A new gas station clerk was training on his first day and his boss took him outside to see the underground gas tanks. Out of curiosity, the new guy asks "What do you think would happen if I dropped a match down there?"
His boss quickly replied, "It would blow it out."
The new guy was shocked, "Really? Is there some kind of chemical that puts it out or something?"
And his boss said "No, stupid, the force from the explosion would blow the match out of the hole."
Joke Poo: Training Day At The Sewage Treatment Plant
A new employee was training on his first day at the sewage treatment plant, and his supervisor took him to see the aeration tanks, bubbling with… well, you know. Out of curiosity, the new guy asks, “What do you think would happen if I threw a lit cigarette down there?”
His supervisor calmly replied, “It would kill the bacteria.”
The new guy was shocked. “Really? I thought that stuff was super resilient!”
And his supervisor said, “Nah, man, not if you throw enough cigarettes down there. You’d need, like, a whole pack to really do some damage. That’s why I’m always on break.”
Alright, let’s dive into this gas station gag!
Joke Dissection:
- Premise: A naive new gas station clerk asks a potentially dangerous question about dropping a match into an underground gas tank.
- Setup: The boss takes the clerk to see the tanks and the clerk’s question sets up the expectation of a serious or technical answer.
- Punchline: The boss’s response subverts the expectation by giving a brutally honest, sarcastic, and somewhat obvious answer based on the violent force of an explosion, not some sophisticated chemical reaction.
- Humor Source: The humor comes from the clash between the clerk’s naive expectation of a complex explanation and the boss’s blunt, sarcastic, and technically correct (albeit terrifying) answer. It’s also a little bit of schadenfreude, laughing at the clerk’s lack of common sense.
Key Elements:
- Naivete/Ignorance: The clerk’s lack of understanding of basic physics and combustible materials.
- Sarcasm/Bluntness: The boss’s delivery of the “correct” answer.
- Underground Gas Tanks: The physical location and potential for explosive danger.
- Explosions: The core comedic force and underlying threat.
Comedic Enrichment & New Joke Creation:
Let’s leverage the “explosions” element and throw in a “did you know” fact:
Did You Know? A single gallon of gasoline has the explosive energy equivalent to roughly 14 sticks of dynamite! So, asking what would happen if you dropped a match into a gas tank is less “scientific inquiry” and more “auditioning for a Darwin Award.”
New Joke Based on the Original (Playing on Expectations):
A man is visiting a museum exhibit on the history of gasoline. He stares intently at a diagram of an underground storage tank. A museum docent approaches.
“Fascinating, isn’t it?” the docent says. “Did you know that modern gas stations are equipped with vapor recovery systems and sophisticated pressure sensors that prevent explosions in the event of a spark?”
The man scratches his head. “Yeah, but I was just wondering… if you did manage to bypass all that safety stuff and accidentally drop a lit cigarette down there… would it still blow you to kingdom come?”
The docent sighs. “Sir, with all due respect, physics is physics. The vapor recovery system only reduces the likelihood, it doesn’t invalidate the second law of thermodynamics. The explosion would still absolutely blow you to kingdom come. But think of it as expedited travel!”