posted
A man is walking through the countryside, when he sees a farmer. And he stops and watches the farmer, because the farmer is holding up a pig under an apple tree, while the pig eats an apple off of the apple tree.
The man thinks this is somewhat odd, so he keeps watching. And when the pig finishes, the farmer moves over so that the pig can get to another apple. The man watches as the farmer feeds the pig several apples this way, and then he can't keep quiet any longer.
He walks over, and asks the farmer, "Excuse me, sir, but I just have to ask. Isn't that an awfully slow way to feed a pig?"
The farmer thinks on this for a moment, shrugs, and replies, "What's time to a pig?"
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
The joke is that the farmer implied that he was a pig. Cause evidently, he doesn't care about time either.
Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
It's not so much a joke, as it is social commentary.
The farmer spends a lot of time and care for the pig, an animal which isn't interested in how the farmer is feeding it, so long as it is being fed. The farmer just likes doing it this way. His father did it this way, his fathers father did it this way- it's what he was taught. The man see's this folly and in an attempt to establish his own superiority over what he thinks to be the ignorance of the farmer, points out the obvious to the farmer. He does this because he thinks it his obligation and duty to go around telling others how to do their job, something that he has no experience in, but nonetheless feels that he knows more.
The farmer, instead of humbly taking the suggest and explaining his actions, is overwhelmed with his own pride- going back through his childhood, and does not want to dishonor his father. He decides to stick even futher in his own ignorance of how to do things different, and tells the man "it doesn't matter to the pig, and it doesn't matter to me, even if you think I am just a lowly farmer."
After years of therapy, the farmer comes to terms with his ignorance and tries other ways of feeding his pig. The man, years later, comes back to the farm and see's the pig eating food the right way. He walks up to the farmer and says "See, I told you I was right." To which the farmer thinks for a moment and says "Who the heck are you anyway, coming in here and telling me how to do my job. Do I walk over to your house and tell you how to be a decent human being? No. You seem very comfortable in being a jerk all on your own. Perhaps one day you'll realize that people do things differently than you, and they are comfortable in those ways. Do you realize how much therapy you put me through? Shame on you. Shame on you. Now get off my lawn."
Very good commentary, by the way.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
It's a social commentary on the way that people pass the time trying to understand silly jokes.
We're the farmer. Trying to understand the joke is the pig, and the joke is the apples. The observant man is self-analysis telling us that trying to understand jokes without meaning is a silly waste of time.
The truth is that understanding the joke is just a waste of time since meaning is interpretable.
Posts: 338 | Registered: Jan 2001
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Boon
unregistered
posted
Is it bad that I've laughed more about the analysis(es) than I have at the joke itself?
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posted
<shaking head> It's really kind of hard to believe. A guy at work told me this joke, and if I'd been drinking when he got to the punchline, it would have gone right up my nose. He said, "You'd be amazed at how many people just don't get that."
posted
I'm fairly confident that I do get that, but don't find it more than faintly amusing. So instead of acting mysterious and smug, why don't you explain why you find it hilarious?
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
<shrug> A joke that needs to be explained isn't funny to the people getting the explanation. The joke is just that the farmer assumed the guy's concern over how long it was taking was because the pig could be getting its food much faster; not because he could be feeding it much faster. And he responded to that. Humor is about mistaken impressions and the unexpected.
You expect the farmer to come up with some response to the question of why he's wasting his time, and then he acts as though it's the pig's time that's in question. It's weird, like "Why did the monkey fall out of the tree?" "Because it was dead". The incongruity is what's funny.
Different people have different senses of humor. I didn't intend to sound smug. I was just kind of surprised, was all.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I'm going to have to cast myself into the "thought-it-was-a-social-commentary" group. I mean, I understood that part, but I expected something else. The feeling was reinforced by the first few posters who seemed to get the joke, so I thought I was missing something.
posted
Okay, then I did get it. It was incongruous, sure. I just wouldn't find it laugh-inducing. You have to admit, though, that your coworker's line seems kind of smug, no?
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
So, once again in the "I don't get it" zone -- who/what is Thorax? I don't see the word on that page you linked to anywhere. Although it did send me off on a lovely tangent reading Pibgorn comics.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Icarus: Okay, then I did get it. It was incongruous, sure. I just wouldn't find it laugh-inducing. You have to admit, though, that your coworker's line seems kind of smug, no?
Not really. He just seemed kind of surprised, is all.
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posted
My friend was on a plane to Chicago with a priest and a rabbi. But alas, there was no punchline because it was real life.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Uprooted: So, once again in the "I don't get it" zone -- who/what is Thorax? I don't see the word on that page you linked to anywhere. Although it did send me off on a lovely tangent reading Pibgorn comics.
Thorax is the nutty farmer Dr. Burber (Juliet) is talking to. And ignore her retraction. He is insane. And just the tiniest bit weird. And he would totally feed a pig apples that way.
Well, except he's a tad less likely to do so now that he's sold the farm.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Originally posted by rivka: Thorax is the nutty farmer Dr. Burber (Juliet) is talking to. And ignore her retraction. He is insane. And just the tiniest bit weird. And he would totally feed a pig apples that way.
That link appears to be to an ad.
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