2014-05-04
Explanation
The Joke
A man is holding a baby and asks, "What do we have here? Is it a sad baby?" and "You know why you're sad, sad baby?" The baby is crying, and the man offers a bleak existential answer: "If nothing lies beyond the pale of death, nothing of value lies before it." He then cheerfully pivots: "You're sad because you're a banjo, and nobody's playing you!" and starts strumming the baby like a banjo, singing "Da da dink dink dink dink deeda deedle dink!" The baby screams "WAAAAA!"
The Humor
The comic contrasts two possible explanations for a crying baby. The first is a deeply nihilistic philosophical observation -- that life is meaningless in the face of death -- delivered to an infant who obviously cannot understand it. This would be absurd enough on its own, but the man then abruptly shifts to a silly, playful explanation ("you're a banjo!") and proceeds to physically play the baby like a musical instrument. The humor lies in the whiplash between existential dread and goofy dad humor, and the fact that neither approach actually helps the baby, who continues to scream. It parodies the way parents desperately cycle through different strategies to comfort a crying infant, from overthinking to absurd physical comedy.