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.

8910+ 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 582 of 594

Not Your Typical Book on Necromancy

Submitted to Contest #46

  “And stay out!” The glistening golden-white doors slammed shut with a melodic choir of singing angels. A soft puff of holy energy tickled Detholian under the nose and made him sneeze. Then, the door suddenly opened again, and out came flying a bound stack of parchment. “And keep your foul bundle of horror!” The parchment landed in the dirt and the door slammed shut again. Detholian sneezed once more.  “Yeah, yeah,” the necromancer sniffed. “I don’t like the smell of you either!” He picked up his manuscript and dusted it off. “Don...

20 likes 12 comments 12
Read story

Anger management helped.

Submitted to Contest #46

'Due to unfortunate circumstances, a temporary leave of absence is requested so that she can rehabilitate herself.' Well, professionally speaking yeah. But in actuality, I yelled at my team members and threatened to manically laugh while I burn their instruments to ash. It's been about a 2 months leave and I couldn't be sadder to know that my free time was coming to an end once more. But, Let me start from the beginning. I'm a musician for a Food and Entertainment place. You know the kind. Where it's like a concert with different acts, but ...

9 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Altared States

Submitted to Contest #46

Bert went over his book notes. This would be the first interview of a series his agent scheduled for Bert for him to promote his magnum opus. This would be Bert’s big break. Or so Manny, his agent, insisted. The travel expenses came out of his advance so he needed a successful tour. Bert couldn’t believe it played out this way. Writing this memoir had been like drawing his own blood every day for six weeks. Exposing his most devastating disappointments and the ensuing recovery took courage. Bert had to believe it. His therapist and agent aff...

22 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

The P-Word

Submitted to Contest #46

Though it wounded him to have his work considered unoriginal in any way, Martin tried to take the comparisons to another writer as a compliment. That was at the start of his book tour. By the middle of it, venues were cancelling appearances and the tour was cut short in disgrace.‘Derivative,’ the first online magazine review said.‘Derivative is being kind!’ a man commented to a swarm of ‘likes’. ‘I believe the word you’re looking for is plagiarism.’ The P-word. It churned the writer’s stomach and loosened his bowels. It was a pang of gu...

15 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

What a Crock of S**t.

Submitted to Contest #46

Well that is a year of my life I'll never get back.A thought Simon never thought he would have.Years he spent, the ideas niggling his brain.Constantly on fire, looking for inspiration.He found it.He found it on the bus.He found it on the train.Never on a plane.Eureka!Simon set himself up at his desk and got to work.Finally, thought Marjorie, his long suffering wife.Finally, she can get on with her life.The book caused nothing but strife.The constant agitated toe tapping catching on her ear, replacing the ticking of the clock that seemed to g...

12 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

God really doesn't want me to write.

Submitted to Contest #46

There, I just finished writing my novel. Finally. Took a few months but I got it done. Time for a snack. I got up from my desk, took a little stretch then padded off to the kitchen grabbing a bunch of Oreos. Heading back to submit my work, the sound of breaking glass penetrated the silent air. Following it, was a series of grunts. Someone had broken into my house. Luckily to my side, my dad's steel putter lay in the hallway. I stuffed my double stuffed into my sweater pocket and armed myself. What? You thought I was gonna walk inside there...

7 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The First Pancake

Submitted to Contest #46

Treanna and Zelman Ostermann were an average couple of middle-aged empty nesters. With their children Sandra and Kurt living their own lives far away from their old home town, the Ostermanns had settled into a quiet, casual existence.A once fiery passion had succumbed to a comfortable love. Zelman had what amounted to tenure at the high school were he taught, and Treanna had always maintained part time employment at the local library.She had always loved books and stories, so Zelman was not surprised when she began taking a creative writing ...

10 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Maggots and Adverbs

Submitted to Contest #46

“... she said, surprisingly. ‘What of all our love before? Did that mean nothing?’ He looked at her apologetically. ‘It did at the time,’ he said firmly. ‘But not anymore.’ ‘Oh,’ she sighed sorrowfully-” “Stop, stop, STOP,” Rob exclaimed and waved with his hands. One of them looked like it was going to fall off again. “I can’t take this anymore! What is this, Sally? Are you trying to poison me? I’m dead already!” A gasp traveled through the room. The rest of the writing circle participants looked at Rob with surprise. “That’s a bit harsh, ma...

27 likes 29 comments 29
Read story

Writers' Group

Submitted to Contest #46

“So, if no one else has any important notices,” Zach looked at the motley bunch of would-be writers gathered round the long table, “we’ll move onto the anonymous manuscripts. Would anyone like to give a brief summary of ...” He consulted his notes. “... of ‘Don’t Go Baking My Heart’?” An awkward silence ensued as everyone stared at the table. “Okaaay. I guess that’s up to me then,” Zack said eventually, trying to keep the despair out of his voice. DGBMH was one of the worst stories he had ever read, but someone sitting at this table now ha...

40 likes 34 comments 34
Read story

The Newcomers

Submitted to Contest #45

It was the night before Diwali. We had landed quite late – my husband, our son and me. We had just reached my parents’ house, finished our greetings and freshened up a bit in our rooms. At breakfast the next day, my father turned to me. “You haven’t properly visited us in this house, have you?”My father was almost seventy years old, quite evident by the lack of hair on his head, but was in the pink of health, and always had a childish glint in his eyes.I shook my head, guilty and ashamed. “No, Papa, it’s just that USA is so far away, and wit...

42 likes 41 comments 41
Read story

A Rose's Engagement

Submitted to Contest #45

I huffed, my petals swaying in the fake air streaming through the vents. I know what wind feels like and that my friend, ain't wind. The boy smiled down at me, providing a distraction from the boring short and stout man droning on and on about profit or revenue or something. Blah, blah, blah. No one has been listening for the past thirty minutes! I want to leave, my stem is getting cold.The boy stroked one of my petals, “My girlfriend is going to love you, she adores roses.”Ew, I hope not buddy. I'm pretty sure loving her is your job, n...

35 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

WHAT’S FOR DINNER

Submitted to Contest #44

Amok, squatted, his rear hovering above the hole in the ground, his feet buried in ankle-deep mud on either side. Normally, he’d be in such a compromising position for the exact reason rolling around in your head. But this time you’d be wrong. His stomach growled. He clutched his stick and cocked his head while his pea-brain wobbled. Ta (the woman who claimed Amok for herself) had a craving for water-shrew meat with her dino eggs. Amok knew his punishment for failure would be severe. His long matted hair hung down partially blocking his visi...

6 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

The Second Concrete Square of Twenty-Fourth Street

Submitted to Contest #44

It was a clear blue, sunny day but none like any other, for there was an odd occurrence on the second concrete square of twenty-fourth street and a secret that was waiting to be shared.Skye Randolph snuck around the corner of the block with her head turned to look behind her. She was on her way to meet Noah Carson, her best friend, during an ultimate game of tag all of the neighborhood kids were competing in, but she didn't want to get caught on her way. Her hand pressed against the brick building and preoccupied with her thoughts she pushed...

14 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Because Every Journey is a Story

Submitted to Contest #44

Oliveria finished unpacking her things and wondered what to do next. Who am I kidding? It's 2330, she thought. She got into her pajamas and tucked herself into her bed. Waiting for sleep, she wondered why she was so clueless as to what to do in her own home. Maybe because she was never at home long enough to consider it her home. She had bought the house a little while after she graduated at a university nearby. After a week, she decided that she couldn't stay in the same town after all those awful years at the university. Almost i...

9 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Tall, Dark, and Hot

Submitted to Contest #44

Monday, June 15thYesterday, I watched Tall, Dark, and Hot roll his suitcase up his driveway towards his house, and he didn’t know I was watching him from my bedroom window. He, who we’ll call TDH for short, definitely doesn’t know I watch him from my bedroom window every single day. Except for this past week while he was gone; what a long, lifeless week.I’m his next-door neighbor, but my house, and my upstairs window, and even I might as well be invisible to TDH. I’m being secretive about his name because, well, I’m a first-rate Peeping Tome...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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.