Irresistible examples of humorous listicles you’ll love (and steal ideas from)

Real examples of humorous listicles you’ll love (and why they went viral)

Let’s jump straight into the fun part: real examples of humorous listicles you’ll love and can learn from. These are the best examples because they don’t just list stuff; they build a whole comic universe around a simple idea.

Think of each one as an example of a specific comedy strategy: absurd specificity, visual chaos, fake expertise, or unhinged honesty.

1. The “too relatable to be comfortable” listicle

A classic example of humorous listicles you’ll love is the hyper‑relatable list. You’ve seen versions of this everywhere:

• “27 Tiny Social Anxieties You Pretend Don’t Bother You”
• “19 ‘I’m Just Going to Stay In Tonight’ Texts That Were Bold-Faced Lies”

These listicles work because every item makes readers think, Wait, did they bug my brain? The humor comes from exaggerated honesty: the text you send your friends, the outfit you swear is ‘just for errands,’ the fake excuse you use to leave a party early.

How to steal this style:

• Pick a very specific, modern behavior: ghosting group chats, doomscrolling, rage-cleaning.
• Exaggerate it just past reality, but not into full cartoon territory.
• Pepper in screenshots, fake text threads, or “imagined” DMs to heighten the joke.

These are the best examples for beginners because you’re basically writing about yourself, just with the volume turned up.

2. The “fake scientific study” listicle

Another set of real examples of humorous listicles you’ll love: the ones pretending to be research papers. You know the type:

• “13 Extremely Scientific Reasons Your Cat Is Your Worst Roommate”
• “17 Data-Backed Signs Your Houseplants Secretly Hate You”

These listicles parody serious research, which is funny precisely because actual research is so formal and careful. (If you want to see what real scientific language looks like, browse a few abstracts on PubMed at NIH.gov and compare.)

Comedy ingredients in this format include:

• Fake charts and graphs with ridiculous labels.
• Mock citations like “According to a landmark 2024 study in the Journal of People Who Are Tired…”
• Overly serious intros about something extremely dumb, like ranking your exes by how well they stack Tupperware.

These examples include a bonus benefit: you can riff on real science headlines, pop psychology trends, or wellness fads (with a light touch and maybe a nod to real sources like Mayo Clinic or CDC if you reference health).

3. The “unhinged ranking” listicle

Ranking listicles are everywhere, but the funniest ones lean into chaos:

• “Every Kitchen Utensil in My Apartment, Ranked by How Much Drama It Has Caused”
• “All the Pets in My Friends’ Group Chat, Ranked by Who Would Survive a Zombie Apocalypse”

These are great examples of humorous listicles you’ll love because they take something ordinary (utensils, pets, snacks, exes, tote bags) and treat it like a heated political debate.

Why they work:

• They create instant conflict: readers want to argue with the ranking.
• The criteria for ranking get increasingly unhinged: emotional damage, vibes, how likely this object is to start a podcast.
• Each item becomes a mini comedy sketch.

If you’re looking for an example of a format that’s endlessly reusable, this is it. You can rank anything: coffee orders, passwords, grocery store aisles, fonts, email sign-offs.

4. The “screenshots and chaos” listicle

From 2022 onward, some of the best examples of humorous listicles you’ll love have leaned hard into screenshots: texts, tweets, dating app profiles, Slack messages, unhinged product reviews.

Think titles like:

• “29 Texts From Moms That Deserve Their Own Sitcom”
• “21 Work Slack Messages That Should Be Classified as Art”

These listicles are basically curated chaos. The writer’s job is to:

• Pick a tight theme (e.g., coworkers who overshare, passive-aggressive HOA messages).
• Arrange the screenshots in a rising arc of absurdity.
• Add captions that heighten the joke instead of just repeating it.

This style stays hot in 2024–2025 because it mirrors how we actually communicate now. People live in screenshots and DMs; these listicles just turn that into a comedy museum.

5. The “how-to guide that absolutely should not exist” listicle

One of my favorite examples of examples of humorous listicles you’ll love is the fake how‑to guide. It pretends to be helpful while clearly making things worse:

• “11 Steps to Overthinking a Simple Text Until You Never Send It”
• “15 Foolproof Ways to Impress Absolutely No One at the Gym”

This format flips the classic advice article into a parody. It’s especially fun if you usually write serious how‑to posts. You can exaggerate all the bad instincts people secretly have but never admit.

To write your own example of this style:

• Start with a real how‑to topic (networking, dating, productivity).
• Invert the goal: instead of ‘how to stay focused,’ try ‘how to get distracted in under 3 minutes.’
• Keep the structure clean and logical, even as the advice gets worse. The contrast is what makes it funny.

If you want to understand how real instructional writing is structured—so you can parody it better—look at clear guides from places like Harvard’s Writing Center and then twist the tone.

6. The “oddly specific identity crisis” listicle

These are the listicles that sound like they were written just for you—and 2 million other people who thought they were alone:

• “23 Signs You’re the ‘Planner Friend’ and Also Deeply Tired”
• “19 Ways Your Personality Is Just ‘Girl Who Finished Her Homework Early’”

These are real examples of humorous listicles you’ll love because they mix gentle roasting with emotional accuracy. You feel seen and lightly bullied at the same time.

Key moves in this format:

• Drill into a niche identity: eldest daughter, middle manager, gifted kid burnout, millennial who still uses Facebook.
• Use behaviors as proof: how they text, what they order, what they secretly Google at 2 a.m.
• Sprinkle in one or two surprisingly sincere lines to keep it from feeling mean.

Writers on TikTok and Substack are especially good at this style in 2024–2025, turning hyper‑specific identities into running bits.

7. The “pop culture crossover” listicle

Another cluster of examples of humorous listicles you’ll love are the mashups:

• “Every Taylor Swift Era as a Type of Coworker in Your Office”
• “Marvel Superheroes as People You Meet at a Suburban Target”

These work because they combine a big fandom (Swifties, Marvel, Star Wars, K‑pop, The Bachelor) with a mundane setting (office life, grocery shopping, family reunion). The comedy comes from mapping one world’s logic onto another.

To build your own crossover listicle:

• Pick a pop culture universe you genuinely know; fake fans get exposed fast.
• Pair it with a universal setting (school, work, holidays, airports).
• For each item, lean into one exaggerated trait: the friend who always has a plan, the disaster romantic, the chaos agent.

These are some of the best examples for driving shares, because fandoms love anything that lets them see their favorite characters in a new, ridiculous context.

8. The “fake official document” listicle

This is where you dress the listicle up as something formal: a policy, a legal document, a corporate memo.

Think along the lines of:

• “14 New Workplace Policies HR Definitely Did Not Approve”
• “The Official Rulebook for Sharing a Bathroom With Roommates”

Here, each list item is a ‘clause’ or ‘rule’ that’s way too specific:

• Section 3.2: No brushing teeth while someone else is in the shower, unless you are both late and have signed the Mutual Panic Act of 2024.

Because real policies and government guidelines are so structured and serious (browse any page on USA.gov and you’ll see what I mean), parodying that tone is inherently funny.

Patterns behind the best examples of humorous listicles you’ll love

Now that we’ve walked through several real examples of humorous listicles you’ll love, you can start spotting patterns. The magic isn’t random; it’s repeatable.

They start with a painfully specific premise

The weakest listicles are too broad: “Funny Things People Do at Work.” The best examples sound like they were ripped from one person’s oddly detailed brain:

• “Times Your Coworker Said ‘Quick Question’ and Ruined Your Afternoon”
• “Mom Texts That Start with ‘No Need to Worry’ But You Immediately Worry”

When you’re brainstorming your own examples of humorous listicles you’ll love, ask yourself:

• Could someone else write this exact list? If yes, narrow it further.
• Does the title already contain a joke, tension, or oddly specific detail?

They commit to a bit—and escalate it

Every strong example of a humorous listicle picks a single comedic lens and refuses to drop it:

• Fake science stays fake scientific all the way through.
• Pop culture mashups stick to their universe.
• Relatable lists keep circling the same emotional truth.

As you move down the list, the jokes should escalate. Item one is mildly funny; item twelve is slightly unhinged; item twenty-two is the one people screenshot.

They mix short punchlines with longer mini-stories

Look at the best examples from big humor sites and you’ll notice a rhythm:

• A few items are just one killer line.
• Others expand into a tiny anecdote with a setup and payoff.

This mix keeps readers hooked. If every item is a wall of text, people bail. If every item is a one-liner, nothing feels memorable.

When you’re creating your own examples of humorous listicles you’ll love, aim for variety: some quick hits, some mini-scenes.

They sound like a real person, not a brand

The listicles that get shared in 2024–2025 don’t sound polished and corporate. They sound like a very funny friend texting you from the couch.

A few ways to hit that tone:

• Use first person when it helps (“I have never emotionally recovered from this email”).
• Let yourself be dramatic on purpose.
• Add asides in parentheses or em dashes like you’re thinking out loud.

If your draft reads like a press release, it won’t land as one of those examples of humorous listicles you’ll love—it’ll feel like marketing copy with bullet points.

How to write your own examples of humorous listicles you’ll love

Let’s turn all these best examples into an actual writing process you can reuse.

Step 1: Pick a tiny, weirdly specific angle

Instead of “funny things about dating,” try:

• “Times You Pretended to Be Chill Over Text and Absolutely Were Not”
• “Red Flags You Ignored Because They Had a Nice Dog”

You want your premise to be narrow enough that every item feels like part of the same joke.

Step 2: Brain-dump way too many items

Open a doc and write down 30–50 raw ideas. Don’t edit yet. The first 10 will be obvious; the next 20 are where your brain gets weird in a good way.

When you look back, you’ll notice that the best examples are usually items 15–35, not 1–10.

Step 3: Cut ruthlessly, then escalate

Now start trimming. Keep:

• The items that make you laugh out loud.
• The ones that feel specific enough to be screenshots from someone’s life.

Arrange them so the energy builds. Remember: many real examples of humorous listicles you’ll love put their strongest few items in the middle and near the end, not just up top.

Step 4: Add connective tissue and callbacks

A good listicle isn’t just a pile of jokes; it has a little narrative spine.

• Write a short intro that sets up the bit and the voice.
• Use a few callbacks: if you mention a chaotic roommate in item 3, bring them back in item 17.
• Close with a line that feels like a curtain call, not just “and that’s it.”

Step 5: Edit for rhythm, not just grammar

Read your draft out loud. You’re listening for:

• Variety in sentence length.
• Clear punchlines at the end of sentences.
• No repeated phrasing that makes jokes feel copy‑pasted.

If you want to sharpen your general writing skills (even for comedy), resources like university writing centers—again, Harvard’s Writing Center is a good starting point—can help you tighten structure and clarity.

FAQ: examples of humorous listicles you’ll love

Q: What are some easy examples of humorous listicles I can start with as a new writer?
A: Start with formats that don’t require deep pop culture knowledge. Great starter examples include: “texts you regret,” “office behaviors,” “group chat personalities,” or “ways I embarrass myself daily.” These are simple to write because you can pull straight from your own life.

Q: Can I write a funny listicle about serious topics without being insensitive?
A: Yes, but choose your angle carefully. Punch up, not down. Focus on universal frustrations—bureaucracy, confusing instructions, awkward social norms—rather than people’s pain or health issues. If you reference real medical or mental health topics, it’s smart to anchor facts with sources like NIH or Mayo Clinic, and keep jokes away from the serious stuff.

Q: What’s an example of a humorous listicle that works well on social media?
A: Screenshot-heavy listicles perform well on platforms like X, Instagram, and TikTok. An example is a list of “ridiculous autocorrect fails” or “unhinged group chat messages,” each with a short, punchy caption. These are easy to clip into carousels or short videos, which boosts shareability.

Q: How long should a humorous listicle be?
A: Long enough to stay funny, short enough that readers don’t get tired. Many of the best examples land between 15 and 30 items. If you have more, consider breaking them into a part two or a themed series.

Q: Do I need original images or can I rely on text only?
A: You can absolutely write text‑only examples of humorous listicles you’ll love. Visuals like screenshots can help, but sharp writing, specific details, and a strong voice matter more than graphics.

Study these patterns, remix the formats, and you’ll be cranking out your own examples of humorous listicles you’ll love—lists that don’t just exist on a blog page, but actually get screenshotted, shared, and maybe even lightly argued over in the group chat.