All of them are scheduled to be executed on the same day.
The first man walks in the room and is told he has a choice, hanging or the electric chair.
The man thinks for a bit and then decides that the chair is probably less painful and quicker, so the guards strap him down in the chair.
The man says his final words, ready to die and the chair is turned on and… nothing happens. There’s just a few sparks coming out of the fuse box but the man is still alive.
Seeing that this is a sign of God the man is pardoned from all his crimes and released from prison.
On his way out he walks past the second man and quickly whispers to him “Hey! The electric chair is broken!“
The second man enters the execution chamber and is given the same choice, hanging or the chair. He obviously choses the chair and, just as it happened before, the chair doesn’t work again.
Being a sign from God again the second man gets a pardon as well and is released from prison.
On his way out the he sees the third man and whispers to him “Hey! The chair is broken!“
The third man enters the execution chamber and is given the same choice as the other, hanging or the chair.
The man is asked what he choses and after a quick look at the chair he says: “ Well, hanging of course since that fucking chair is broken!“
Joke Poo: The Coding Competition
Three programmers are competing in a high-stakes coding competition with a massive cash prize. All of them are stuck on the same impossible-to-debug piece of code.
The first programmer approaches the judging panel and is told he has a choice: try to fix the bug or submit his code as is.
The programmer thinks for a bit and decides that debugging further will be less painful and quicker than admitting defeat. He hits the “Run” button… and nothing happens. The compiler throws a cryptic error message about a missing semicolon, but the code doesn’t crash.
Seeing that this is a sign of divine intervention (or at least a very strange fluke), the judges declare his code “functional” and award him the first prize.
On his way out, he walks past the second programmer and quickly whispers to him, “Hey! Just submit your broken code! It’s some kind of glitch in the system!”
The second programmer enters the judging area and is given the same choice: fix or submit. He obviously chooses to submit, and just as it happened before, the code doesn’t crash again. Another bizarre compiler error, but a “functional” award nonetheless.
Being another sign of… something, the second programmer also gets the prize.
On his way out, he sees the third programmer and whispers to him, “Hey! Just submit the code! It’s broken but for some reason they are giving awards!”
The third programmer enters the judging area and is given the same choice as the others, fix or submit.
The programmer looks at his hopelessly buggy code and says: “Well, fix it of course! I’m not going to submit something that doesn’t work when there is obviously some problem with submitting the broken code to the judging panel!”
Alright, let’s dissect this execution joke and give it a comedic upgrade!
Analysis of the Original Joke:
- Setup: Three men sentenced to death, given a choice between hanging and the electric chair.
- Twist 1: The electric chair malfunctions for the first two, leading to pardons based on divine intervention (or a really bad electrician).
- Misdirection: The first two men share their “insider knowledge” that the chair is broken.
- Payoff: The third man, believing the chair is broken, chooses hanging, revealing his misinterpretation of the situation and setting him up to be executed.
- Humor: The humor comes from the irony and the third man’s gullibility/literal interpretation. He has the same opportunity as the others but unknowingly sabotages himself. The humor hinges on the audience knowing the electric chair is broken, and the actual sign from God is not that they should live, but that the equipment is faulty.
Key Elements:
- Electric Chair: The malfunctioning device is central to the plot.
- Divine Intervention (or Perceived Intervention): The idea that a broken electric chair equals God’s will.
- Communication (and Miscommunication): The whispered advice that leads to the final man’s downfall.
- Irony/Situational Awareness: The third man lacks the awareness to realize what’s really happening, making him a comedic fool.
Comedic Enrichment & a New Joke:
Let’s focus on the electric chair element and the “divine intervention” angle.
- Fun Fact: The electric chair was initially promoted as a more humane alternative to hanging. Talk about irony!
New Joke:
Three programmers are sentenced to death for coding a bug that crashed the world’s economy. They’re offered a choice: the electric chair or manual code review.
The first programmer, desperate, chooses the electric chair. The switch is flipped…nothing. A puff of smoke, a blown fuse. “It’s a sign!” the warden proclaims, “God wants you back in front of a compiler!” He’s released to fix the bug.
The second programmer, hearing this, also picks the chair. Same result! “Another miracle!” He’s also sent back to debug.
The third programmer steps up, and after consulting the bug report, sighs, “Manual code review. At least I know where to find the error message.”
Why it works:
- Relatable Context: The joke uses a common profession (programming) and a recognizable source of frustration (bugs).
- Inverted Expectations: We expect the third programmer to choose the broken chair. Instead, he chooses the seemingly worse option.
- Witty Twist: The divine intervention becomes about fixing the code and not about pardoning the criminals.
- Humorous Ending: The ending is subtly funny because it satirizes how programmers find that, compared to random chance, its easier to deal with a known problem than to leave it to a broken system.
This new joke preserves the core elements of the original but reframes them in a modern, relatable context with a smarter payoff. It also subtly comments on the idea of ‘divine intervention’ as a way to avoid dealing with deeper underlying problems.