2014-03-23
Explanation
The Joke
A woman dressed in Puritan-era clothing (complete with a dark dress, white collar, and wide-brimmed hat) says, "Wait. I got it. Just put this next to it." She is holding up a red piece of fabric or paper that reads "WESOME."
The caption below reads: Seriously, "The Scarlet Letter" could'''ve been like 2 pages long.
The implication is that instead of suffering through the shame and social ostracism of wearing the scarlet letter "A" (for "Adulteress"), the character (presumably Hester Prynne) simply places "WESOME" next to the "A" to make it read "AWESOME."
The Humor
The comic takes Nathaniel Hawthorne'''s The Scarlet Letter, a famously lengthy and ponderous novel about shame, sin, and Puritan society, and proposes a hilariously simple solution to the protagonist'''s central problem. Hester Prynne is forced to wear a red letter "A" on her clothing as punishment for adultery, which brands her as a sinner. The comic suggests she could have simply reframed the stigma by adding "WESOME" to turn "A" into "AWESOME," thereby neutralizing the shaming.
The humor works because it applies modern-day positivity culture and rebranding logic to a 17th-century moral crisis. The caption'''s complaint that the book "could'''ve been like 2 pages long" also pokes fun at students who find the novel tediously long -- if only the protagonist had thought of this simple life hack, the entire plot could have been avoided.
References
- The Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne: A classic American novel set in Puritan Massachusetts, in which Hester Prynne is forced to wear a red "A" on her clothing after being convicted of adultery. The novel explores themes of sin, guilt, and social punishment.
- Hester Prynne: The protagonist of The Scarlet Letter, who endures public shaming but ultimately shows resilience and strength of character.