I’m Kayla, and I chase weird scholarships like my cat chases the red dot. The “Make Me Laugh Scholarship” caught my eye because, well, I like laughing more than writing about GPA charts. It’s run by Unigo. If you need the fine print—deadlines, eligibility, and all that jazz—you can skim the official Unigo Make Me Laugh Scholarship page before you start brainstorming punchlines.
When I applied, the award was $1,500, and the essay was short—about 250 words. You write something funny that still says a little about you.
Sounds easy, right? Sort of. Funny is tricky. If your jokes naturally tilt bone-dry, this breakdown of what dry humor really is can help you figure out why some lines land with a whisper and still win.
Whenever I needed a quick dose of comedic inspiration, I’d skim through the punchlines over at CrazyLaughs, and it always reset my funny bone. Their deep dive into what actually happened when someone else tackled the “Make Me Laugh” Scholarship cracked me up and gave me courage.
Let me explain.
What It Is (In Plain Talk)
- Who: U.S. students (teens and college folks)
- What: One short, funny essay
- Where: On Unigo’s site (you make an account)
- When: Mine was due at the end of August
- Prize: $1,500 when I applied
The words “make me laugh” seem simple. But they’re also a dare. Humor can miss. And when it misses, wow, you feel it.
How I Applied (Twice)
I applied two years in a row. The first time, I wrote it fast. Bad move. The second time, I treated it like a comedy set—tight, clean, and with a point—stealing structure tips from this roundup of funny monologues for women I actually performed and loved.
The portal was smooth on my laptop. I wrote in Google Docs, ran it through Grammarly, then pasted it in. Pro tip: the word counter can be strict, so keep a little buffer. I aimed for 235–245 words. I also saved a copy in Notion because I lose stuff. A lot. I also sanity-checked each gag against this list of work-appropriate jokes someone tested for a month straight; if it wouldn’t get me fired, it probably wouldn’t get me disqualified either.
They didn’t ask for fancy add-ons. No transcript. No letters. Just the short piece and your info.
My Actual Essay (Short Version)
This is the core of what I sent the second year. Not word for word—just trimmed a bit for here. But yep, this is the voice and the jokes.
“On the first day of summer P.E., I learned two things: sunscreen is not optional, and my legs are dramatic. We were doing the mile, which I thought was a chill jog with gossip. My legs thought it was the end of days.
By lap two, I looked like a strawberry with sneakers. My friend Emma waved and yelled, ‘You’re glowing!’ which is what liars say when you’re melting.
Then my gym shorts betrayed me. The drawstring gave up, like a tiny white flag. I did a hop-shuffle-hold-the-waistband dance that probably has a name on TikTok. I wanted the ground to eat me. The ground said no.
I finished, wobbly, red, and still holding my shorts. The teacher handed me a Popsicle and said, very calm, ‘That was brave.’ Like I fought a bear. I told her, ‘The bear won.’
Here’s the thing: I laughed. Loud. So did Emma. We laughed till the Popsicle snapped. And I kept running that summer. I got better shorts. Better timing too. If life is a mile, I plan to be sweaty, a little pink, and still laughing at the finish.”
Is it high art? Nope. Did it feel like me? Yes. That helped.
What Made Me Smile About It
- Short and fun. I didn’t need a huge life story. Just a clear beat, a clean twist, and a tiny heart tug.
- Low lift. No fees, no long forms. I didn’t need to beg a teacher for a letter in July.
- Fast to share. I sent it to my campus writing center. Got notes the same day.
- It felt human. The judges want a chuckle, not a PhD thesis.
What Bugged Me (Nothing scary, but still)
- Humor is personal. I worried, Is this funny to them? Or just funny to me and Emma?
- The wait felt long. I heard back around two months later with a “not selected” the first year, and radio silence the second time until winners posted on-site. (You can peek at the Unigo Make Me Laugh Scholarship Winners page to see the kinds of jokes that clinched the check.)
- You get emails. Like, a lot. Unigo sends many scholarship alerts. Helpful, yes. A little loud, also yes. I made a filter—and even turned one of those alerts into a killer funny out-of-office message just to cope.
How I Tweaked My Essay So It Didn’t Flop
I learned a few things the hard way.
- Keep it school-safe. Funny doesn’t need to be mean. Or gross. Or dark.
- Tell a story. Set-up, build, twist, tiny lesson. Like a mini sitcom.
- Be the joke, but not the punchline. I made fun of myself, but not my body or a group of people. The target was my bad shorts and my dramatic legs.
- Cut the fluff. I killed the extra adverbs and kept the verbs strong.
- Read it out loud. If you can’t say it without overthinking, it’s not landing.
- End on a note. Give a reason. Why does this moment matter? Mine said: I can laugh and try again.
- On days when my punchlines read too deadpan, I revisited these field notes from a straight-faced comic to remember that a stone-cold delivery can still sparkle.
You know what? The part I almost cut—the Popsicle breaking—that got the most laughs when I read it to friends. Small, real details help.
What I Would Do If I Were You
- Start early. Keep a running list of funny moments in your phone. Bus stories. Kitchen fails. Band tuba disaster. Try two.
- Write three versions. One silly, one dry, one tender. Mash the best lines.
- Testing over video call helps too. If your best friend’s across the country, hop on Skype and see if they actually laugh. Before I tried that, I combed through this candid guide to spicing up Skype chats to understand how to keep the screen-to-screen energy alive, and the walkthrough doubles as a mini-masterclass on reading body language through pixels—perfect for tightening comedic timing during remote rehearsals. When you’re ready to trade the webcam for a live audience and you happen to be in California’s Central Valley, check out Atwater hookups—the platform pairs locals for casual meet-ups, giving you fresh faces to field-test your punchlines and maybe score a study break.
- Don’t recycle jokes everyone uses. Food fights, tripping on stage—fine if they’re real, but add a twist.
- Ask one friend: “Where’s the laugh?” Then fix that spot.
- Keep it under the limit. Being short is part of the challenge.
- Swipe from niche joke experiments—like the time someone road-tested bear jokes or unleashed frog puns for a week; their write-ups show which setups actually land on real humans.
- Need a quick kid-safe angle? Peek at how summer jokes for kids scored giggles without eye-rolls.
- Writing for gamers? The recap of Minecraft jokes tested on real kids breaks down which references hit and which exploded.
- Animal lovers in your audience? Compare reactions to [