If you’re stuck in a rut, struggling to get your creative juices flowing, using writing prompts is a great way to get writing again. Even if you’re not struggling with writer’s block, creative writing prompts can be a great way to get your head out of a writing project and work on your writing style.
Whether comedy is your genre or you’re looking to write some funny stories to get out of your usual genre, here are 37 of our favourite funny writing prompts for writing short stories.
- Best Friend: Write a short story about a main character whose best friend is an eccentric, talking plant with a penchant for delivering sarcastic advice.
- Main Character: Your main character discovers a time machine inside their favourite bookstore. Their first trip inadvertently leads to a grocery store in the 1800s, where they must navigate the challenges of fitting in while armed with future knowledge.
- Short Story: Craft a short story about a family gathering where everyone communicates exclusively through inside jokes, leaving the main character feeling like an outsider until a ridiculous misunderstanding brings them closer together.
- Family Members: Explore the humorous dynamics of a family with the peculiar ability to swap bodies during funny situations, leading to chaotic yet heartwarming scenarios.
- Funny Bone: Your main character inherits a mysterious artefact that grants them the power to make anyone laugh uncontrollably but only at the expense of their own funny bone.
- Funny Things: Create a story set in a video game world where the characters rebel against the players, making decisions contrary to their commands, causing hilarious consequences.
- Grocery Store: Your main character’s trip to the grocery store turns into a quest to find the legendary last box of their favourite cereal, with unexpected challenges and quirky characters along the way.
- Long Time: Write about a group of friends who, after a long time apart, reunite for a reunion that takes an unexpected turn when they discover a shared inside joke that only they find amusing.
- Video Games: Explore the life of a stand-up comedian who discovers that their favourite video game character has come to life and is following them around, commenting on their daily experiences.
- Inside Joke: Your main character stumbles upon an old diary entry filled with inside jokes from their teenage years, prompting a hilarious trip down memory lane.
- Social Media: In a future where social media is dominated by mythical creatures, your main character attempts to navigate the challenges of online dating with a particularly picky dragon as their profile picture.
- Future Self: Your main character receives a letter from their future self filled with absurdly specific advice, leading to a series of comical attempts to alter their destiny.
- Stand-up Comedian: Write a comedy about a stand-up comedian whose jokes become reality, turning their mundane life into a whirlwind of unexpected and hilarious events.
- Favourite Song: Explore a world where people communicate through singing their favourite songs, leading to a cacophony of musical mishaps when your main character accidentally sings a breakup anthem at a wedding.
- Good Thing: Your main character discovers a time machine that only transports them to moments when they did something embarrassing or cringe-worthy, leading to a quest to prevent these moments from happening.
- Best Medicine: In a town where laughter is considered the best medicine, your main character is determined to cure a serious illness with the power of stand-up comedy.
- Time Machine: A group of high school students discovers a time machine in the school’s library and decides to use it to ace their history exams by bringing historical figures to their study sessions.
- Historical Figure: Your main character finds themselves face-to-face with a historical figure who is convinced they’re a time-travelling wizard. Hilarity ensues as they try to convince the figure otherwise.
- Diary Entry: Write a story based on a diary entry from the perspective of an old man who, in his youth, invented a ridiculously large amount of made-up jargon that has now become an integral part of society.
- First Time: Your main character attempts stand-up comedy for the first time, only to discover that their audience consists entirely of mythical creatures who have a peculiar sense of humour.
- Funny Pictures: Explore a world where photographs capture not only moments but also the emotions of the subjects. Your main character’s attempt to take a serious family portrait turns into a hilarious endeavour.
- Best Things: Write a story about a group of comedy writers who accidentally discover a portal to a dimension where all the best things they’ve ever written come to life.
- Middle School: Your main character receives a letter from their middle school self, filled with embarrassing confessions and funny anecdotes, forcing them to confront their past in unexpected ways.
- Last Time: Craft a story about the last time a mythical creature visits the human world, and your main character is tasked with convincing it to stay using their stand-up comedy skills.
- Comedy Writers: Explore the challenges faced by a group of high school students who attempt to become comedy writers for a reality TV show about the misadventures of a group of mythical creatures trying to blend in with human society.
- High School Students: Your main character discovers a time-travelling pen that allows them to rewrite their high school experiences. However, each change comes with unintended and hilariously absurd consequences.
- Favourite Book: Write a story about a character whose favourite book is a guide to understanding and communicating with absurd mythical creatures, leading to amusing attempts at applying the advice in everyday life.
- Turning Point: Your main character finds themselves at a turning point in their life and decides to consult a magical fortune cookie that dispenses life advice in the form of puns.
- New Planet: Explore the challenges faced by a stand-up comedian who is selected to perform on a new planet where the inhabitants have a completely different sense of humour.
- Mythical Creature: Your main character befriends a mythical creature that can only communicate through dance. Together, they enter a reality TV dance competition to save their favourite hangout spot from closure.
- King Arthur: Write a humorous twist on the King Arthur legend, where the knights of the round table embark on a quest to find the holy grail, only to discover it’s a ridiculously large amount of made-up jargon.
- Writing Goals: Your main character sets out to achieve their writing goals but is constantly interrupted by an old man who claims to be a time-travelling author from the future, offering unsolicited advice.
- Living Room: Craft a story about a living room that comes to life whenever no one is around, complete with talking furniture and mischievous antics.
- Little Pigs: Your main character receives a letter from the three little pigs, seeking legal advice after being sued by the big bad wolf for defamation.
- Reality TV Show: Create a reality TV show where a group of friends competes to see who can come up with the most absurd inside joke, with the winner receiving a prize of mythical proportions.
- Group of Friends: Your main character discovers that their group of friends has a secret talent for making funny things happen whenever they’re together, leading to a series of laugh-out-loud adventures.
- Humorous Twist: Explore the consequences of a humorous twist in the space-time continuum that causes everyday objects to swap places with their owners, leading to comical mix-ups