List Ideas: Topics That Make Great Lists, With Examples
List ideas sorted by topic (comedians, cartoons, rare traits, the mind, feats, places, science), each with a finished example, plus how to turn an idea into your own list.
You need a list. Maybe it's a blog post, a school project, a trivia night, or an argument with a friend over who the funniest comedian alive is. The hard part is rarely the writing. It's picking a subject narrow enough to finish and interesting enough that someone reads to the end. Below are list ideas sorted by topic, each one tied to a list or explainer we've already written, so you can see how the idea plays out before you build your own.
What makes a list idea work
A good list idea has a clear rule for what gets in. "Cartoon characters" is a pile; "cartoon characters with red hair" is a list. The rule does the sorting for you and gives the reader a reason to check whether their favorite made it.
The best lists also answer a question the reader already has. "Which blood type is rarest?" is a question. "Blood types ranked from most common to rarest" answers it in order, and the order is the point.
Last, every entry should earn its place with a fact the reader didn't know. A name and a picture isn't an entry. A name, a picture, and the one detail that explains why it's there, is.
Lists about comedians
Comedians make easy lists because everyone has opinions, and the opinions are the fun part. Narrow the rule and the list gets better.
- By style: deadpan comedians who never crack a smile, or clean comedians the whole family can watch
- By where they're from: the best Irish comedians or British comedians
- By who they are: funniest Black stand-up comedians, female comedians, old favorites and new, or red-headed comedians
- By reputation, good or bad: the most popular comedians in the world and the most hated comedians
- By what else they do: comedians who are serious musicians and comedians who made horror movies
- A question instead of a ranking: can funny be taught?
Lists about cartoon characters
Cartoon lists work when the rule is something you can see. Color, shape, and look all sort characters fast, and readers love checking for their childhood favorites.
- The most famous cartoon characters, and the cutest
- By hair: red hair or pink hair
- By color: blue cartoon characters, and why so many are blue
- By look: funny-looking, ugly, or fat cartoon characters
- By who they are: Black anime characters
- The long view: the history of cartoons, from cave paintings to the Simpsons
Lists about actors and famous people
- The best actors in the world
- Legendary Black actors
- One person, one question: is Mark Zuckerberg a reptile? (no, but the rumor has a history)
- A single career, told as facts: Vanessa Bayer or Jack Ma's success story
- Books in order: Fannie Flagg's books, in order
Lists about the human body
Rare traits make strong lists because every reader checks themselves against them. "Do I have this? Does anyone I know?"
- Blood: blood types ranked from most common to rarest, the rarest blood type of all, and blood types by country
- Eyes: two different eye colors, amber "wolf eyes", gray eyes versus blue, and whether eye color can change as an adult
- Hair and skin: how rare redheads are, freckles, and dimples
- Odd quirks: sneezing at sunlight, cilantro that tastes like soap, supertasters, and how rare left-handedness is
Lists about the mind
- People with unusual memories: those who remember every day of their lives and those who never forget a face
- People who can't do what most can: picture things in their mind
- Senses that cross: people who taste words and see sounds
- Sleep: people who need only a few hours and waking up unable to move
- Fear: the fear of clowns, why clusters of holes bother people, and why some people love being scared
Lists about amazing feats
Feats make good lists when the rule is a hard limit: a height, a time, a temperature that most people can't survive.
- Climbing Everest without bottled oxygen
- The race almost nobody finishes
- The two-hour marathon barrier
- Extreme cold endurance
- People who lifted cars to save someone
Lists about places
- Rankings: the best places to live in the USA and the cleanest cities in the world
- Every one of something: all the countries in the world, A to Z
- One place, many facts: Lithuania, Croatia, Madrid, Rwanda, Senegal, Cambodia, and Maine
Lists about science and nature
A "facts about" list on one thing is the easiest list to start: pick a subject, then find the facts that surprise people.
- Elements and materials: palladium, rhodium, and coal
- Forces you can't see: electricity, radio waves, and X-rays
- Living things: sunflowers, fig trees, algae, and protists
- Germs: E. coli and strep throat
Lists that play with a rule
Some of the most fun lists don't sort by subject at all. They sort by a pattern.
Turning an idea into your own list
Pick one idea above and change the rule. Comedians from Ireland becomes comedians from your state. Cartoon characters with red hair becomes cartoon villains with mustaches. Rare blood types becomes rare traits in your own family.
Then decide how many entries the subject really has. Some ideas run out at seven; some could go to fifty. Stop when the entries stop being interesting, not when you hit a round number. Check each fact against a source you can link to, and put the most surprising entry where the reader will find it early. That's the whole method behind every list on this page.