Four passengers are traveling in a car; one is from Idaho, one from Iowa, one from Pennsylvania, and one from New Jersey. At one point, the man from Idaho pulls out a sack of potatoes and starts chucking them out the window.
“What are you doing?” the others ask him.
“These things are everywhere in my state, I’m sick of looking at them!”
They continue on, and a few miles down the road the woman from Iowa pulls out a sack of corn and starts tossing the ears out the window.
“I hate these things, I’m sick of looking at them!” she complains. “They’re all over my state!”
Inspired by the other two, the man from Pennsylvania opened the car door and pushed out the man from New Jersey.
Joke Poo: Tech Support
Four engineers are working remotely on a critical software project: one from Google, one from Amazon, one from Microsoft, and one from Apple. The pressure is immense, the deadlines tight.
Suddenly, the Google engineer mutes his mic and furiously starts deleting lines of code from the shared repository.
“What are you doing?!” the others ask in a panicked frenzy.
“This bloated code is everywhere in my company, I’m sick of looking at it!” he shouts.
A few minutes later, the Amazon engineer starts introducing unnecessary microservices and adding layers of abstraction.
“Are you insane?! What are you DOING?” they scream.
“This over-engineered complexity is all I ever see, I can’t stand it anymore!” she replies.
Inspired by the others, the Microsoft engineer closed the chat window and scheduled a mandatory, two-hour meeting to “discuss solutions.”
Alright, let’s analyze this potato-corn-New Jersey joke!
Deconstruction:
- Setup: Four people from different states known for agricultural products are in a car. This sets the stage for a shared experience influenced by their regional identity.
- Punchline Foundation: The humor relies on the escalating, absurd generalization. Idahoan rejects potatoes, Iowan rejects corn.
- Punchline: The Pennsylvanian’s response is unexpected. Instead of throwing out a product associated with Pennsylvania (like, say, scrapple, which would be hilarious in its own right), he throws out the person from New Jersey.
- Humor Mechanisms: Surprise, absurdity, and stereotype. The joke plays on broad state stereotypes and then subverts expectations with the extreme reaction. It implicitly suggests that the Pennsylvanian is “sick of” New Jerseyans, equating them to unwanted agricultural products.
- Implied Stereotype: Jokes on the internet can imply stereotypes of New Jerseyans being annoying.
Enhancement & New Humor Creation:
Let’s riff on this using a “Did you know?” fact and some dark humor:
Original Joke (Recap): Four people from Idaho, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey are in a car… (as above)
Enhanced/New Joke/Observation:
“Did you know that according to the EPA, New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the US? Which, as it turns out, explains the punchline of that joke about the four people in the car:
- The Idahoan throws out potatoes, ’cause they’re everywhere!
- The Iowan throws out corn, ’cause they’re everywhere!
- The Pennsylvanian? Well, he just assumed New Jerseyans were everywhere, so he helped one on its way.“
OR – A “Did You Know” Observation:
“You know, that joke about the Idahoan, Iowan, and Pennsylvanian always gets a laugh. But statistically, the real punchline should involve a gas station. Did you know New Jersey has the highest gas station density in the nation? Maybe the Pennsylvania guy just needed to fill up!”
Explanation of Enhancement:
- Fact-Based: The “Did you know?” provides a factual basis for the humor. It ties the stereotype of “too many” potatoes, corn, or people to actual data.
- Subversion: The second ‘joke’ flips the script slightly, using the factoid to contextualize what the Pennsylvanian did in a less hostile manner (while still being snarky).
- Dark Humor: By tying the density of people to a physical ejection from the vehicle, we tap into a darker, more twisted sense of humor.
- Alternative Punchline The “gas station” remark provides an alternative way of thinking of the joke.
I think the “Did you know?” fact creates a unique punch. It’s a bit more highbrow and relies on the listener making a connection between a statistic and the absurdity of the situation. It also provides a springboard for further conversation about state stereotypes and demographic realities.