2014-06-25
Explanation
The Joke
A woman asks a man for money to buy tokens to get tickets to trade for a fun-size chocolate bar (describing the typical arcade/carnival redemption game process). The man points out that with the money she would spend on tokens, he could just buy her ten pounds of chocolate directly.
She counters that he won't directly buy her chocolate -- he'll give her money to buy tokens, to win tickets, to purchase chocolate. From her perspective, the net gain is the same, and he is the one being economically irrational.
He concedes, saying "You're right, that's so smart! Here's money for being so smart."
The caption reveals that she then "sits quietly for six hours" and asks what she won. The answer: three ounces of chocolate. The votey shows a ticket reading "Not exactly a slot machine, D-man!" -- suggesting this is a note to someone (perhaps her partner) clarifying the distinction.
The Humor
The comedy works on multiple levels. First, the woman successfully uses a clever logical argument to convince the man that his straightforward approach is the irrational one, when in reality her convoluted arcade-token scheme is obviously a terrible deal. The punchline drives this home: after six hours and presumably a lot of money, she ends up with a mere three ounces of chocolate -- far less than the ten pounds she could have bought directly. The joke satirizes how rhetorical cleverness can be used to justify economically terrible decisions, and how people rationalize the "fun" of gambling-adjacent activities like arcade redemption games despite their abysmal return on investment.