80 Funny t-shirt sayings and quotes that will sell out your store
Funny and tees go together like burgers and fries – it’s just right somehow. Funny t-shirt sayings have long been the expressive canvas used to show off the comedic talents of people everywhere.
Aside from being one of the main uses for tees – it’s also one of the easiest. Did you know that the one of the most popular “formats” for tees that we sell on our platform is the front-facing (meaning on the front of the shirt) quote or funny saying? Bonus: it’s also the easiest to design, you just write the words.
See how to create text-based t-shirt designs straight from our Mockup Generator.
But what should you write to make your shirts funny?
Funny t-shirt sayings. What is funny?
“Funny” is subjective. Some people think they have it and try to make a funny t-shirt saying, and some people definitely don’t. How can you spot the difference? You can try telling your joke or you might even show your funny shirt design to your friends and family. They might even giggle a bit – but that’s not enough. Why? They might think that you need some encouragement, they might be a lot like you and think it’s funny when other people don’t, or they might even just laugh to be nice. So how do you know if you’ve got a funny t-shirt saying on your hands?
Sales. If your shirt is funny, chances are it will sell well. So, let’s take a look at some of the best selling types and categories of funny shirt sayings. These shirts sell well and are also funny! We even laughed while writing this article for you! Here are some of the funny categories and shirts we found to bring you the funny inspiration you need for your store:
Ironic and I hate everything funny
These shirts are popular because they express what everyone feels from time to time – that urge to be alone! But, how can someone that wants to be left alone wear a funny tee, designed to get some reaction from those that see them? 
This is one of the great mysteries of life! What’s not a mystery? These funny t-shirt sayings sell! These ironic shirts tell you everything about someone’s mood in a second, and that’s the type of expressive tee that sells and sells well in our stores.
Sorry I’m late, I didn’t want to come
Sorry, I’m not good at people-ing
NOPE. Not today.
Mr. Always right
Allergic to people
I can. But I won’t.
No. Thanks.
Hang on. Let me overthink this.
IRONY. The opposite of wrinkly.
Consistently inconsistent
Food and funny
Pumpkins, turkey, candy canes, eggs: nearly every season, holiday, or occasion has special food, and they’re all ripe for parody on tees. Funny t-shirt sayings with food-themed t-shirts are extremely popular and one of the biggest categories to explore for your store. If you need some help with seasonal items or have a food-themed store, this is a great way to boost your sales.
I’m here just for the FOOD
Pizza. Pizza understands me.
There’s too much bacon, said no one. Ever.
Make nachos not war
All I care about is tacos and like 3 people
I speak French (fries)
WTF. Where’s the food.
Eating spaghetti to forgetti my regretti
Hangry.
Only happy when eating
Family funny
Got a family or neighborhood picnic? Consider a family-themed funny t-shirt ensemble. These shirts can be worn by the whole family, from salt and pepper to pregnancy jokes – there’s a whole “family” of jokes that you can mine for fun. Some of our favorite funny t-shirt sayings are related to children (“The remake” below 😂) and “Got it from mama”. These funny shirts are all about showing family unity or relationships and personality while out and about, so use your clever creativity to come up with some themed funny shirts for all those families out there!
Some moms cuss too much. It’s me. I’m some moms.
Mama in the making
Papa. The Man. The Myth. The Legend.
Mark your children: The original / The remake / The encore / The mic drop
You can’t scare me, I have three kids
It’s not a dad bod. It’s a father figure.
Matching shirts for parents and kids: (CTRL + C), (CTRL + V)
Love them. Spoil them. Give them back. #grandmalife
If you met my family you would understand
Chaos coordinator
Sports and funny
Sports apparel is a huge category of clothing worth billions and billions each year. What’s more, funny sports-themed clothes are gigantic, both for playing sports, wearing to sporting events and around town. This category of funny t-shirt sayings can help you to hit pay dirt with your store, as long as you can come up with clever and funny sports themes. No sport is spared parody and fun with these shirts! Take a look at just a few of our favorites, and you might see something that can sell for your store.
Sweat is fat crying
I just hope both teams have fun
Classy, until tipoff
I’m not slow, I’m just not fast
Hockey is my favourite season
Don’t mess with a girl who does burpees for fun
Does running late count as an exercise?
Resting burpee face
GYM? Did you mean gin?
Tryna get my fit together
Gaming and funny
Gaming is a giant, multi-billion dollar industry – and one that loves merch! Gaming and game-related clothing are mainly funny or designed to show off fandom with some humor. And video games are such a huge category that you can come up with nearly any funny t-shirt saying for them. Retro games, fantasy, self-parody, it’s ready for you to get your head around and start to come up with some quick and witty fun.
I don’t need a life – I’m a gamer – I’ve got lots of lives
I went outside once. The graphics were not so good.
I paused my game to be here
My game is paused – talk fast or feed me pizza
I leveled up, to dad!
No Mom. I can’t pause an online game.
Gamer Mode ON
I don’t always play video games …oh, wait, yes I do.
Eat. Sleep. Game. Repeat.
O.G.D. Obsessive Gaming Disorder
Funny vacation shirts
A vacation is also a place for funny t-shirts sayings and the fun, of course, doesn’t stop at the shirt line! Vacation is the time when people cut loose and drop their normal maybe slightly reserved persona to try to relax and have a good time. Help them to express that with a shirt that’s funny and vacation-themed. You can even pair that with some great tropical or floral patterns, the kind of hideous beachwear that people love to ironically sport well on vacation. Take a look at these shirts to get some sassy examples for your vacation-themed funny T-shirts.
I want a ticket to anywhere
Tanned and tipsy
Vacay mode ON
Adios beaches
Drinking coordinator
On vacation until further notice
Road trippin
Oh, Hey, Vacay!
The beach is my happy place
Will work for travel
Funny pun shirts
OK, to some extent funny shirts across all categories have puns, but some puns defy categories so we decided to make a special pun-based category. These funny t-shirt sayings use visual triggers and funny popular puns and double meanings to express ideas for the wearer. Take a look at some of our favorite tee based puns to get your ideas about how to profit.
Bear-ly awake
Everything whale be ok
Stay pawsitive
Like no otter
Just dill with it
Purranormal
Stop stressing meowt
Oh for fox sake
Do you even carrot all?
Bad puns are how eye roll
Funny animal lover shirt sayings
There’s nothing funnier to most people than animals, especially the domesticated variety. If the internet exists to provide the world with ever newer supplies of funny cat videos, then t-shirts, at least in part, exist to supply funny animal sayings! Here are some of our favorite animal sayings for your shirts.
I just want to pet all dogs
My kid has paws
I’m only talking to my cat today
Talk birdy to me
Cat hair don’t care
Let’s face it, I was crazy before the cats
I’d love to but, my dog said no
Weekends. Coffee & Dogs.
If I can’t bring my cat I’m not going
World’s best hamster mom
Get inspired
Let’s talk about being funny. Humor is subjective, even for funny t-shirt sayings. What some people will laugh at, others might think is boring, or even – offensive. The subjective nature of humor reads us to give you a few tips about using funny items in your store.
1. Know your audience
Being funny is all about being relaxed and knowing your audience. If you know your audience well and your store has an established niche or type of customer that you generally sell to, it’s probably pretty easy to spot the type of humor that they’d be interested in.
Make sure that you are on message with your funny humor. You don’t want to turn any of your potential customers, or worse, your repeat customers off with some off-brand or off-color funny t-shirt sayings.
Being funny is also about being sensitive about where the line is drawn between funny and insensitive. If you cross that line with a shirt you may even get a few sales but your overall sales could suffer.
2. Get it out fast
Funny t-shirt sayings and ideas can be profitable if you can get them out fast. Think of hit TV shows whose time has come and gone, like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad. When these shows were popular, all of their sayings, references and characters were fresh period now, unless you’re a very committed fan, these references seem old and stale and out of place. But, when they were fresh, they were extremely profitable. We’re talking megabucks. So don’t underestimate the potential profitability of riding a trend or a bad period there’s an incredible amount of money waiting on the coattails of popular culture and it’s a huge following.
3. Shirt happens
Also, consider that funny t-shirt sayings are somewhat related to timing. Jokes are funnier when timed properly, with a perfectly delivered punchline that wouldn’t be as funny if you heard it more quickly or slowly, and the same goes forward to your shirts.
The humor might be topical to the time that will come and go. Make sure you keep your funny shirts fresh and up-to-date, otherwise your brand might suffer when your customers see old and still jokes in your store.
Whether you’re looking for some extra cash with some funny t-shirts sayings, or you’re looking to build an entire store around the idea of funny tee shirts, you can make some headway with your sales with funny shirts.
Make it happen right now.
Written by
Phil Brown
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