme, we will post it here. Until then, anything at 12 o'clock is fair game.
House rules
- Aim at 12 o'clock. Mock power, extremist ideas, and the people who hold office or seek it. Do not mock ordinary citizens or either party's voters.
- Punch up, not down. No attacks on anyone's race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or national origin.
- Caricature, not counterfeit. Drawn caricature of public figures is welcome. Photorealistic AI images of real people, doctored photos, and invented quotes that could pass as genuine are not.
- No violence, no sexual content involving real people. Nothing that depicts, celebrates, or invites harm to anyone.
- Fair over time. Any single piece may target one side. Our body of work will hold both extremes to account, and we choose submissions with that balance in mind.
- Your own work. Submit only work you created. If you used AI tools in any part of it, tell us how.
Everything we publish is clearly labeled as satire.
How to submit
Email 6op.pro@gmail.com with the subject line "Cartoon submission: [your title]" (or "Satire submission" for writing), and include:
- Your cartoon as a PNG or JPG at least 1,200 pixels wide, or a PDF. Written pieces can go in the body of the email.
- A title, and any caption exactly as you want it to appear.
- The name you want credited (your real name or a pen name), plus an optional link to your website or social profile.
- This sentence: "I created this work, I am 18 or older, and I agree to the 6 O'Clock Project contributor terms."
We read every submission. We cannot reply to all of them, but if we select your work we will contact you before it is published.
Contributor terms, in plain English
- You keep your copyright. Your work remains yours.
- You give us permission to publish it. By submitting, you grant The 6 O'Clock Project a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to publish, display, and share your work, with credit to you, on this website, our Substack, our podcast and YouTube channel, our social media accounts, and in materials promoting the project. Because the license is non-exclusive, you remain free to publish your work anywhere else.
- We won't change your work. We may resize or crop it to fit a format, but we will not alter its content or caption without your permission.
- We may decline. Selection is at our editorial discretion, and we may decline work for any reason, including our house rules.
- Removal. Ask us and we will take your work down from this website. We cannot recall copies already shared, episodes already published, or posts others have reshared.
- Your promises to us. The work is original to you, does not infringe anyone else's rights, and depicts real people only as satire of public figures, not as statements of fact.
- No payment, for now. We are a new, independent project and cannot pay contributors yet. You will always be credited.
We use your name, email address, and any link you send only to review your work, contact you, and credit you. See our privacy notice.