Ever looked at a napkin doodle that made you choke on your coffee? It probably wasn’t because the anatomy was perfect. It was because the guy drawing it knew something most artists forget: perfection is the enemy of funny. If you want to know how to draw funny stuff, you’ve gotta stop trying to be Leonardo da Vinci and start trying to be a bit of a mess.
Humor in art isn't about the brushstroke. It's about the "what" and the "why." You’re looking for that weird intersection between the relatable and the totally absurd.
💡 You might also like: Why the Sand Dollar Cove Cast Made This Hallmark Romance Actually Work
Drawing funny is basically visual storytelling with a punchline that hits before the viewer even realizes they’re looking at art. You don't need a $2,000 Wacom tablet. A Bic pen and a sticky note will do. Honestly, sometimes the cruder the drawing, the funnier the joke.
The Secret Sauce of Visual Gags
Contrast is king. If you draw a massive, muscular bodybuilder but give him tiny, spindly bird legs, people laugh. Why? Because it’s a subversion of expectations. Our brains like patterns, and when you break those patterns, the "error" translates as humor.
Think about The Far Side by Gary Larson. Larson wasn't trying to win awards for hyper-realism. He drew cows with glasses and people with beehive hair. He focused on the situation. If you’re struggling with how to draw funny stuff, start by thinking of a normal situation and adding one "wrong" element. A shark in a business meeting. A pigeon wearing a tiny tuxedo.
It’s about the juxtaposition. You take something mundane and inject it with a dose of "wait, what?"
Eyes and Eyebrows are 90% of the Work
You can communicate an entire life story through a pair of eyebrows. Want someone to look panicked? High, thin arches. Want them to look like they’ve completely given up on life? Heavy, drooping lids that cover half the pupil.
I’ve seen artists spend four hours on a nose and ignore the eyes. Huge mistake. In the world of funny drawings, the eyes are your primary tool for emotional delivery. Look at the work of Allie Brosh in Hyperbole and a Half. Her character is essentially a yellow triangle with tubes for limbs, but those wide, staring eyes? They convey more existential dread and hilarity than a high-definition 3D render.
Why Your "Good" Drawing Isn't Funny
Most people fail at how to draw funny stuff because they are too worried about "correct" proportions. If you draw a dog that looks exactly like a dog, it’s just a drawing of a dog. Boring.
But if you stretch that dog out like a noodle? Or give it a tongue that’s three times the size of its head? Now you’re getting somewhere.
💡 You might also like: Star Wars The Clone Wars Ahsoka and Lux: The Messy Romance That Changed the Jedi Forever
Exaggeration is your best friend. In animation, this is often called "squash and stretch." If a character hits a wall, they shouldn't just stop; they should flatten like a pancake for a split second. Use that in your static drawings. If a character is surprised, don’t just open their mouth—let their jaw hit the floor. Literally.
The Power of the "Ugly" Line
Clean, digital lines can sometimes feel sterile. They’re too perfect. If you’re aiming for humor, try a "shaky" line. It adds a layer of frantic energy.
- Use a pen that bleeds a little.
- Don't erase your "mistakes"—sometimes a double-lined chin makes a character look more pathetic in a hilarious way.
- Keep the background simple. If there's too much detail in the grass, people miss the joke on the character's face.
Real Examples of Mastery
Look at Matt Groening’s early work, Life in Hell. The characters were essentially the same rabbits over and over, but the comedy came from their expressions and the cynical dialogue. He didn't need complex shading. He needed a clear silhouette and a recognizable vibe.
Then you have someone like Joan Cornellà. His work is disturbing, colorful, and wildly funny because the characters have these vacant, smiling faces while horrific things happen to them. That’s another way to handle how to draw funny stuff: the "clash of tones." You use a bright, happy art style to depict something completely nonsensical or dark.
Finding Your Voice in the Ridiculous
Don't copy Disney. Don't copy Pixar. Their styles are built for mass-market appeal and emotional resonance, which is great, but "funny" usually lives in the fringes.
- The "Low-Stakes" Trick: Draw something that shouldn't be serious as if it’s the most important thing in the world. A potato having a mid-life crisis.
- The "Over-Commitment": If you draw a big nose, make it so big it needs its own wheelbarrow.
- The "Deadpan": Draw a character with zero expression in a high-chaos environment. It’s the "this is fine" dog approach.
Developing a style for how to draw funny stuff takes a lot of bad drawings. You’re going to draw a hundred things that just look like bad art before you draw one thing that looks like funny art. That’s okay.
Stop Overthinking the Tools
I know people who won't start drawing until they have the perfect iPad Pro setup with a specific Paperlike screen protector. Stop it.
The funniest things I’ve ever seen were drawn on the back of a receipt. The limitation of the medium often forces you to be more creative with the joke. If you only have a red pen, how do you make that part of the gag? Maybe the character is just perpetually embarrassed.
📖 Related: Why Gaslight Theater Tucson AZ Is Still the Best Night Out in the Desert
Actionable Steps to Get Started
Go grab a piece of paper. Right now. Don't wait for "inspiration." Inspiration is a lie told by people who don't actually create anything.
Step 1: The Random Object Challenge
Pick an inanimate object in your room. A toaster. A lamp. A stapler. Now, give it a face. But don't just give it a "happy" face. Give it the face of someone who just realized they left the oven on. Give it the face of someone who’s been waiting in line at the DMV for four hours.
Step 2: The Anatomy Break
Draw a person. Now, identify the one feature you usually try to get "right"—maybe the hands or the ears. Intentionally mess them up. Make the hands look like bunches of bananas. Make the ears so large they drag on the ground.
Step 3: The Caption Test
Sometimes a drawing isn't funny until it has context. Draw a guy sitting on a bench. That's it. Now, add a speech bubble that says something completely unrelated to sitting on a bench, like "I think I’m becoming a werewolf, but only in my left foot."
Step 4: Study the Greats (The Weird Ones)
Check out the work of Ed Subitzky or M.K. Brown from the old National Lampoon days. Their styles were idiosyncratic and often "unpolished," but their comedic timing was surgical.
Mastering how to draw funny stuff isn't about learning how to draw; it's about learning how to see the world through a slightly warped lens. It’s about noticing the guy at the grocery store who is struggling way too hard to pick a melon and turning him into a Greek tragedy.
Stop trying to be good. Start trying to be weird. The world has enough "good" artists, but it’s always short on people who can make a stranger snort-laugh at a doodle.