We scored Tom Scott's thumbnails, then tried to beat them
Tom Scott packages himself next to the place, split by a red diagonal line, with no text. We scored two of his thumbs through Thumbly Score, applied the fixes, and re-scored. The swimming pool whistle went 56 to 65. Tiddlywinks went 54 to 62.
5 min read ThumbnailsYouTubeTeardownCreator BreakdownPsychologyTom Scott doesn't put words on these thumbnails. In the two we scored, he is on the left and the place or activity is on the right, with a thin red diagonal line between them. The title carries the hook.
The channel is places and engineering you didn't know about, shown in person. He has posted a new video every Monday since at least early July.
We took two recent long-form thumbs, "When I blow this whistle, a swimming pool appears." and "Can I get into the Top 100 of tiddlywinks in one day?", and ran them through [Thumbly Score](/thumbly-score). Same flow as the [SmarterEveryDay](/blog/smartereveryday-thumbnail-teardown) and [NileRed](/blog/nile-red-thumbnail-teardown) teardowns. Score the original, apply the fix, score again.
[SmarterEveryDay](/blog/smartereveryday-thumbnail-teardown) is the face and mechanism cousin. [Ryan Trahan](/blog/ryan-trahan-thumbnail-teardown) is the clean photo cousin. Tom stands in the place.
Thumbnail 1: "When I blow this whistle, a swimming pool appears."
Tom stands on the left in profile, blowing a whistle, with a camera in his other hand and a maroon shirt. On the right is an empty circus ring, its floor wet and shining blue under stage lights, with red seats around it. Two crew members stand at the far edge and a pole camera rig sits in the middle. A thin red diagonal line splits the two, and there is no text.
The video had about 2.3 million views on YouTube as of October 19, 2026.
**Thumbly Score: 56/100**
| Dimension | Score |
|---|---|
| Virality | 50 |
| Clarity | 35 |
| Idea | 65 |
| Curiosity | 75 |
| Emotion | 55 |
Curiosity at 75 comes from the odd pairing. A man with a whistle next to a wet stage makes you want to know what happens next.
Clarity at 35 is the weak spot. Tom is small in his panel, the floor reads as a wet floor, and nothing in the frame says pool. Idea at 65 is solid.
Thumbly asked for three things: make Tom bigger, add a short text hook top right, and push the saturation. We did that by hand on his published thumbnail. We cropped and scaled him up, raised the saturation, kept the red split, and used "POOL?" from his own title instead of Thumbly's sample "WHAT HAPPENED?". His face is his real face, only enlarged.
*Our edit of Tom Scott's published thumbnail, not the one he uses.*
**65/100, up nine.** Virality rose from 50 to 60 and clarity from 35 to 75. Idea stayed at 65. Curiosity dipped from 75 to 70, and emotion held at 55.
One word fixed clarity. Idea didn't move, so the concept was never the problem. Curiosity slipped a little once the word answered part of the question.
Thumbly's new verdict says his "muted expression holds back the emotional impact." That expression is his real face, and we left it alone.
Thumbnail 2: "Can I get into the Top 100 of tiddlywinks in one day?"
Tom is on the left with a big open-mouth selfie smile, in a maroon shirt over a grey tee. Behind him are a yellow painting, a window, and two people. On the right is an overhead shot of a white mat with small colored winks and a red pot, and Tom leans in from the right side to play. Same thin red diagonal split, no text.
Tom shows up on both sides of this one. The video had about 1.3 million views as of October 19, 2026, fewer than the whistle video.
**Thumbly Score: 54/100**
| Dimension | Score |
|---|---|
| Virality | 45 |
| Clarity | 55 |
| Idea | 50 |
| Curiosity | 60 |
| Emotion | 65 |
Emotion at 65 is the strength. The smile is real.
Idea at 50 and curiosity at 60 are the weak spots. An overhead shot of counters on a mat doesn't say ranking or one day, and the people in the background pull the eye.
Thumbly wanted a tighter crop with the window and people gone, a two or three word hook, and more saturation. We cropped tighter and scaled Tom up, which drops the window and most of the room. An edge of the person behind him and a green shirt stay, since we didn't paint anything out. We raised the saturation, kept the red split, and used "TOP 100?" from the title rather than Thumbly's sample "DOT ART".
*Our edit of Tom Scott's published thumbnail, not the one he uses.*
**62/100, up eight.** Virality rose from 45 to 60, clarity from 55 to 65, and emotion from 65 to 75. Idea moved from 50 to 55. Curiosity stayed at 60.
The bigger smile helped emotion and the words helped clarity. Idea barely moved. Thumbly's new verdict says "the activity on the right is vague."
The mat of winks is the real limit here. A text tag can't fix that.
What to steal from Tom Scott
The split held up. Thumbly never asked us to drop the red diagonal line or the two panels. Idea didn't move on the whistle and only went from 50 to 55 on tiddlywinks, so the concepts mostly stayed where they started.
What the scores pushed on was words. Neither original has text, and one word from the title plus a bigger Tom gave the biggest clarity jumps, 40 points on the whistle and 10 on tiddlywinks. That's the trade with a no text thumb. The title has to carry the hook alone.
So put yourself on one side and the place on the other, with a clean line between. Pick a right panel that explains itself. The wet circus ring did more work than the mat of winks. If your right panel can't explain itself, a one word question pulled from your title is the cheapest fix.
Soft close
Want the same Score loop on your own thumbs? Run them through [Thumbly Score](/thumbly-score), try the fix, and re-score. Sometimes the fix wins big and sometimes it's a wash, and it's good to know which before you publish. Generate or export in [Thumbly Studio](/) when you're ready to ship.
This piece is commentary on public packaging. We are reading the picture, not claiming Tom Scott's CTR.
