2013-12-09
Explanation
The Joke
The comic is titled "Funtime Activity: Epic Phrases in Appropriate Context." A fast food worker asks a customer, "Would you like to add funny fries to that meal?" The customer responds with a dramatic, cinematic delivery: "Yes... but at what cost?" The answer is then revealed in the next panel: $2.49. The customer, unfazed, says "I'll take two."
The Humor
The phrase "But at what cost?" is typically used in dramatic, weighty contexts -- in movies, literature, or philosophical discussions about the moral price of ambition, power, or victory. The comic takes this grandiose phrase and places it in the most mundane context possible: ordering fries at a fast food restaurant. The question "but at what cost?" is treated completely literally -- the cost is $2.49, a perfectly reasonable price for a side of fries. The additional punchline is that after all the dramatic buildup, the customer does not hesitate and orders two, undermining any pretense that the "cost" was a genuine concern. The title frames this as a "funtime activity," suggesting the reader should try using epic phrases in similarly banal, everyday situations.