One day, Pa found out that the hole under the outhouse was full. He went into the farmhouse and told Ma that he didn’t know what to do to empty the hole.
"Why don’t you go ask the young fella down the road? He must be smart ’cause he’s a college graduate," Ma said to him.
So Pa drove down to the neighbour’s house and asked him, "Mr. College graduate, my outhouse hole is full, and I don’t know what to do to empty it."
The young fella told him, "Get yourself two sticks of dynamite, one with a short fuse and one with a long fuse. Put them both under the outhouse and light them both at the same time. The first one will go off and shoot the outhouse into the air. While it’s in the air the second one will then go off and spread the poop all across your farm, fertilizing your ground. The outhouse should then come back down to the same spot atop the now-empty hole."
Thanking the neighbour, Pa drove to the local hardware store and picked up two sticks of dynamite, one with a short fuse and one with a long fuse. He went home and put them under the outhouse. He then lit them and ran behind a tree. All of a sudden, Ma came running out of the farmhouse and into the outhouse!
Off goes the first stick of dynamite, shooting the outhouse into the air. BOOM! Off went the second stick of dynamite, spreading poop all over the farm. Then, WHAM! The outhouse came crashing back down atop the hole. Pa raced over to the outhouse, threw open the door and asked, “Ma, are you all right?”
As she pulled up her pants she said to him, “Yeah, but I’m sure glad I didn’t fart in the kitchen!”
Joke Poo: The Tech Support Solution
Chad and Brad were two coding buddies working on a startup in Silicon Valley.
One day, Chad discovered the server was overloaded with useless data. He went to Brad and said he didn’t know how to clear the junk.
“Why don’t you ask the AI guru down the hall? He must be smart; he’s got multiple PhDs in Neural Networks,” Brad suggested.
So Chad went to the guru’s office and asked, “Mr. AI Guru, our server is full of useless data, and I don’t know how to clear it.”
The AI Guru told him, “Get yourself two AI algorithms, one optimized for speed and one optimized for depth. Run them both on the server simultaneously. The first one will quickly identify and move all the data into temporary storage. While it’s in temporary storage, the second one will analyze the data deeply and delete all the junk. The useful data should then automatically be restored to the original server location.”
Thanking the guru, Chad went to the office’s AI marketplace and launched two algorithms, one fast and one deep. He went back to his desk to monitor. All of a sudden, Brad came rushing from his desk and slammed his hands on Chad’s keyboard!
The first algorithm kicked in, moving the entire server’s data to temporary storage. BOOM! The second algorithm started deleting all unnecessary files. Then, WHOOSH! The useful data was restored to the server. Chad turned to Brad and asked, “Brad, what happened? You almost crashed the system!”
As he frantically typed, Brad said to him, “Yeah, well, I’m sure glad I didn’t commit my code directly to the main branch!”
Alright, let’s dissect this rural humor classic!
Core Elements:
- Setting: Rural farm life, highlighting simplicity and perhaps a touch of perceived ignorance. The outhouse is central to this setting and is a physical symbol of that simplicity.
- Characters:
- Ma and Pa: Elderly, traditional, and maybe a bit naive. They embody the “old country” wisdom, or lack thereof.
- College Graduate: The “smart” young man, representing modern knowledge and, ironically, impractical solutions.
- Premise: A practical problem (full outhouse) solved with an absurdly over-engineered and ultimately disastrous “expert” solution.
- Irony: The college graduate’s “smart” solution is spectacularly dumb. The expected outcome (efficient waste disposal) is comically inverted.
- Punchline: Ma’s surprising statement shifts the focus from the explosive disaster to a (relatively) minor bodily function, highlighting the resilience and humor of the situation. It’s funny because it’s completely unexpected given the chaos that just unfolded.
Humor Mechanics:
- Contrast: The contrast between the simple problem and the complex, explosive solution is key.
- Slapstick/Physical Humor: The visual of the outhouse exploding and the subsequent mess.
- Understatement: Ma’s “I’m sure glad…” downplays the severity of the situation.
- Surprise: The punchline is a non-sequitur that takes the joke in a completely different direction.
Enrichment & New Humor:
Let’s leverage a factual tidbit about outhouses to create a new joke:
Factual Tidbit: Did you know the “two-seater” outhouse was, contrary to popular belief, rarely built for simultaneous use by two people? It was more often used for different sized people – a child-sized hole and an adult-sized hole.
New Joke:
Old Farmer McGregor was installing a brand new two-seater outhouse. His neighbor, seeing the progress, ambled over.
“Say, McGregor,” he drawled, “thought you and the missus were closer than that? Why the two holers?”
McGregor spat a wad of tobacco. “Well, see,” he said, “it ain’t for sitting side-by-side, though that’s a funny image. Little Timmy down the road kept fallin’ into my regular one. Now, I just needed one his size.”
The neighbor nodded slowly. “Makes sense, I guess. Still, what about the splashback?”
McGregor squinted. “Splashback? Hell, didn’t think of that. Guess I’ll have to get the College Graduate down the road to come up with a complicated dynamite solution, then!”