How to Write Funny Short Posts That Land

A short post has room for one idea. That's the whole challenge and also the reason short jokes are learnable. You don't need a gift for comedy. You need a few habits that comedy writers use, and the discipline to cut everything else.

These tips apply to any short post, but we wrote them with Whose Tweet? in mind, where you're also trying to sound like yourself, or like someone else, on purpose.

Be specific

The most reliable way to make something funnier is to replace a general word with a specific one. "I ate something weird for breakfast" is a sentence. "I ate cold lasagna standing in front of the fridge at 6:40 a.m." is a picture. Specific details make people see the scene, and seeing it is what makes them laugh.

Specifics also give you away in a guessing game. If everyone knows you're the one who eats cold lasagna, that detail is a fingerprint. Use that or avoid it, depending on whether you want to be caught.

A few kinds of detail work especially well:

• exact times and numbers ("my fourth alarm," "11:52 p.m.")
• brand-free but concrete objects ("the good scissors," "the drawer with the batteries")
• small, real actions ("I said 'you too' to the waiter who told me to enjoy my meal")

Put the surprise at the end

The word that makes a joke work should be the last thing people read. If the funny part sits in the middle, the rest of the sentence steps on it.

Compare these:

I found out my cat has a second family because the neighbors called him by a different name.

The neighbors call my cat "Gerald." His name is Biscuit. He has a second family.

The second version ends on the reveal. Same facts, better order. When you edit, find the word that surprises and move it to the end.

Cut until it hurts

Short posts get funnier as they get shorter, up to a point. Go through your draft and delete:

• "I think," "honestly," "literally" and "just"
• any setup the reader can figure out on their own
• the explanation after the punchline

The last one is the hardest. When people write a joke, they often add a line that explains it, like "lol" or "if you know what I mean." Trust the reader. If the joke needs an explanation, it needs a rewrite.

A useful test is to read your post out loud. Anywhere you'd naturally pause or skip a word, cut.

Write how you talk

Posts that sound written tend to sound flat. Posts that sound spoken feel alive. Use contractions. Use the words you'd actually say. Fragments are fine if that's how you'd say it.

This is also the fastest way to get guessed in Whose Tweet?, since your friends know your voice better than your opinions. If you'd rather fool them, borrow someone else's voice. Notice who at the table says "honestly" a lot, or who always ends with a question.

Use one twist, not three

A common mistake is stacking jokes. One post, three punchlines, none of them land because each one cuts off the last. Pick your best idea and give it the space. If you have two good ones, save the other for the next round.

The same goes for exaggeration. One absurd detail in an otherwise normal sentence is funny. Five absurd details turn into noise.

Formats that reliably work

Some shapes come up again and again because they're easy to fill:

• The fake headline. "Local man, 34, still doesn't know which way the dishwasher tablet goes."
• The overly formal review. "Two stars. The Monday was punctual but offered little else."
• The wrong scale. Treat a tiny thing like a huge event, or a huge thing like a tiny one. "Announcing my retirement from folding fitted sheets."
• The list with a broken last item. Two normal things and one strange one. Use it sparingly, since everybody knows the pattern.

Mind the count

On X, the 280-character limit isn't a simple letter count. Emoji count as two characters, links count as 23 regardless of length, and characters from scripts like Chinese, Japanese and Korean count as two. The counter in Whose Tweet? follows the same rules, so what fits in the game fits in a real post.

In practice, you'll rarely need all 280. Many of the funniest short posts are under 100 characters. If you're near the limit, your post probably has two ideas in it. Split them up.

Practice beats talent

Comedy writers draft a lot and throw most of it away. Do the same. Write three versions of your answer, then pick the shortest one that still works. After a few rounds of any writing game, you'll notice your first drafts getting tighter, and you'll start spotting the specific word that makes a sentence funny before you've finished typing it.

Questions