The 5% Attention Tax Killing Your Punchlines

The Sweet Spot for Joke Length (Comedy Mindhacks #75)

I recently cut a joke from 61 words to 22. Same setup, same punchline, same story just a different word count. I have yet to try the two versions of the joke live yet, but I will do the longer one this week. In a future show, I’ll do the shorter one. Afterward, I’ll compare the two. My thesis is that the audience will likely laugh harder at the shorter version because it doesn’t tax their cognitive processing with as many words.

As a writer in general and a comedian in particular, here’s my rule of thumb: 20 words is the sweet spot for a good sentence, but it’s also the sweet spot for a good joke. This is all based on research I’ve done about cognitive processing, which I’ve written some about HERE. Assuming my research is correct and that 20 words is optimal, then each word equals roughly 5% of the audience’s attention budget. This means that if I add 10 extra words to a joke, I’m already operating at 50% effectiveness.

Let me show you practically what this looks like. So, here’s the original version of a new joke I wrote and, as I said, I’ll perform it at this week’s show: “The other night at my son’s basketball game, he got a steal and took off on a fast break to do a layup. A guy comes out of nowhere and just blocks him, a hard block, he got swatted! The other team’s fans started yelling ‘oooooh!’ He was absolutely humiliated... that I showed the video to like 30 or 40 friends.”

Now, after a first edit, I got that version, which is 61 words, down to 40. Then, from there, I got it down to 22. Here’s that shorter version: “At my son’s basketball game, he did a layup; got swatted. He was humiliated... when I showed the video to my friends.” As you can easily see, each cut word removes cognitive drag. It removes the need for additional cognitive processing.

The point is: every unnecessary word requires cognitive energy from the audience. A person’s brain can only process several bits of information at a time. The more they process, the greater the chance they get distracted or lose the point. So, why not make their job easier by cutting extraneous words? If that makes my joke stand a better chance at succeeding, it’s worth it.

But there are things lost in cutting all those words, too: 1) Vivid description; and, 2) Time. The thing is, though, what’s often called “vivid description” is really just filler. And people hate axing filler because they feel it diminishes the quality. Usually, cutting it actually enhances it. With regard to time, comedians work on a clock. Many comedians obsess over LPMs (Laughs Per Minute). But there are different kinds of laughs: pity laughs, courtesy laughs, belly laughs, individual laughs, decent laughs, etc. And that can be tough to gauge. Plus, comedians generally want to be on stage more, so if getting 20 minutes of stage time versus 15 means having jokes that are a little longer, most comedians will do it. I’m not saying this is good or bad but, of course, you want as many robust laughs as possible rather than just having filler.

For me, my typical practice is, I write the joke first, then I cut words. Here are a few things I look for: a) Transition phrases like “Speaking of...” or “And if you think that’s...” - these burn cognitive energy without adding anything of value; b) I often cut adverbs for the same reason; and, 3) I tend to axe unnecessary adjectives. If the adjective doesn’t change meaning, I cut it.

Then I get on stage and test different versions in front of audiences. I watch the game film after and listen for loudness of laughs, lengths of laughs, etc. The leaner version almost always wins because it requires less cognitive effort for the audience to process. My point: if it’s not needed, I axe it. If it adds zero, I axe it. It’s just like moving around, which I wrote about HERE some time ago. It can really distract your audience and lose them. And if that’s the case, why do it? Getting rid of what doesn’t work is at the core of my entire technique. I don’t need a complicated system, just ruthless honesty about what each word is doing and what I’m doing as I say those words.

JOKE WRITING COURSE: By the way, if you have any interest at all in learning about your persona, how to write some jokes, or doing stand-up comedy, check out my online joke writing course, “The Joke Writer’s Lab,” HERE.