'These darkly comic tales place the author snugly between Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. Be sure: Chris Fielden is one funny feller.' Allen Ashley, British Fantasy Award winner.
Amazon: 5 starts.
Order a FREE taster PDF
BUY the Book

Follow me on Twitter.
Find me on Facebook.
My Facebook Business Page.
Connect with me on LinkedIn.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Subscribe to my mailing list

* indicates required

How to Write Comedy

Quick links on this page:

Introduction

This post contains lots of comedy writing tips and advice to help you pen a successful funny short story.

I’ve used some real-life humour writing examples, taking extracts from my own published stories to clearly illustrate how the tips were used in practice to achieve success.

I’ve also highlighted some common mistakes made by authors trying to write humorous tales so you can avoid them.

Laughing

ha ha ha haaa ha haah haha ha ha hah he heh heeeee ha haaaaaa he

back to top

Comedy Should Be Used to Support an Amazing Story

Writing comedy isn’t easy. Many authors struggle to place humour so it sits naturally and unobtrusively within a story.

I run and judge To Hull & Back, a humorous short story competition offering a £1,000 top prize. Because of this, I’m fortunate to read all sorts of different styles of comedic stories from writers residing all over the world. The best funny short stories I read all have the following in common:

The writer uses humour to support a great story.

They do not try to be funny for the sake of being funny.

Think of a story like a roast dinner. The main focus is the meat – beef, lamb, pork, chicken or whatever. Gravy is used to compliment the meal. In this analogy, the story is the meat and the humour is the gravy.

If the beef is chewy, or the chicken dry, an awesome gravy is not going to make the meal enjoyable, even if it’s cooked by Nigella Lawson.

A story is the same. The characters need to be excellent, the plot gripping, the idea original and engaging, the presentation professional. The humour should simply complement the story, giving it style and making it more enjoyable to read.

The same principle can be applied to any style or genre of writing. For example…

Horror

Just because you have a vampire, a derelict castle, some screaming virgins and copious amounts of gore, does not mean you have created a horror story filled with suspense and intrigue.

Thriller

Just because you have a handsome hero who can drive really fast without crashing, stand in the middle of gunfight without getting shot and blow shit up without hurting any innocent bystanders, does not mean you have an entertaining action thriller.

Etc. etc.

The story itself – its subject matter, its moral, its meaning – is the most important aspect of any successful tale.

Chris Fielden short story writer

me looking stunning with lights on my head, ho ho ho

back to top

How to Use Humour in Stories

I find the best way is through:

  • Character
  • Situation
  • Dialogue

Let’s look at these individually. I’ll use some real-life examples in this section.

Character

If you give your characters a sense of humour – particularly the central character whose viewpoint you are likely to be writing from – their voice can add a comedic tone to the story in a natural way. For example, they might make funny observations about events, the situation or other characters and use amusing synonyms.

In my story ‘Devil’s Crush’, the main character, Joshua, has a strong sense of humour – it’s all that’s allowed him to keep his mind after losing his legs at war in Afghanistan. This allowed me to add a tinge of dark humour to the story, despite its serious subject matter.

In the story, Joshua encounters a demon. This is his description of the demon when it first appears:

I know the demon is a he because he’s naked. He’s a he with the right to be proud of just how much of a ‘he’ he is. His skin is the colour of burnt rust, his body slender yet muscular and he wears a goatee on his chin more like the animal it is named after than a man. His two horns are long and curved like warped blades of molten rock, his hairline a mass of flickering flames and in his eye sockets are two glowing coals which ping and hiss like the embers of a dying fire in the breeze. He is the source of the acrid stench which fills the room.

The second sentence in this paragraph delivers an element of humour without detracting from the description. This comes from Joshua’s voice – the way he sees and describes things. As the story is told in the first person, I used this tone throughout. It’s not laugh out loud hilarious; it simply adds an amusing undertone that helps engage the reader. Joshua’s sense of humour also helps develop his character, adding depth and believability to a fantasy story in a subtle manner.

Situation

The situations characters find themselves in can be amusing. This is often used very successfully in sitcoms.

The danger here is making the situation slapstick in an unbelievable way, with characters acting out of character or a plot being manipulated to generate a laugh. This can feel unnatural and disengage a reader. While common in sketch shows, this is not appropriate for a short story. Readers expect more depth.

When writing, I find it’s the way the characters react to the situation that makes it funny, not the situation itself.

An example can be seen in the video below. This is a very famous scene from the UK sitcom Only Fools & Horses.

Del falls through the bar - famous Only Fools & Horses clip

It’s the way Trigger (played by Roger Lloyd-Pack) reacts to the situation after Del (played by David Jason) has fallen over that makes this so funny.

Here’s an example from one of my stories. In ‘Shot in the Head and Left For Dead’ the main character, Dave, is in a band. He’s playing at Wembley Stadium in London and half the crowd have turned into zombies. It’s the way Dave observes, describes and reacts to what he’s seeing that makes the situation amusing.

There’s a gore-fest of pandemonium going on in the audience that would make Quentin Tarantino proud. Half of the crowd are trying to eat the other half’s brains. The ones who are reluctant to have their heads ripped open are trying to run away and, or, kill their attackers with anything they can use as a weapon, including bits of other people. Things couldn’t be redder – it’s like a tomato puree production factory.

Before I can fully digest the scene, a mass of smoking devilry dives out of the sky and starts munching zombies like a ravenous bulldozer. It’s about the size of a three-bed semi. Its teeth are as big as buses and it stinks like sulphur.

I look at the rest of the band. None of them seem to be zombies, although it’s always hard to tell with the rhythm section. At the side of the stage I notice two of the roadies eating one of the sound guys, while my guitar tech is using a spare Les Paul to try and behead what used to be our A&R man. Everything is turning to shit faster than swill through a pig.

I grab Maiden’s arm. "Fuck the fuck," he says. "What the bastard?" Eloquently put. Kind of sums up what I was thinking.

"Noise," I scream. "We need to make lots of it."

He looks at me like I’m mental. To be fair, he might be right. Bollocks to it. This zombie-monster-fest is coming to an end. Now.

The events that are occurring are fantastical. Dave’s voice brings humour into the situation. The characters are confused, not acting quickly, which seemed believable to me. While the situation might be so ludicrous it’s amusing, the characters remain in character – they don’t act how I want them to act; they act how they should, given what’s happening around them.

I often write without excessive plotting as I find this allows me to develop characters naturally in this manner. I always write with an end in mind (it helps steer a plot in the right direction) but don’t plan the detail. It works for me. Why not try it yourself?

Dialogue

What characters say and how they react to what is said can be very funny. Dialogue is the method I use most frequently to add humour into a story.

‘Death of a Superhero’ is a story that contains a lot of amusing dialogue (it isn’t available to read online, but is in the 1st To Hull & Back short story anthology or you can hear it on YouTube). While what is said is amusing, the main purpose of the speech is to reveal the story and develop characters.

In this story the main character is Death. He is faced by a recently deceased woman who is pretending to be Batman.

“You’re listed here as Doris Claymore,” he said.

“Never heard of her,” said Batman.

Death reached out and stroked the decaying blade of the scythe that rested against his desk. “This is quite simple, Doris. To progress peacefully into the afterlife, you need to confirm your name. It means I can be certain of who you are, what you’ve achieved in life and, therefore, where you should spend eternity.” Death dished out his best glare. As glares go, it was pretty impressive. In the past, it’d made stars think twice about shooting. “Can you tell me your real name please?”

“Already told you. I’m Batman.”

“How can I put this politely?”

“No need to be polite,” said Bat-Doris. “Got skin as thick as armadillos, us crime fighters.”

Given the invite, Death decided to be blunt. “Not only is Batman fictional, he…” Death left a pause which he hoped would scream with meaning, “…is a man.”

“And?”

“You have breasts.”

“They’re pecs.”

“No, they’re breasts,” said Death, “and Lycra does little to mask their magnitude. I feel I should add that Batman was always depicted as an athletic individual, at the peak of physical fitness. Clearly, you’re not.”

A tear trickled from beneath Doris’s mask, suggesting her skin might not be as thick as she’d led Death to believe. “OK,” she whispered, “point taken.”

Despite the scythe, the rotting cloak and the distinct lack of flesh coating his crumbling bones, Death was a sensitive individual. He disliked causing upset. Most people found the experience of dying traumatic enough, without him being disagreeable.

In a more gentle tone, he said, “Good. What’s your real name?”

“Bruce Wayne.”

As you can see, the dialogue in this extract helps to develop character and reveal the plot, making the reader want to find out what happens next. Death and Doris have clear voices – Death has an underlying sense of humour, while the humour is Doris’s words come from her defiance to admit the truth. The question is, why is she behaving like this? Well, if you read (or listen to) the whole story you’ll find out.


'Death of a Superhero', a funny short story performed by Christopher Fielden

back to top

Things to Avoid in Comedy Writing

Being Funny for the Sake of Being Funny

Don’t try and be funny for the sake of it. Humour needs to evolve and present itself naturally. If you chuck in a slapstick moment when your story doesn’t need it, it can disengage the reader.

For example:

Arthur is the central character in a story. He’s having to come to terms with how he’s slowly losing his wife to Alzheimer’s. The story is written in a humorous style – Arthur is an amusing character and his sense of humour allows him to find ways of dealing with the pain his wife’s situation is causing him.

If, during the story, Arthur is at B&Q and needs to urinate but is so desperate that he decides to use a display toilet and gets caught by a member of staff, is that funny? Does it fit?

Well, it depends how it’s handled.

If the situation is placed in the story to generate a laugh via bared willies in a busy shop and inappropriate torrents of urine, then no. The reader will not be able to suspend their disbelief. They will disengage from the story and ask questions like:

  • Why didn’t Arthur just go to the toilet provided for customers?
  • If he was that out of control of his body, wouldn’t he just wet himself?
  • Why am I reading this story? I think I’ll stop…

The act Arthur is performing wouldn’t seem realistic or believable. Yes, I’ve seen very similar situations presented in stories submitted to the short story competition I run many times.

However, if Arthur acted like this on purpose, to gain attention or help, and the B&Q staff member was a kind young man named Jim who wanted to help Arthur, then the situation and their conversation could be presented in an amusing manner. It would have a point and add to the story, revealing character development and plot. In this situation, it’s not the bared willies and public urinating that’s funny, it’s the resulting conversation and reason behind the situation occurring in the first place.

Writing Improvement Software

Bodily Functions

In everyday life, farting, poo, wee and snot will always be funny. However, in writing, these subjects have been covered comprehensively for decades by extremely talented writers and actors. It’s very hard to come up with an original way of inserting amusing bodily functions into a story.

I’m not saying don’t do it, I’m simply saying be very careful if you do – make sure your story requires Grandma to fart, for example, rather than just putting it in there for the sake of it.

Because Pauly (a good friend of mine) is a teacher, I’ve been lucky enough to judge a children’s humorous writing competition for his school. 95% of the stories kids aged 7-9 write involve farting, poo, wee, vomit and/or snot. That’s what children find funny.

Bear that in mind when writing for adults. While some of us still smirk when we drop a violently aromatic guff in a confined space shared with a loved one, it doesn’t always translate into a gripping focus for a story’s plot.

When I judged the competition for the school, I did this short video for Pauly to show the kids. I thought I'd include it here as it's about humorous writing.

me, talking about comedy writing

Cliché

Avoid clichés. When you read a lot of short stories, like a magazine editor or a competition judge might, you encounter a lot of clichés – the same hackneyed phrases, used time and again (see what I did there? I’ve highlighted it in blue in case you missed it…).

Clichés become clichés because they are commonly used. This means they are not original. They do not help a writer create a unique voice. They do not engage a reader. They are unlikely to help you become a published author. More often than not (I did it again, did you notice?) they will lead to stories being rejected.

Cliché doesn’t just refer to common phraseology. It also refers to overused themes and subject matters. For example, I find a lot of older writers tend to write about people struggling to come to terms with retirement:

  • Wives that find their husband’s constant presence annoying
  • Husbands who decide to take up DIY to fill their time and make hilarious (often not…) mistakes
  • Couples realising they have grown apart now their children have left home and try to do something about it

I see these types of stories a lot in the competition I run. If you’re going to tackle a subject matter like this, you must come up with an original angle.

Below is a video by InkTears CEO Anthony Howcroft. It’s entitled ‘How to Win a Short Story Competition’. It’s worth watching the whole thing, but pay special attention to tip number 1.

Exclamation Marks

Exclamation marks do not make your writing funnier. If you use more than 1 at a time, they do not exponentially add hilarity to the previous sentence. In fact, they can have the opposite effect.

In my experience, many writers overuse exclamation marks, especially when trying to write comedy. There is plenty of advice on this elsewhere and opinions do differ. Still, the best comments I’ve seen are by Terry Pratchett and Elmore Leonard which were shared by the Guardian on Twitter.

The humour in a story should be natural and obvious. Exclamation marks should not be necessary for a reader to understand the joke. I don’t use exclamation points at all in my own short stories. When I edit the To Hull & Back humorous short story anthology every year, I remove them all. Am I right to do so? Feel free to discuss in the comments below.

Canadian author, Olivier Breuluex, recently took me up on the offer at the end of the previous paragraph. Our discussion was interesting, so I created a blog post from it. You can read it here.

back to top

Learn From Funny Films & Humorous Books

You can learn a lot from others. When you read a funny book, or watch a comedy film or TV programme, enjoy it, but ask questions:

  • What makes you laugh?
  • Why?
  • Is it the situation?
  • Is it something someone has said?
  • Is it how people interact?
  • Is it the strength of character?
  • Is it gags and jokes?

I find watching funny scenes a second time allows me to appreciate the techniques used to make someone laugh. First time through, it makes you chuckle. Second time through, ask yourself why you found it funny. You can then apply the same techniques to your own writing.

Authors

The authors I’d suggest reading are Terry Pratchett, Tom Holt and Douglas Adams. Yes, I like funny fantasy stories, and these gentlemen are the best in the field. Whether you like their style or not, you can learn from reading their work.

Here are a list of the funniest books I’ve read:

  • A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
  • Paint Your Dragon by Tom Holt
  • Puckoon by Spike Milligan
  • The Discworld Novels by Terry Pratchett (I think there are 44 novels in total – see reference here)
  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (and all the sequels) by Douglas Adams
  • The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ by Sue Townsend

TV Programmes

I think Only Fools and Horses is a great TV series to study. The stories are good, the characters incredibly strong. It’s usually the way they interact and talk to each other that makes the situation funny. John Sullivan had a talented way of switching from quite an emotional scene to something funny in a natural way. You can learn a lot building character from watching that programme – Del Boy and Rodney are incredibly strong and identifiable.

Others that have wide appeal and have been very successful:

  • Absolutely Fabulous
  • Blackadder
  • Cheers
  • Fawlty Towers
  • Friends
  • Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
  • I’m Alan Partridge
  • My Name is Earl
  • Only Fools & Horses
  • Police Squad!
  • Porridge
  • Red Dwarf
  • South Park
  • The Fresh Prince of Bel Air
  • The Simpsons
  • The Vicar of Dibley

Films

Well, there are many. The ones that make me laugh the most are:

  • Airplane
  • Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
  • Bad News
  • Blazing Saddles
  • Clerks
  • Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
  • Dodgeball
  • Dr. Strangelove
  • Dumb & Dumber
  • Ghostbusters
  • Hot Fuzz
  • Hotshots
  • Monty Python’s Life of Brian
  • Shaun of the Dead
  • Stir Crazy
  • The Big Lebowski
  • The Blues Brothers
  • The Jerk
  • The Man with 2 Brains
  • The Naked Gun
  • The Pink Panther Strikes Again
  • The Producers
  • There’s Something About Mary
  • This Is Spinal Tap
  • Trading Places
  • Uncle Buck
  • Wayne’s World

back to top

Humour is Subjective

It’s worth mentioning that humour is subjective. What one person finds hilarious might irritate another. You can never hope to please everyone when writing a funny story, so don’t try to. Select an audience and try and appeal to them.

For example, I tend to write fantasy stories, and add the humour via the methods described in this post. It’s not ‘laugh out loud’ hilarious humour, it’s more subtle and underlying, often giving the stories a dark undertone. This doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I have been successful with the style and had a lot of stories published.

So don’t give up if one person doesn’t like your work. Listen to a wide range of opinions before deciding whether your use of comedy works or not.

back to top

Funny Stories

There are a lot of comedy short stories available to read for free in the short stories section of the site. Many are written by me, but there are some by other authors. I am now publishing work from other writers. Please visit my submissions guideline page to learn more.

As a measure of quality control, every story featured on my website has been previously published, either through short story competitions, magazines or writing journals. So each story has been successful and deemed as being publishable by professional editors and competition judges.

Accompanying each story you will find information about how and why it was successful. This is to help other writers learn and apply tips and advice that are proven to work to their own writing.

You can also read lots of humorous short stories in the To Hull & Back anthologies. So far I’ve released two. At the time of writing I’m currently in the third year of running the competition.

You can learn more about the anthologies via the links below:

back to top

Useful Links to Other Comedy Resources

Below are some useful links to other posts about writing humour.

back to top

How To Write a Short Story, Get Published & Make Money

If you found the information in this post useful, you might like my book ‘How to Write a Short Story, Get Published & Make Money’.

It contains lots of very detailed information about my experiences of writing funny short stories and getting them published. I use a lot of real-life case studies in the book, showing the reader whole stories rather than extracts, so they can fully understand how I used the different tips and advice to achieve success. I also share details of how much money I’ve made through writing, giving readers a clear idea of how much work is involved and what they can expect to earn from their own writing.

How to Write a Short Story, book by Christopher Fielden

Comments

As always, your comments are welcome and I do my best to reply to everyone.

Please use the form below.

back to top

Share

This page may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.

Leave your comments

Please use the form below to leave your comments. All comments will be reviewed so won't appear on the page instantly. I will not share your details with anyone else. Most recent comments appear at the bottom of the page, oldest at the top.

Your Details:

Please prove you're a human by entering the security code in the box below: 8506

Comments:

Your comments:

Shirley M
I spent yesterday learning how to write horror stories so here is another option, many thanks.

Chris Fielden
Thanks, Shirley. Good luck with your horror writing :-)

Steph M
Useful, thanks Chris. I'm up to over 33,000 words now on my book Top Hat Man. Phew.

Chris Fielden
Thanks Steph.

That’s excellent news about the book – quite an achievement. Congratulations :-)

Chris D
Hey Chris, I have actually been thinking about the issue of comedy in the modern age a lot... there is an awful lot of political correctness out there and it is interesting to me to see that things that people of our age find (found?) funny severely disturb younger people. I have a number of different projects in various states of disarray no doubt some of which could get me tarred and feathered in certain quarters.

Cheers!

Paul B
Thanks Chris, I'm going to start working on a humourous piece this week so thanks.

Chris Fielden
Chris - I know what you mean. I tend to ignore being PC – I think it can go too far sometimes. As long as you laugh with others and not at them I think you can poke fun at most things without causing offence. That’s what I like to believe, anyway!

Paul - excellent, good luck with it :-)

Mark F
Nice!

Jan D
Hello Chris. Humour, as you so rightly say, is subjective. Fantasy and Science Fiction attempts at humour leave me cold. As does resorting to foul language. Wee and poo jokes are hilarious to children and old boys.

I think humour should be used to break down political, cultural and religious barriers. Let's all laugh at ourselves and others. Beneath every successfully funny joke lurks something sad or serious. My interest (I'm 65 soon) is in comedy script writing.

Wishing you continuing success with your short stories.

Chris Fielden
Hi Jan, thanks for commenting. I agree - using humour to break down barriers is a good idea.

I wish you the best of luck with your script writing endeavours.

Chris D
Thanks for the reply.

I was working all weekend on a long story (10,000 words!) which I have been attempting since 2013 and will eventually finish. In your experience, is there any kind of market for stories of such a length? It has the same kind of realism as your story about the war vet - it's just much, much longer. I know it is sort of a grey area between the short story and novellette/novella family, so I don't want to waste my time sending out to magazines that don't consider that length of story. Any advice most appreciated!

Chris Fielden
Hi Chris. The market for stories around the 10K length is a bit limited – most competitions and magazines ask for anywhere up to 8,000 words. But there are magazines out there (and a handful of competitions) that accept stories of that length. You’ll just have to do a bit of research I’m afraid.

Luckily there are some good lists on my site which can help you get started :-)

Margaret M
Dear Chris, thank you for your writing advice.  Do you like David Sedaris? I met him in Bournemouth and he was so... nice.  I am a sad elderly (66) woman, with almost constant hip pain and MS. Husband has ME, so you can imagine the fun we have some days.  I write most days and will enter your  To Hull and Back Competition.  At present have RSI, but what's life without whimsy? LOL

Chris Fielden
Hi Maggie, sorry to hear about the MS and ME. I'll look forward to reading your entry :-)

Aimee J
Hey Chris. Sorry for being a bit of a bother, but does sarcasm generally work well in regards to making a situation humorous?

Chris Fielden
Hi Aimee. It can do - it depends on the situation, characters and plot. Just ask yourself whether sarcasm fits and adds to the story.

I think it's subjective really, so there isn't a yes or no answer to that question I'm afraid.

Billy C
Thank you for this.

Chris Fielden
No problem, Billy :-)

Jeanne J
Hey Chris, do you know you're 'shot in the head...' link goes to a pink shopping site? Anyhoo, hope to send you something funnier that.

Chris Fielden
Hey Jeanne. Hmm... nice shopping site. Looks like the old site the story used to be on has been hacked so I've removed the link.

Thanks for letting me know - muchos appreciated.

Cheri J
Very helpful, thank you!

Chris Fielden
No problem, thanks Cheri :-)

Nick B
Hi Chris. Brilliant article. I'll be coming back to refer a number of times. As it happens, 2 of my favourite authors are Douglas and Terry. I love the Discworld series - especially those involving the Night Watch characters. I've just started writing again after a 10 yr break. I'm doing fantasy and attempting comedy with it. Two firsts for me. Thank you. Hope I can produce something you would be proud of.

Chris Fielden
Thanks very much, Nick. It sounds like we have similar tastes when it comes to reading.

I like the Night Watch stories too. I saw a stage production in London and Paul Darrow (of Blake's 7 fame) played Sam Vimes. It was great.

Anyway. Good luck with your writing. I hope the 10 year break gave you lots of time to come up with some good story ideas :-)

Wesley W
It seems I've been making people laugh anyway. I'm wondering, I've got a pile of flash fiction that might raise a laugh, and am thinking I might try one of them.

Chris Fielden
Always nice to hear from a fellow humourist, Wesley.

Good idea re flash fiction. There are an ever growing number of opportunities for very short stories. I list many opportunities for flash here.

I hope that's helpful - good luck with your stories and submissions.

Linh N
Do you know any comedy podcasts?

Chris Fielden
Hi Linh. There are hundreds of them...

I'd recommend just doing a Google search so you can find some that appeal to you.

The BBC is quite a good place to start.

Zoe I
This helped me learn a lot of things about writing comedy stories, thanks a lot to Christopher.

Chris Fielden
You're welcome Zoe :-)

Ellie A
The bottom two links in your "Useful links to other comedy sources" section no longer work.

Chris Fielden
Thank you for letting me know, Ellie, very much appreciated. I have removed the offending links.