I used to think that once I finished filming a skit, I was basically done. I’d drag the clips into the timeline, toss in some captions, line up a sound, and hit post. But after making a bunch of short TikTok sketches, and rewatching the ones that flopped, I realized something harsh but true: bad editing can kill a good joke.
Comedy lives and dies by timing. It doesn’t matter how funny the concept is or how strong your punchline is. If the pacing’s off, if there’s too much filler, or if the captions drag, people scroll. Instantly. And I’ve learned all of this the hard way. So here are some editing mistakes I used to make that completely wrecked the vibe of my videos.
- Leaving in Dead Space
One of my biggest early mistakes was not trimming the silence between lines. I’d mouth a character’s dialogue, pause, switch angles or expressions, and go again, but I didn’t always cut those gaps tight enough. What I thought was “natural pacing” was really just dead air. On TikTok, where people decide in two seconds whether they’re watching or not, that dead space is a death sentence. Now I trim those pauses like my life depends on it.
- Dragging Out the Setup
I’ve learned the hard way: no one wants to sit through 15 seconds of buildup for a 5-second joke. The setup has to move fast. If I don’t get to the premise soon enough, I lose people. So now when I edit, I’m always asking, “Can I cut the first two lines? Can I start with the action? Is the punchline obvious before I even get to it?” Get in, get to the joke, get out.
- Misplacing Captions
You’d think captions are straightforward, but they’re sneaky. If they pop up too early, it spoils the timing. If it is too late, people miss the line. Worse, if they stay on screen too long, it messes with the rhythm. I used to just toss them on and eyeball the timing, but now I obsess over synchronizing them to exactly when the words are mouthed. The punchline is the caption, so it has to hit right when the viewer’s brain expects it to.
- Using Sounds That Don’t Fit
This one took me longer to figure out than I’d like to admit. I’d finish editing a skit, scroll through TikTok sounds, and just slap on one that was trending, even if it didn’t match the tone. Huge mistake. If the sound did not fit the bit, my joke wouldn’t land. Now I choose my sounds before I even started filming. That way, I let the sound dictate the video.
- Letting a Skit Run Too Long
There’s a sweet spot for comedy on TikTok, and it’s usually somewhere between 15–25 seconds. Anything longer has to earn the extra time. I used to think more lines = funnier, but nope, more lines = more chances to lose people. These days, I cut until I feel like the video is tight. If I’m even slightly bored watching it back, I cut more.
- Not Watching It Like a Stranger
This one sounds weird, but I started pretending I was someone who’s never seen my content when I review my edits. Would I stop scrolling to watch this? Does the first second grab me? Is the joke obvious, or am I too close to it to notice it’s confusing? When I stop watching as the person who made the skit and start watching as the person who’s scrolling, I find way more stuff to fix.
Editing a short comedy video might seem simple. Cut your clips, add some text, toss on a sound. But the truth is, good editing is what makes the joke land. It’s the timing, the flow, the caption placement, the audio pairing, it’s all of it working together.
Before I hit post, I ask myself a few quick things:
- Did I cut all the fat?
- Are the captions perfectly timed?
- Does the sound match the energy of the joke?
- Would I laugh if I saw this as a random viewer?
If the answer’s no to any of those, I go back and trim, tweak, or re-time until it feels right. Because nothing hurts more than knowing a good joke didn’t land… just because I left in one second too many.