What is it with the speed of the rolling credits in American tv shows? I switched on the telly tonight just in time to see the last minute or so of a fly-on-the wall about Hulk Hogan and I was staggered by the speed of the credits that followed. Is this a running gag to see who can get away with the most ridiculous display, or are the producers trying to induce convulsions or vertigo or simply make us throw up?

Can ANYONE actually read these?

They only run credits to fulfill contractual and union obligations. They are not intended to be read. Usually the crawl speed is adjusted to fit the available remaining time before the hard break.

Networks hate end credits because they know that's when you switch the channel, so they'd really prefer to not have them at all. That's why some shrink the credits to a small part of the screen and actually begin the next program while they are running, or show a preview or other non-commercial material.

In some of our 48 hour film contest submissions, we squeeze the credit so much to fit the screen time available that no one could read them.... In internet versions later, we correct that...