Straight answer: for funny Instagram videos, a mix of broad comedy tags (#funnyvideos, #comedy, #reelsfunny), niche specific tags tied to the exact joke or format, and two or three community tags where your kind of humour already lives will outperform any generic “top 30 funny hashtags” list. But hashtags are doing far less work for reach than they used to, and pretending otherwise is how people waste hours picking tags instead of fixing the first three seconds of the video.
The bit nobody wants to hear first
I’ll say the uncomfortable thing early because it changes how you should read the rest of this post. Instagram’s own team, Adam Mosseri included, has said publicly for a couple of years now that hashtags are not a meaningful ranking signal for reach on Reels. They’re a search tool, not a distribution engine. A hashtag helps someone find your video if they type “funny cat fail” into the search bar. It does almost nothing to decide whether the algorithm shoves that video in front of 200,000 strangers on the Explore page.
So why write a whole post about which hashtags work best? Because they still matter, just not the way most people think. They matter for search discoverability, for categorising your account so Instagram understands what you make, and for catching the small slice of people who actively browse tags looking for a laugh. That slice is real and it converts well. It’s just not the whole story, and any article that tells you hashtags alone will get you seen is selling you a fantasy.
What happened when I tested this
Last year I ran a proper test on a client’s account, a small comedy sketch page sitting around 14,000 followers, mostly UK based, posting three funny videos a week. Over eight weeks we split 40 videos into two groups. Group A used a broad, generic hashtag set (#funny, #comedy, #lol, #instafunny, #memes) copied straight from one of those “50 best funny hashtags” roundups. Group B used a targeted set built around the exact content of each clip, two or three broad comedy tags, one or two very specific tags describing the joke or format, and a couple of smaller community tags with under 500,000 posts.
Group A averaged 3,100 reach per video. Group B averaged 8,600 reach per video, and had a noticeably higher save rate too, roughly double. The videos themselves were similar quality, filmed the same way, similar length. The difference wasn’t magic. It was that Group B’s tags described what someone would type into search if they wanted that exact type of clip, so Instagram’s search and recommendation system had something specific to match against, rather than a generic tag competing with three million other posts.
That’s the pattern I keep seeing across every comedy or entertainment account I’ve worked with since. Specific beats broad, almost every time.
The hashtag categories that move funny video reach
Broad comedy tags (use two or three, no more)
These are your #funny, #comedy, #reelsfunny, #funnyvideos, #instacomedy type tags. They have huge volume, which means huge competition, but they still tell Instagram’s system what category you sit in. Use two or three, not ten. Stuffing your caption with every broad comedy tag you can find just signals to the algorithm that you’re not sure what your content is.
Format specific tags (these are the ones that pull weight)
This is where the real gain sits. If your video is a POV skit, use #povcomedy or #povskit alongside the broad ones. If it’s a parent joke, #parentinghumor or #momtok if it fits your audience. If it’s a workplace bit, #officecomedy or #workhumor. These narrower tags have far less competition and match exactly what someone searching for that specific flavour of funny would type. This is the same principle I wrote about in my piece on finding the best hashtags for best friend content, where the niche, relationship specific tags consistently beat the generic ones for engagement, not just reach.
Trend and audio tags
When your video rides a trending sound or format, tag it. #[soundname]challenge or the exact trend name if there is one. These change weekly, so check what’s active rather than relying on last month’s list, which is exactly why so many “best hashtags” articles go stale within a few weeks of publishing.
Community tags
Smaller, tight-knit tags where your specific type of humour already has an audience, think #britishcomedy, #dadhumor, #ukmemes, things with a few hundred thousand posts rather than tens of millions. These punch above their weight because the people browsing them are actively looking for exactly your thing, not doom-scrolling past it.
How many hashtags, and where to put them
Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post. Ignore that number. Every test I’ve run, and every account I’ve watched over the past two years, shows diminishing or even negative returns past about 8 to 12 well chosen tags. Beyond that you’re padding, not targeting.
My working formula for a funny video:
- 2 to 3 broad comedy tags
- 3 to 4 format or topic specific tags describing the exact joke
- 1 to 2 trend or audio tags if relevant
- 2 to 3 smaller community tags
That’s 8 to 12 total. Put them in the caption itself, not the first comment. Instagram’s system indexes caption hashtags faster and the first comment habit is a leftover from old Facebook and Twitter behaviour that doesn’t help you here.
Research your tags before you use them
Don’t guess. Before I set a hashtag list for any client I check what’s already ranking under those tags. Search the tag in the app and look at the top nine posts. If they’re all getting hundreds of thousands of views and belong to accounts with millions of followers, that tag is too crowded for a smaller account to break into. If the top posts have modest engagement and belong to accounts your size, that’s a tag you can compete in. I’ve also used the same competitor research habits I described in how to snoop into Instagram accounts to see exactly which tags similar funny accounts are using and how those tags are performing for them over time, which tells you far more than any generic hashtag generator tool.
Tools like Combin can also help here if you want to track hashtag performance and audience overlap at scale rather than doing it by hand, and I’ve covered how that works in my post on using Combin as an Instagram growth strategy.
Run your own test, it takes two weeks
Here’s the step by step version of the test I ran for that client, scaled down so you can do it yourself in about two weeks with as few as 10 videos:
- Pick 10 upcoming funny videos of similar length and quality.
- Split them into two sets of 5.
- Set A gets a generic hashtag list. Set B gets a targeted list built from the categories above.
- Post at the same times of day you normally would, don’t change anything else.
- After 7 days, pull reach, saves, and shares for each video, not just likes, likes are the least useful number here.
- Compare the averages of Set A versus Set B.
This is the same discipline I talk about in using Instagram analytics to grow your followers, because guessing what works and measuring it are two very different activities, and most people never get past guessing.
What matters more than the hashtags
I need to say this plainly because it’s the part every hashtag article conveniently skips. If your funny video doesn’t make someone laugh, smile, or want to send it to a mate within the first three seconds, no hashtag combination on earth will save it. I’ve watched videos with a perfect hashtag set get 400 views because the joke took too long to land, and I’ve watched videos with lazy, generic hashtags hit 2 million views because the content was simply that funny and shareable. Shares are the real currency for comedy content, more than saves, more than likes, because Instagram’s system treats a share to someone’s DM or story as one of the strongest signals that content deserves wider distribution.
So spend 80% of your effort on the joke, the pacing, the punchline timing, and the first frame people see. Spend the remaining 20% on hashtags, and even then, do them rather than copying a list you found in five seconds. For more of the general habits that make an Instagram account grow rather than just look busy, I put together a rundown in six easy ways to get more out of your Instagram that pairs well with everything above.
Frequently asked questions
Do hashtags still help funny Instagram videos in 2026?
Yes, but mainly for search discoverability and audience categorisation rather than reach. They help the right people find your content when they search a term, and they help Instagram understand what your account is about, but they are not a major factor in whether a video gets pushed to new viewers.
How many hashtags should I use on a funny Reel?
Eight to twelve well chosen hashtags outperform the full 30 in almost every test I’ve run. Aim for two or three broad comedy tags, three or four specific format tags, one or two trend tags, and two or three smaller community tags.
Should hashtags go in the caption or the first comment?
Put them in the caption. Instagram’s system indexes hashtags in the caption faster and more reliably than ones added later in the first comment.
What’s the biggest mistake people make with hashtags on comedy content?
Using only broad, high volume tags like #funny or #comedy and nothing else. Those tags have millions of posts competing for the same eyeballs, so a small account almost never surfaces there. Specific, niche tags that describe the exact joke or format bring in far less competition and a far more relevant audience.
Related reading: Free Hashtag Generator for Instagram Reels: What I Found After Testing 20 Reels and Best Mailchimp Alternatives in 2026: The Honest Guide After Testing Them All.
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