Comedy was the most popular genre of media content on our participants’ mobile video devices. The great majority of the study’s participants, across age and gender, downloaded short comedy-oriented, often animated, video clips. The positive experience of watching comedy on a mobile device is also supported by [2], where animated films, karaoke recordings, and music videos were considered the most interesting content. Cartoons like “Family Guy,” “Southpark,” and the “Simpsons” were popular with a range of ages, whereas several younger interviewees mentioned downloading “Saturday Night Live” comedy shorts. Another participant liked watching classic cartoons like “Felix the Cat”, and downloaded contemporary cartoons such as “Sponge Bob” for her five-year old
nephew. One interviewee, James H. (age 17) highlighted a few sensible reasons as to why comedy was an appealing source of content. He explained that since mobile video viewing is often done in short segments, usually 20 minutes or less, he prefers content
that isn’t very long in duration and doesn’t have a complicated plot to follow. He shared that it was easier to start watching comedy from the point where he last paused as it doesn’t require as much immersion in the video. We were also told by another participant that comedy is good content for the mobile device because it continues to be funny when watched multiple times, whereas dramas and reality-based shows are only interesting the first time.