The Tutorial Disaster
Write a humorous essay about trying to follow a YouTube tutorial for a simple household task that spirals into an epic, comedic failure, involving at least three different kinds of technology and an unexpected visit from a neighbor.
Suggested length: An essay or article: 800 to 2,500 words
Start the clock
Pick a sprint, press start and keep going until it stops. Momentum beats polish on a first draft.
Make it yours
Three ways to take this prompt somewhere nobody else will.
- Open with a specific story, then widen out to the big idea.
- Write for a curious friend, not an expert.
- End with something the reader can do or think about today.
Writing humor and satire books
Laughs first, with a point under the punchline.
Comic fiction sets out to make readers laugh; satire uses that laughter to skewer something real, from war to bureaucracy to the publishing industry. Either way, the jokes have to land on almost every page.
What readers expect
- A distinctive comic voice
- Absurd situations played straight
- A target, in satire
- Running jokes that pay off
A tip before you start
Play it straight. Characters who take the absurd seriously are funnier than ones winking at the reader.
More Humor prompts
- Dating App DisastersCraft a satirical piece on the world of dating apps. Create profiles for exaggerated characters and describe their hilariously awful or awkward dates.
- Teaching Grandma TechDescribe in side-splitting detail the experience of trying to teach a reluctant, perhaps elderly, relative how to use modern technology, from…
- Life Without TechnologyCreate a satirical guide on "How to Survive a Day Without Technology", detailing humorous scenarios and over-the-top coping mechanisms.
- The DIY Tutorial DisasterWrite a comedic essay on the trials and tribulations of someone attempting to follow an online DIY tutorial, where everything that can go wrong, does.
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
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