An anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting account, which may depict a real incident or person. 

Anecdotes can be as brief as the setting and provocation of a bon mot. An anecdote is always presented as based in a real incident involving actual persons, whether famous or not, usually in an identifiable place. 

However, over time, modification in reuse may convert a particular anecdote to a fictional piece, one that is retold but is “too good to be true”. Sometimes humorous, anecdotes are not jokes, because their primary purpose is not simply to evoke laughter, but to reveal a truth more general than the brief tale itself.

Psychologists have found that people are more likely to remember notable examples (examples transformed into famous or popular media scripts) than the typical example.

Example of a anecdote sort humorous story; King Louis XI of France was a firm believer in astrology and yet he was somewhat uneasy when an astrologer accurately predicted the death of a lady at court. He felt the astrologer would be better off dead, so Louis called him to his apartments where his servants were ordered to throw him out the window once given the signal. 

First, however, Louis asked the man a question, “You claim to understand astrology and to know the fate of others, so tell me what your fate will be and how long you have to live.” The astrologer replied, “I shall die just three days before Your Majesty.” This so unnerved the king that he decided to let the astrologer live.