2014-05-19
Explanation
The Joke
A single-panel comic shows a woman presenting a graph at a board. The graph has "Money Received" on the Y-axis and "Affluence of Child" on the X-axis, with a curve showing an exponential increase. The caption below reads: "Fact: The Tooth Fairy is classist."
The Humor
The joke points out a real-world social observation through the lens of the Tooth Fairy myth. In reality, wealthier parents tend to leave more money under their children"s pillows when a tooth falls out, while less affluent families leave less. Since children believe the money comes from the Tooth Fairy, this creates the awkward implication that the Tooth Fairy gives more money to rich kids than to poor kids -- making the Tooth Fairy "classist." The humor comes from framing this uncomfortable socioeconomic reality as a dry, academic finding presented in graph form, complete with the deadpan caption treating it as an established fact.