Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Featured stories
Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of funny short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

8950+ Funny Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. The world can get dreary and overwhelming, so when you’re looking to have a good laugh, take a scroll through our free collection of funny short stories.

Funny Short Stories – Page 19 of 597

Congratulations, You’re Fired!

Submitted to Contest #299

Lyle Stanford woke up with a seagull standing on his chest.This would’ve been concerning if he lived near the coast—or even remotely closer than 140 miles inland. But Lyle lived in apartment 3B of a building that leaned slightly to the left and had been cited twice for “accidental rooftop goat yoga.” The bird stared at him, cocked its head, and squawked directly into his face.“Okay,” Lyle said, wiping drool off his cheek. “I definitely need to stop buying expired NyQuil off Craigslist.”The seagull flew out through the open window like it had...

4 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

The First Trick I Didn’t Get to Keep

Submitted to Contest #299

I was probably three or four years old when I opened the wrong Christmas gift — and it changed everything.It was a magician’s kit. Sleek black box, mirrored sides, mysterious compartments. I didn’t know how it worked — I just knew it was magic. My heart exploded with excitement… for about three seconds. Then someone said, “Oh, wait, that’s not yours,” and swapped it for the right one: a book-on-tape about a giant named Gallagher who gets tied to the earth.It was a good story. But it wasn’t magic.That moment stuck.Even now, I think of that bl...

6 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

It'll Go Viral

Submitted to Contest #299

You hear that? "NASA detected otters on Mars!"My wife, Dianne, rolls her eyes. "WATER. They detected water on Mars. Either turn the TV up or put in your hearing aids."I love our pillow talk, the first hour of our day, sipping coffee, watching the news in bed, and discussing our goals. Retirement is good.Hmm. "Like they say, "Where there's water, there's otters."Dianne retrieves the remote from under the blanket and raises the volume. "Shush. I want to hear this."While the Good Morning Show prattles on about some British royalty crap, I resea...

5 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Call of Domestic Duty, by Declan, age forty one and a half

Submitted to Contest #299

It’s just after ten in the morning. I’ve been awake for four hours and it feels like it should be bedtime already. After the battle of the breakfast table (cornflakes or toast Maisie? No, we don’t have smashed avocado), I dispatched the kids to school, well, I shoved them through the gates (‘Yes Alfie, you do have fish paste on your sandwiches, and yes, that’s all there is.’) and ran like my life depended on it. Since then, I’ve folded a pile of laundry, half of which I’m sure doesn’t belong to anyone in this house, fished a Lego man and one...

17 likes 14 comments 14
Read story

Make the Bed

Submitted to Contest #299

Make the Bed I read somewhere once that if everything’s falling apart, if you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed, you should try to avoid creating long To-Do lists. Instead, you should focus on one small task. Something simple, like flossing your teeth, putting out the recycles, or making your bed. The trick here is not to do one thing and then say, “Okay, the recycles are in the garage, but I’ve always wanted to reorganize the garage shelving unit,” so you decide to do it, and mid-way through that chore, you find your old family albums,...

4 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Riley Abel and his Incredibly Long and Ridiculous Morning

Submitted to Contest #299

Riley Abel shuffled into his boss's office, head hung low.“Riley! Do you know how unimaginably late you are?” “I know, sir, but it wasn't my fault. I had a ridiculous morning,” Riley pleaded. His boss crossed his arms. “Really, what is it this time?” “It's quite a long story, sir. I don't know if there's time…” His boss sank into his comfortable executive leather office chair, which he believed granted him status and confidence. He would often wheel it through the office to any meetings, much to the mortification of his staff. His secretary,...

3 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Ent, the Mouse: A True Story from Childhood

Submitted to Contest #299

My brother Ted was endowed with the gift of creative mischief. From a young age, he could imitate voices and mannerisms, reenact scenarios most people found mundane, and have an audience splitting their sides with laughter. He had an uncanny way of unmasking hypocrisy, uplifting the underdog, the lonely and despised, and sprinkling any drudgery or pessimism with his magic powder of fun and positivity. His energy and sense of adventure was unmatched. Few grownups could keep pace with him, but that’s what I loved about him.My brother and I wer...

14 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

Gertrude Street

Submitted to Contest #299

The rain had started to hit her bedroom windows so hard that Damon thought they might shatter; the hailstones were only just drowned out by her moans. He looked sideways at the mirror and saw himself with her legs wrapped around his neck. He stared long into his own black eyes."She should cum soon," he thought "and then I can get some sleep." He continued to grind into her, adjusting the angles just enough so he wouldn't cum himself. The last thing he wanted was to have her all over him while he was trying to get some rest. Then it struck hi...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The dog that knew too much

Submitted to Contest #299

want to tell you about a very smart dog called Tucker. Tucker couldn’t tell you why he was smarter than other dogs for two reasons. One, he was a dog, and they couldn’t talk. And two, he didn’t know.He just came into the world, with five other siblings, knowing stuff. He didn’t act like the other puppies; he didn’t get excited and bark at the postman whenever he came by. “That isn’t an axe murderer coming to kill them,” he had tried to explain to his littermates, “just a dude dropping off parcels.”But that didn’t work because then he had to ...

7 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

The Scarlet Sleeve.

Submitted to Contest #299

At Malory Tennyson’s Cloudbank Cabin for Arthurian Studies, Little Plump Jo, the current Artisan in Residence and her writing and editing companions, the five overexcitable Dabrowski Dogs were watching from the porch as a scene unfolded in the Fog Lake.Lancelot was talking to Elaine“I was thinking about you the other day,”“Were you?”“Yes, I was resting after the land dispute tourney and a little white dog, who looked like a lamb, came and sat on the bed beside me.“That was me!” Imaginational Dabrowski announced to the Porch Watchers . “I was...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Bank Story

Submitted to Contest #299

Brad Shapiro was a reporter for the Leesburg Daily News, a suburban newspaper. His paper was unable to compete with the big city newspaper regarding state, national and international news. The big paper even claimed better coverage of regional news regarding multiple suburbs and county-wide happenings.Back at the Carterville News, the small-town paper Brad came from, there was no competition from a big city because they were so far away. They were the only outlet for printed news. Even though the major news stories came from external outlets...

6 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Car Games

Submitted to Contest #299

Robert has the front passenger seat for the drive home from church. It’s something he’s allowed on account of his recent growth spurt, and Mummy has said there is no need to make fuss. Which leaves Elizabeth with the women in the back, with the itch and torment of their autumn tweeds and talk of sleepless nights. ‘Dr MacPherson says I’ve the worst case of it,’ pronounces Mummy to end all conversation, and Nana Boyd points her nose towards the drizzle. It’s a thing they often do. The women. Go silent over invisible things; a forgotten condol...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

#ReedsyFunnyStory - The Great Granny Heist

Submitted to Contest #299

*The Masterplan*It was a hot Saturday afternoon in Namatanai—a place so boring that even the flies gave up halfway through buzzing. For two teenagers, Ricky and Jeremiah, the day had crawled by with the speed of a sloth on vacation."I swear, if I see one more 'Out of Service' sign at a vending machine, I’m gonna lose it," Ricky said, dramatically collapsing onto the grass in the park.Jeremiah nodded solemnly. "We’re officially broke. Like, ‘we-just-licked-leftover-chips-dust-from-the-bottom-of-a-bag’ broke.”Ricky’s stomach growled so loudly,...

6 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Real Hitler Diaries

Submitted to Contest #299

Author’s note: For those not old enough to remember the 1980’s, one of the most astonishing events of that decade was the discovery of diaries kept by Adolph Hitler. Stern Magazine, Newsweek and the Sunday Times in London all planned to serialize and publish and were prepared to hand over millions of dollars to the man who found them. There was one problem though: The diaries were fake, forged by a petty but talented criminal by the name of Konrad Kujau. Well respected experts enthusiastically endorsed the find before some finally recognized...

3 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Zoo at the School 1955

Submitted to Contest #299

One week before the end of the school year, Mrs. Mundy told all of us students that we would have a picnic before the summer holidays began, and our parents were invited. When she added that we could each bring a pet to school, the girls squealed excitedly while the boys made whistling noises through their teeth. Mrs. Mundy also promised to award a prize for the best pet. My mother wasn’t fond of bringing animals to school and didn’t think Mrs. Mundy was making a wise decision. She called my grandma to see what she thought of the whole thi...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story
RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in Reedsy Studio. All for free.