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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.

150+ 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 6 of 10

A Muse with Eight Legs…

Submitted to Contest #307

Arachnid locomotion engage and quickly he bolts across my messy bathroom floor. Stealth he is, but how did he even get in here? There’s not a single open window for him to climb through, my front door is securely locked, and half the time, this moisture-filled room, is in complete darkness. Ah, but that is the rub-a-dub-dub; he must find water or die. And the humidity billowing from my twenty minute very steamy shower must have lured him into my bathroom. Sneaking a peek was never his intention. But when I flung open the shower curtain my na...

6 likes 3 comments 3
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The Problem of Distinction

Submitted to Contest #308

CW: This story contains crass, well-meaning humor. The gloam of late evening bestowed the withered sage grass with a tinged vermillion sheen as the stranger rode into town high atop his spotted appaloosa. He was grateful for the reprieve the setting sun gave from the furnace of peak summertime heat on the high desert plains. Removing the brick hat from his head and wiping the sweat and dust from his brow with the back of his forearm, he confirmed with quick glances all he had suspected to find in this out-of-the-way pisshole. One dirt-packed...

26 likes 33 comments 33
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The School Fete

Submitted to Contest #308

This year is the 50th anniversary of the day Cameron Green's Primary school first opened its doors. The school's PTA was tasked with organising an event to celebrate the occasion. They decided to merge the celebrations with the annual school fete because they couldn't be arsed to have a separate day. None of the other parents appreciated their efforts anyway. There was always someone moaning and whining about something. None of the lazy buggers would offer to lend a hand In any case, they would have to just suck it up and get on with it. Mr ...

1 like 2 comments 2
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‘The Spice Girls’ A Short-Lived Wellness Cult

S B

Submitted to Contest #307

I’m what they might call a cult leader, though I prefer the term guru. Cults just sound so ominous. It’s honestly the best job I’ve ever had. I make my own hours and have my own fashion line. Granted, only members purchase my clothes, but those crimson sheath dresses with the hoods look fantastic on them. Especially since we now all have long black hair, oh, and our colorist gave us a discount since she’s a member too. My hair is, of course, natural, and I’m always complimented on its glossy shine. I charge it in the moonlight. It’s no surpr...

1 like 0 comments 0
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The Buffering Lich

Submitted to Contest #307

The damn closet is glowing again. Not the friendly, 'left the charger plugged in' glow. A deep, pulsing purple throb, like a monster’s heart, holding James frozen, blankets pulled up to his nose.He struggles to keep his breathing under control. He had night terrors when he was a kid. He thought there were things under his bed with groping arms, things that wanted to pull him into the abyss.I’m a middle aged man. I’m not afraid of the dark anymore. The things in the dark though, oh boy, those are a problem. He steels himself. Maybe it’s an al...

3 likes 1 comment 1
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The Subversively Mild-Mannered Mr. Hancock

Submitted to Contest #307

Paul Hancock had been a high school teacher for nine years. Within that time, his experience had been fairly uneventful in the way that being a teacher was like running a race with someone firing off the starting gun and then pointing it at your back with intermittent collapses called summer. Certainly some moments- which, in looking back, moments could be captured as weeks or even months- there had been times of disenchantment, wherein he’d been assigned a particularly loud lunch duty, or suffered an aggravating team member or just had an e...

3 likes 0 comments 0
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Me a Writer? Maybe?

Submitted to Contest #307

What do you mean I didn’t make the short list? Now you are telling me that my piece didn’t even make the long list. It is not even in the top 128 stories of this contest. Are you kidding me? I spent so much time trying to create a short story between 1000 and 3000 words or some stupid figure like that with the prompts of finding a treasure box, a shipwreck, and a famous artisan. Whatever that is? I still don’t have a clue what an artisan was. I spent so much time creating this masterpiece for it to get rejected. I read some of the stories I ...

0 likes 0 comments 0
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The League of Inconspicuous Gentlefolk

Submitted to Contest #307

n the deepest depths of a perfectly average town—sandwiched between a bakery that sold suspiciously dry éclairs and a barber who still insisted on bowl cuts—lived a secret society so secret, so absurdly underwhelming, that no one would ever suspect its existence.They were The League of Inconspicuous Gentlefolk.Their motto? “Blend In, Stand Down, Avoid Eye Contact.”Membership required an unwavering commitment to never doing anything impressive in public, always wearing beige or gray, and perfecting the art of walking into a room and being imm...

9 likes 0 comments 0
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Death of a Dream (or "Trouble in Tucson")

Submitted to Contest #307

Trouble in Tucson by Sue Baughman 6-19-25 (1100 words)(Prompt: Dark underside of a School System)(Trigger Warning: Contains humor, Cults, Christianity, mild profanity, nudity, prayer, faith, loss of faith, death of a dream, all that...) Pastor Bob was running out of time. He’d promised his flock a place to stay, food and a guaranteed pass through the pearly gates, but so far, all he’d managed to secure for them was a few snacks and a couple of sleeping bags he’d found at the Oracle Road Salvation Army Store. Pastor Bob had led his group...

3 likes 0 comments 0
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Neighborhood

Submitted to Contest #307

"Those sons a' bitches are doing what?!" Ed yelled, his face immediately red with anger. The old man's eyes bulged with veins on his temples that coiled like serpents once I told him the news. His toughened hands, peppered with liver spots, tightened their grip on his mug of tea. A flannel button-up and khakis adorned his frame to show professionalism while still being comfortable. "I don't know, Ed, they were in their backyard around a bonfire, but they were in weird robes and saying weird things—" I rambled. How do I report something like ...

2 likes 1 comment 1
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Whiskers

Submitted to Contest #307

There wasn’t just a cat.There was the cat.A legend in his own litter box. A whisper in the cupboard. A shadow with claws, fur, and a vendetta sharper than a can opener. This wasn’t a lazy windowsill ornament or one of those cucumber-fearing fluffballs that yelps at the sight of a vacuum. No, this was Whiskers.Jet-black from nose to tail, his fur absorbed light like a tactical stealth suit. His eyes? Two crescent moons, thin and glinting, filled with secrets. Muscles taut like piano wire. Movements surgically precise. If James Bond had a tail...

28 likes 14 comments 14
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Ossa

Submitted to Contest #307

My father’s ghost assured me I wouldn’t fail the test.Sitting next to a girl who liked to cheat by writing things on her tampon package, I wondered if I should feel more or less guilty than her. She was making an effort to do the wrong thing, whereas I had no say over whether or not my dead father appeared to me during an exam.The girl’s name was Chima, but everyone called her Chi Chi. She lived in the next dorm room over from me, and for most of the previous spring semester, she had been sleeping with my roommate until she decided that she ...

20 likes 10 comments 10
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The Tupperware of Doom

Submitted to Contest #307

It started, like most disasters, in Janet Halberstrom’s refrigerator.Janet was not what you’d call adventurous. She alphabetized her spice rack, scheduled her dental cleanings ten years in advance, and still used a landline “in case of emergencies.” Her biggest thrill was setting her washing machine to the “Whitest Whites” cycle and feeling morally superior about it.So when, on an unseasonably warm Tuesday, Janet opened her fridge to retrieve a string cheese and discovered a Tupperware container she did not recognize, it marked the most exci...

3 likes 1 comment 1
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The Final Assessment (With a Bit of Garnish)

Submitted to Contest #307

“What do you mean, this is my final test?” “Mason, The Company has provided this opportunity to redeem yourself in their eyes, and recover a very valuable piece of nostalgia as well from someone who shouldn’t possess it. I don’t see what the problem is.” Paul adjusted his earpiece, and checked his firearm. He had four more clips in his holster, so there should be plenty. “Why also do you insist on calling me Mason? You know my name, Lime, and I’ve told you several times, you can call me Paul.” He could hear the stern look through the earpiec...

11 likes 8 comments 8
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The Order of the Saffron Veil

Submitted to Contest #307

The night draped the countryside in a heavy shroud, fog swirling like restless spirits around the twisted, skeletal trees lining an unmarked dirt road. An owl’s mournful hoot sliced through the damp silence, reverberating as Evelyn’s sedan inched forward, headlights swallowed by the mist. Her hands gripped the wheel, knuckles pale, her breath fogging in the chill. On the passenger seat lay a crumpled parchment, its edges curling with age: Left at the gnarled elm, right at the weeping stone. Trust the saffron seal. The note, stamped with a fa...

5 likes 1 comment 1
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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