2014-06-13
Explanation
The Joke
A child stands at a presidential podium flanked by Secret Service agents, declaring: "From now on, all army guys have to use ninja stars for fighting. Only ninja stars. Oh, or double-swords. Y'know, like two swords but they're stuck together?" The caption below reads: "Ironically, President Billy presided over the greatest era of peace in history."
The Humor
The joke works on two levels. On the surface, a child has somehow become president and is making absurd military policy based on what an 8-year-old thinks is cool -- ninja stars and double-swords instead of modern weapons. But the caption delivers the real punchline: this ridiculous policy actually led to world peace. The implication is that by replacing effective modern weaponry with impractical novelty weapons, President Billy accidentally made war so difficult and ineffective that nobody bothered fighting anymore. It is a satirical commentary on military policy and arms races -- the suggestion that the path to peace might be making weapons less effective rather than more effective, and that a child's naive approach to warfare might be more successful than any sophisticated diplomatic strategy.