2014-03-14
Explanation
The Joke
A woman shows a man an ancient coded text, saying it was created a thousand years ago and appears to be covered in patterns, but no one has been able to crack the code. Since the man is a cryptography geek, she thought he might help. He eagerly says "Gimme gimme gimme!" and studies it intensely. Six months later, he announces his findings: "It is a stick. It is just a stick, is it not?" The woman confirms this and casually adds, "I have robbed your house like seven times."
The Humor
The comic works on two levels. First, it satirizes the obsessive nature of puzzle enthusiasts and cryptography geeks, who can become so consumed by a challenge that they lose all awareness of the world around them. The man spent six months staring at what turned out to be a meaningless stick, completely absorbed by patterns that did not exist. Second, the woman turns out to have orchestrated the entire thing as a distraction so she could repeatedly rob his house. The humor comes from the anticlimax of the "code" being nothing at all, combined with the revelation that the man was so thoroughly duped that his house was robbed seven times without his noticing. The joke also plays on the human tendency to see patterns where none exist -- a phenomenon known as apophenia or pareidolia.