2014-07-15
Explanation
The Joke
A man is driving and receives a text message: "Message to Sally: Running late. Am en route." His phone's voice recognition has mangled the message, displaying it as "Message to Sally: 'Running late. Am on route.'" He then panics, noticing the error — it says "on route" instead of "en route." He spirals into an internal debate: should he manually fix it while driving, just let it go, or risk looking like he doesn't know the French-origin phrase? The final panel reveals a news headline: "Erratic Driver Causes Dozens of Fatalities. Was seen texting on route."
The Humor
The comic satirizes the absurd priorities of grammar-conscious people. The driver is so distressed by a minor linguistic error — confusing "on route" for the correct "en route" — that he risks (and ultimately causes) a catastrophic accident trying to fix it. The joke plays on the stereotype of people who are so obsessed with correct language usage that they lose all perspective on what actually matters. The news headline at the bottom cleverly repeats the offending phrase "on route," adding an extra layer of irony. The comic also touches on the very real danger of texting while driving, but frames the motivation in the most trivial way possible.
References
"En route" is a French loanword meaning "on the way," commonly used in English. Substituting "on route" is a frequent and widely mocked error among language prescriptivists.