2014-06-10
Explanation
The Joke
A child angrily confronts his father: "Why'd you do it, Dad? Why'd you make me lose at science fair?" The father protests "I didn't!" The son reminds him of various excuses: "Remember when I said I bought bad instruments on purpose?" and "Remember when I told you I brought a genius kid from China to compete with me?" and "Remember how I said I had a magic talisman that made science fair judges hate me?" Each time, the father tentatively agrees. Then the father says: "Son... I didn't do any of those things." He embraces his son and delivers the devastating punchline: "The failure was in you. It was in you all along."
The Humor
The comic parodies inspirational movie moments where a parent tells their child "the power was in you all along." Here, instead of hidden potential or inner strength, what was inside the child all along was failure. The son had been constructing increasingly absurd excuses for losing at the science fair, and the father dismantles them all -- not to reveal that the child actually had the talent to succeed, but to deliver the crushing truth that the child simply was not good enough. The warm embrace and tender delivery makes the brutal honesty even funnier, as it is framed exactly like an uplifting emotional climax but carries the opposite message.