Ki-Hong Kim — kim.kihong@surugadai.ac.jp
Faculty of Media & Information Resources, Surugadai University
698 Azu, Hanno-shi, Saitama-ken, Japan 357-8555

Mikiko Kubo — kubmik.0914@gmail.com
Hitachi Solutions, Ltd.
4-12-7 Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan 140-0002

Shin-ichiro Iwamiya – iwamiya@design.kyushu-u.ac.jp
Faculty of Design, Kyushu University
4-9-1 Shiobaru, Minami-ku, Fukuoka, Japan 815-8540

Popular version of paper 1pMU4, “Optimal insertion timing of symbolic music to induce laughter in video content.”
Presented Monday afternoon, November 28, 2016
172nd ASA Meeting, Honolulu

A study of optimal insertion timing of symbolic music to induce laughter in videos

In television variety shows or comedy programs various sound effects and music are combined with humorous scenes to induce more pronounced laughter from viewers or listeners [1]. The aim of our study was to clarify the optimum insertion timing of symbolic music to induce laughter in video contents. Symbolic music is music that is associated with a special meaning such as something funny as a sort of “punch line” to emphasize their humorous nature.

Fig. 1 Sequence of video and audio tracks in the video editing timeline

We conducted a series of rating experiments to explore the best timing for insertion of such music into humorous video contents. We also examined the affects of audiovisual contents. The experimental stimuli were four short video contents, which were created by mixing the two video (V1 & V2) and four music clips (M1, M2, M3 & M4).

The rating experiments clarified that insertion timing of symbolic music contributed to inducing laughter of video contents. In the case of a purely comical scene (V1), we found the optimal insertion time for high funniness rating was the shortest, at 0-0.5 seconds. In the case of a tragicomic scene, a humorous accident (V2), the optimal insertion time was longer, at 0.5-1 seconds after the scene; i.e., a short pause before the music was effective to increase funniness.

Fig. 2 Subjective evaluation value for the funniness in each insertion timing of symbolic music for each video scene.

Furthermore, the subjective evaluation value rating experiments showed that optimal timing was associated with the highest impressiveness of the videos, the highest evaluations, the highest congruence between moving pictures and sounds, and inducement of maximum laughter. We discovered all of the correlation coefficients are
very high, seen in the table summarizing the test.

** p< .01

In television variety shows or comedy programs, when symbolic music is dubbed over the video as a punch line just after the humorous scenes, insertion of a short pause of between half a second and a full second is very effective at emphasizing the humor of scenes, and increasing the impressiveness of viewer-listeners.

1. Kim, K.H., et al., F. Effectiveness of Sound Effects and Music to Induce Laugh in Comical Entertainment Television Show. The 13th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, 2014. CD-ROM.
2. Kim, K.H., et al., Effects of Music and Sound Effects to Increase Laughter in Television Programs. Media & Information Resources, 2014. 21(2): 15-28. (in Japanese with English abstract).

Tags:

• Music
• Video
• Television
• Audiovisual