One of my crowning glories as a researcher was supporting the re-launch of Bob the Builder, with a Keynote at Kidscreen.
As I stepped onto the stage a senior client whispered in my ear “if this goes well, we take the credit. If it doesn’t, you take the credit.
I’ve presented for years. I hate it. I’m mumble. I forget words. I’m not charismatic. And I’m not funny.
What I am is, fascinated by humans and patterns. And thank fully a few people would like to listen to me and understand data better.
In the Bob the Builder research, I was privileged to work with a creative team passionate about their audience.
We tested episodes, measuring how well the episodes worked, by observing children watching the shows and marking engagement. This allowed us to understand levels of enjoyment, comprehension and the drivers behind this.
It was one of the most informative pieces of research I’ve ever worked on, and whilst I can’t detail too much. One thing stood out. The art of a joke.
There is a funny moment with a seagull, with a joke at the start of episode, and the punchline at the end. It was genuinely funny. I laughed.
NOT ONE CHILD LAUGHED.
Why? They’d forgotten the setup. The punchline was a meaningless moment with no context.
Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Atch
Atch who
Bless you
A study published in Developmental Psychology explores how working memory affects a child's ability to understand narratives. Preschoolers, typically aged 3-5, rely heavily on working memory to process information over short time spans.
Delayed punchlines or jokes requiring context retention often exceed their memory capacity, especially if they involve more than two to three steps of mental tracking. This is why jokes with immediate payoff or simple structures tend to land better with young children.
It found that preschoolers can hold onto a joke’s setup for about 4–8 seconds before delivering the punchline, depending on age and complexity. After this time, their attention and memory start to wane.
You can watch the episode here
So how can data evidence what a good joke is?
Timing is everything. Research shows the average pause before a punchline in stand-up is about 1.5 seconds. Too fast, and it’s missed; too slow, and the tension fizzles. In video content, data on retention rates can tell you exactly when your audience zones out. Use it to land your punchlines where they’ll hit hardest.
In Pixar’s Monsters, Inc., Mike Wazowski's "I'm on the cover of a magazine!" scene lands because of perfect timing. The 1.5-second beat before revealing that the magazine cover features his face obscured by a barcode builds just enough suspense without dragging. For content creators, analyse when viewers typically pause or replay in your videos—these moments hint at ideal punchline timing.
Know your audience—but surprise them. Studies on sitcoms reveal that humour works best when it’s familiar but unexpected. Use data to understand shared experiences and layer in unexpected twists.
Think Friends: Ross yelling “PIVOT!” is funny because we’ve all been there. And Ross is the perfect delivery system.
Embrace the callback. Jokes that reference earlier moments in a story (“callbacks”) land 30% better, according to a study of stand-up performances. For content creators, this means mining your own data for recurring themes or popular moments to build on—they’re already primed to get a laugh.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a masterclass in callbacks. Take Avengers: Endgame’s "On your left" moment—it references a line from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, rewarding long-time fans with a payoff layered with nostalgia and humor. For content creators, analyzing audience favorites through comments or performance metrics helps identify moments worth revisiting in fresh, creative ways. The Easter Egg or ‘in-joke’
The speed of contemporary humour is rapid thanks to social and memes. As Kendrick Lamar and DJ Mustard are finding out
Why don’t data sets ever get into arguments?
Because they always find a common mean!
Good night.
Music. Metallica, which actually goes surprisingly well with Excel.
Love this, I was talking just the other day about comedy and timing. We built a horrible histories game a few years ago where after every win or fail state there was a gag. Our challenge was trying to get our dev team to not only write the code for the game but code it with comic timing. There was one gag where a seagull poops on a vikings head, in the brief it said make gull poop on head, but it took about 3 revisions with the dev, to get the timing just right! Great post Pete 👏🏽👏🏽