Two young men stumble out of the bar after a long night on the beers, jump in the car, and start driving.
A couple of minutes passby and there's a tap on the window. The passenger turns and screams, “There’s an old man’s ghost face at the window!”
The driver puts his foot right down – but the face stays there. The old man taps again and says softly, “You got any tobacco?”
The terrified passenger hands him a cigarette and yells, “STEP ON IT!”
A few minutes later, they're laughing nervously when—tap tap tap—the old man's back! “Do you have a light?” he whispers.
The lighter gets passed quickly out of the window. “DRIVE!”
Now the speedometer reads 100 mph, they are both white-knuckled and sweating, when once again—tap tap tap.
The window rolls down slowly… “WHAT NOW?” the passenger screams.
The old man smiles and says calmly,
“Need a hand getting out of the mud?”
Okay, here’s my attempt at a “Joke Poo” riffing on the original:
Title: Stuck in the Code
Two software engineers stumble out of a hackathon after a caffeine-fueled 48 hours, jump in a self-driving car, and set the destination for home.
A couple of minutes pass, and there’s a notification on the dashboard screen. The passenger looks at it and groans, “There’s a persistent debug message on the screen! ‘NULL pointer exception’!”
The driver hits the “Ignore” button – but the message reappears. The screen flashes again and says softly, “Line 42?”
The exhausted passenger quickly dismisses the notification and yells, “REBOOT THE SYSTEM!”
A few minutes later, they’re chuckling weakly when – DING! – the debug message is back! “Missing semicolon?” it whispers.
The passenger hastily presses “Auto-fix” on his phone and sends it to the car’s system. “JUST DRIVE!”
Now the car is swerving erratically, the error messages are cascading across the screen, and they are both wide-eyed and panicking when once again – DING!
The window rolls down. A voice, synthesized and monotone, asks, “WHAT NOW?”
The car’s operating system responds calmly, “Need help with memory allocation?”
Okay, let’s break down this joke.
Elements:
- Drunkenness/Impairment: The setup establishes two young men who are heavily intoxicated (“long night on the beers”). This impairs their judgment and perception.
- Horror Trope/Misinterpretation: The initial “ghost face” at the window plays on classic horror tropes, creating a sense of fear and the supernatural.
- Unexpected Request/Juxtaposition: The ghost’s mundane request for tobacco abruptly contrasts the horror expectation, injecting humor through absurdity.
- Escalation/Repetition: The recurring tapping and requests build tension and amplify the humor as the situation gets progressively more ridiculous.
- Twist Ending/Subversion: The final reveal that the “ghost” is merely stuck in mud completely subverts the supernatural premise, delivering the punchline.
- Driving While Intoxicated: An underlying element, though unstated, is that they are driving under the influence. The heightened panic makes this even more funny, because their concern of breaking the law is superseded by their fear of what’s outside the car.
Humorous Enrichment:
Let’s leverage the “drunkenness” and “misinterpretation” elements to create a new joke. Consider a relevant “Did you know?” fact:
- Did You Know? The visual cortex, responsible for processing what we see, is heavily impacted by alcohol. This can lead to distorted perceptions, like seeing things that aren’t there or misinterpreting shapes and distances. In extreme cases, alcohol-induced psychosis can cause hallucinations.
New Joke/Observation:
They say alcohol lowers your inhibitions. Clearly. But it also messes with your eyes. You ever tried explaining to a bouncer that the disco ball is NOT, in fact, a swarm of angry bees? It’s a nightmare, and one less gin and tonic away from getting into a fight with a disco ball over a misunderstood hive.