2014-07-07
Explanation
The Joke
A mother asks her teenage daughter Jenny why she is "worrying all the time." Jenny, who is fifteen, responds that her life is just beginning. The mother then offers pessimistic "wisdom": the older you get, the fewer choices you have, and the biggest choice the mother made today was which coat to wear to work. Jenny responds with a monologue about how everything she does right now "could be lifechanging" and there are "so many possibilities, it's overwhelming," and that if she were not "constantly dismissive and ironic" she would explode. Jenny then says her mom must be "so happy being a grownup," to which the mother responds: "Go fuck yourself."
The Humor
The comic subverts the expected dynamic of a parent comforting a worried teenager. Instead of reassuring Jenny that things will be fine, the mother accidentally makes a compelling case that adulthood is actually more depressing -- your choices narrow until you are only deciding which coat to wear. Meanwhile, Jenny's anxiety is reframed as a rational response to having too many life-altering possibilities ahead of her. The final punchline -- the mother telling her daughter to go fuck herself -- is funny because Jenny's innocent observation that her mom "must be so happy" inadvertently highlights how bleak the mother's own life has become. The mother's vulgar response confirms that she is, in fact, miserable, and that Jenny has accidentally struck a nerve.