This article analysed the satirical press produced by typographers in Chile between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The main results of a review of press files, using the conceptualisation of absent popular culture, reveal different characteristics of the analogue cultural products regarding the self-representation of popular subscriptions and their role in the public sphere. This is differentiated from the conventional nineteenth-century Chilean political Satire, which is centred on the disputes of the Oligarchs while making visible a popular subject (sender and comment) that is more complex and paradoxical than that of the dominant work press. The findings are relevant to a current debate on popular others, how they have hitherto maintained hidden, and how to bring them to the front for reflection on current political projects. Summary This article analyses the satirical press produced by typographic workers in Chile between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Starting from the review of press archives and using the conceptualisation of ‘absent popular culture’, the main results reveal different characteristics of the subject matter of the study in relation to the self-representation of the popular and the role played in the public sphere, which, on the one hand, diverge it from the Chilean satire of the 19th century focused on the disputes of the oligarchic parties, while at the same time displaying a more complex and paradoxical popular subject (sender and receiver) than that of the dominant obrera press, generating findings relevant to a current debate on the other popular people, the way in which they have remained hidden historically and how they reflect on the political scene.