Can humor cut down on perceived response time?

Question

After reading a StackoOverflow question https://stackoverflow.com/questions/182112/funny-loading-statements-to-keep-users-amused, I was really intrigued to ponder upon this question "Can humor cut down on response time?"

In a page loading lots of data, instead of just "please wait" or "loading data", can a humorous / funny / witty message cut down the perceived response time (as perceived by the user)? I guess it can take 3-5 secs off the user's count of response time.

What do Joel, Jeff, and others feel about this ?

Answer 1

After the 42nd time the widgetObject takes 40 seconds to load, the humor becomes annoying.

When you are waiting for something to happen, it gives you a chance to see the flaw in the joke.

Why didn't the #@#$ spend more time writing better code than writing jokes?