How to make a funny story?

[PhoenixLord]

So long story short, I had an idea to do a parody of Desperate Housewives but with gender-bent characters. Instead of the main characters being women (Susan, Gabrielle, Lynette and Bree), the characters would be househusbands trying to sort out their marriages and family lives in a funny/sexual way. Gabriel has an affair with his college-aged female gardener, Jessie, Brian dealing with his lesbian daughter etc.

The problem is I'm not a very funny person to begin with so aside from taking funny clips from the show and gender-swapping them, like instead of Susan walking in on a pair of guys skinny dipping and making out, it's Sean walking in on a pair of girls, I don't know how to progress from there. I could use some help. All participating characters are over 18 in this scenario, and I'd have this written as a sales pitch for a screenplay.

 

[Pabiporffor]

Visual humour doesn't work well in writing. I'd suggest concentrating on misunderstandings e.g. a milf invites a guy home for mother/daughter sex then brings her 70 year old mother into the bedroom

Or perhaps people in awkward situations that make you think how you'd react. E.g grandmother walks in to find her granddaughter getting fucked on the sofa

"Well I never!"

"Come on, you fucking must have done," came the reply.

 

[LupusDei]

Much of great humor is simply violation of expectations in a way that is obvious in hindsight. That includes, but isn't limited to intellectual humor assuming audience's prior knowledge of cultural memes that are then subverted, however, as any other insider jokes that can obviously fail for some or even most readers.

Mockery, funny gait, confused attire, such things better work in visual media, but can be adopted in writing, but then it is all about HOW, not really what is being described (just as is everything else anyway). Like in the famous Russian classic satirical novel "Twelve Chairs" there's an episodic character, a oversexed young prostitute whose entire vocabulary is said to contain no more than fifty words (and great many of those of her sounds aren't even real words of any language); while in principle there's nothing inherently funny about such a character (some will disagree), it's all about the presentation with is hysterical.

And that brings the satire into the discussion, together or separate from irony. Not only the most tragic circumstances, worst abuses and eviliest intentions, but even the hopelessly mundane can be described in a funny way using those, not as mockery, but with measured exaggerations, intentional perspective shifts and unexpected references. Admittedly, that requires some wild imagination and/or careful crafting, and I'm espousing theory in unhelpful form here.