Idea generator

18 Comedy Prompts Prompts

These prompts create a starting constraint, question, or situation. Use one as written, combine two, or change the audience, setting, objective, or limitation to make a new exercise.

Choose a random prompt from the bank.
Prompt 1

A meticulous event planner accidentally books a silent meditation retreat and a regional karaoke championship in adjoining halls.

Prompt 2

A man pretending to understand wine is elected president of a neighborhood tasting club after correctly identifying tap water.

Prompt 3

Two coworkers secretly applying for the same job are assigned to write each other’s recommendation letters.

Prompt 4

A family hires an actor to impersonate a distant relative at a wedding, then the real relative arrives early.

Prompt 5

A new mayor discovers the ceremonial town mascot costume is legally required at every council vote.

Prompt 6

A serious historical society accidentally becomes famous online for a sarcastic caption posted by an intern.

Prompt 7

A restaurant critic loses her sense of taste the morning she is scheduled to review the city’s most expensive menu.

Prompt 8

A man trying to return a library book thirty years late is repeatedly congratulated for donating a rare first edition.

Prompt 9

A landlord installs a suggestion box and receives increasingly formal complaints from one tenant’s parrot.

Prompt 10

A wedding photographer realizes the couple has hired two photographers and both think the other is an intrusive guest.

Prompt 11

An introverted accountant becomes the office “culture champion” because a spreadsheet autofilled the wrong name.

Prompt 12

A community theater casts the town’s strict parking officer as a lovable outlaw in a musical.

Prompt 13

A chef claims a disastrous soup is a regional specialty, then a food historian arrives asking for the recipe.

Prompt 14

Two neighbors compete to create the quietest apartment and escalate into absurd soundproofing projects.

Prompt 15

A politician rehearses spontaneous answers so thoroughly that staff cannot tell which accidental comments are scripted.

Prompt 16

A dog walker mixes up two identical dogs whose owners have opposite theories about discipline.

Prompt 17

A professor assigns a paper on misinformation and accidentally cites a parody site in the instructions.

Prompt 18

A customer-service chatbot becomes famous for one typo, forcing the company to decide whether fixing it will anger fans.