When it comes to writing funny stories, long or short, one should be very careful about the characters and the way the story idea is presented to the readers. Keep in mind that what may seem funny to you, may end up hurting someone else's feelings and sentiments. For example, creating a character that is physically unfit and making fun of that particular character for making the story funny, would rather portray your insensitivity instead of your sense of humor. You will be honored and appreciated for your ideas only when you are able to tickle the funny bone of your readers without creating a "soft target". Take the animated show South Park for example, they make fun of each and everything on this planet, which is why the show is dealing with a lot of controversies. So make sure that the stories you create should be such that everyone reads them without getting offended. Well, there are many themes on which you can base the story on. You can either create fictional characters, like we see in stories of Superheroes, Archie Comics, etc., or go for a completely unrealistic, fairytale like story―a princess, a knight, a dragon―but with a twist! If that seems to be too much, you can keep the characters quite normal, like the people you come across everyday, and show how their normal everyday life is filled with humor and laughter. An example for the same would be series such as Two and a Half Men, Friends, etc. The real challenge comes when you have to give the readers something new and unexpected. Refreshment is what makes a story popular and demanding. You can also just build a story on some situation and jot down the humor that arises from the confusion residing in the situation. Another way to ensure the reader's interest in your story is to bring in some amazing twist and turn to a plot that has become somewhat clichéd with time. Have a look at the following ideas to understand what we're trying to imply. To be honest, the ideas are only confined to the scope of your imagination. The aforementioned prompts were just some examples to show you how you can mix up the ideas from the things you've learned both literally and literary. To help you further when it comes to formulating such writing prompts, it would be useful to understand the approaches that you must adapt. The same are listed in the following sections. By unrealistically funny short story ideas, we don't mean to write stories based on characters, themes, and locations that simply may not make the readers believe you, and how do you expect them to find the story funny if the basic element is missing, which is the 'believing or convincing' element? However, when we read stories or comics with characters that can fly, lift buildings and mountains, and speak all funny dialogs to make us laugh, we definitely believe the story in spite of knowing that these characters are just a figment of the writer's imagination. Not only this, an advantage that the writer has in writing unrealistic stories is that he/she can make the character extremely unique and interestingly funny by adding some elements that cannot be added otherwise. An example for the same would be stories such as Ratatouille, wherein a rat named Remy wanted to be a chef and could talk to the great chef Gusteau in his mind. His journey in reaching the biggest restaurant in the city from the ratholes not only shows a great sense of inspiration, but also the writing style shows a great degree of humor. On the other hand, stories like Madagascar with funny characters such as King Julian, Moto-Moto, and the adorable Penguins, make their serious journey turn into a journey of fun and frolic, making you laugh almost all the time. By funny short story ideas based on realistic approach, we mean that writers should take inspiration from characters based on real life. You are not talking about a rat who can cook better than humans, or a bunch of penguins who can ride anything from a car to a ship to a plane. We are talking about real characters and humor based on reality. By using this approach, the writers can also make the readers widen their horizon and sense humor in some tensed situation. If, through your story, you can teach people as to why laughter is known as the best medicine, there can be nothing more rewarding than that. You can find a lot of humor even in some critical situations, and with the gift of writing, you can actually turn your observation into a beautifully written funny short story. An example for the same would be this: Once there was an old man who was flying from Boston to Denver with his cat. The cat was obviously kept in the pet section along with other pets. When the old man arrived in Denver, he didn't get his cat along with the luggage and was extremely worried about it. "I want my cat back or else I am going to sue this airline", the old man shouted at the airline worker. The baggage department was in a chaos and were wondering where did the cat go! Alas, they found the cat in its cage, but to their surprise, the cat was dead. The baggage authorities were already feeling guilty of making their valuable customer upset. "He will blow the airport if he finds out that his cat is dead", an airline employee told another. So they decided to replace the dead cat with a live one. With lots of troubles, the airline finally got the cat back to the old man. The old man looked at the cat and screamed, "This ain't my cat, you morons! My cat was dead and I brought him home to get him buried!" This is what you call a funny short story idea with a twist! Funny wasn't it? You can also get a lot of interesting ideas just by looking at your daily life and the people in it. What is it that makes you laugh your teeth out? What is it that you think of and can't help but laugh? The best and most convincing funny stories are the ones that are inspired from your own experiences. Think about it, make characters which are inspired from the real life, create some situations which will make the character act or talk funnily, and create a story based on your imagination. It is also advisable to start and complete the story at a single sitting or else you may end up losing the flow of the story. It shouldn't be a problem for you because this is a short story you are writing and not a huge essay! So start looking around, try and widen your imagination, think of the moments that made you laugh the most, and write all of these in the form of a funny story that turns out to be the best story ever, so that everyone goes on laughing at its narration. All the best!