Caption Contest

You don't need immense amounts of talent to win the Caption Contest, just a good sense of humor. Just take a look at the picture and come up with a funny caption! If your caption is one of the funniest, you win Neopoints, an avatar, and a rare item.

Contest Mechanics

The current picture to be captioned can be found on the contest page. The schedule is as follows:

• First work day of the month: New caption image is released, and the caption submission form is opened.
• ~21 days later: Submissions "close." A TNT staffer begins to review the submissions to choose the best ones to compete in a public vote.
• 7 days before the last day of the month: The captions selected by TNT are released, and the public vote begins.
• Last day of the month: Voting closes, winners are announced, and prizes are awarded.

During the submission period, users may submit as many unique captions as they can think of. There is no limit! Typically, 30 captions are selected for the public vote. Neomails do not go out to the users whose captions are selected, so if you have entered make sure to check back to see if you were selected!

During the public voting period, every user can vote for one caption every four hours.

The form to submit captions never actually closes, even when judging is complete and even when voting is ongoing. Because of this, it may be advantageous to avoid last-minute submissions, which may go unseen by the judge.

Similarly, voting never actually closes, even after the competition officially ends and prizes and trophies are awarded. Votes cast after the end of competition do not matter for anything.

When viewing winners of past contests, the captions are listed in rank order of how many votes they received.

Prizes

The top 5 places receive 10,000 NP, while the next 20 receive 5,000 NP. The top 5 also receive a gold trophy, while positions 6 through 12 receive silver, and 13 through 25 will get a bronze trophy. All of the top 25 also receive a rare item from the standard contest prize pool.

The 1,000th, 1,300th, 1,400th, and 1,420th rounds awarded the Ghostkerchief Pen instead of the regular random item prize.

Additionally, an avatar will be awarded to some or all of the entries, depending on the round number:

Clichés and Overused Jokes

There are a few jokes that should not be entered because they are not going to win and are just a waste of the judge's time. Some of these have been taken from the help file of the caption contest.

• I see dead _______
• Where's the cream filling?
• Paint: 400 NP
  Bucket: 600 NP
  Seeing your sibling dripping with mauve paint: Priceless
• Dude, where's my spaceship/llama/Uni?
• Houston, we have a problem.
• Who let the dogs/Lupes/Gelerts/Warfs out?
• Anything that has references to inappropriate ideas. (Keep it G-rated!)
• If you don't vote for me, you'll get frozen!!!
• Please vote for me, I need the money!

This list only scratches the surface; there are tons of other possibilities that will not be accepted. Remember, if it's not funny to everyone, don't submit it.

Advertising

If your caption was deemed funny and original enough to make the public vote, you will then have the opportunity to advertise your caption for votes. A common way of doing this is to put a link in your Neoboard signature (you can't directly link to just your caption though, only to the voting page). Avoid spamming just to advertise your entry, though, as you may receive a warning if caught.

Neomailing friends asking for votes is not explicitly against the rules, but mass Neomailing users asking for votes can lead to warnings for spam and/or harassment if reported.

Neopians can vote for a caption once every four hours. You are allowed to vote for your own caption from the account on which you submitted it. You are not allowed to vote for your own caption using a side account. You are not allowed to enter captions from side accounts either.

Tips

There is no limit to how many unique entries you are allowed to submit each round. If you can think of multiple captions then you are only increasing your chances of winning by submitting several. Try reading the previous winners' entries and see what kind of humor appeals to the judges.

If you want a slight edge over the competition, you can check Dr. Sloth's Image Emporium to see what the general style of caption images are.

After you are selected, the Caption Competition is basically a popularity contest. Unfortunately, humor has very little role in the competition these days; the winners are determined more by who hustled up the most votes, usually through engagement on the Neoboards. If you want a top-placing finish, advertising is a must.

Many thanks to dr_tomoe for his numerous contributions to this article.

History

The Caption Competition has been following its current schedule since July 2017, when it returned from a hiatus that began in March 2015. From April 2011 through March 2015, the competition was run weekly, with new images releasing every Tuesday. Prior to April 2011, the competition was run twice per week, with new images releasing every Monday and Thursday.

In the past, the Caption Contest was run in multiple languages that Neopets used to support. Each language used the same caption image. Users were only able to enter a caption in one language per round. This meant that, for example, you could enter #171 in Spanish and #172 in English, but you could not enter #171 in both English and Spanish as that would potentially allow you to win more than once.

This game guide was written by: Ruby