2014-07-31
Explanation
The Joke
A man at a bar says he has a joke: "A man walks into a bar." But instead of delivering a punchline, he launches into a deeply melancholic monologue about how the bar is the only place that feels like home to this man, but only when he is drunk. The sober version of the man has no home. The sober man only allows himself to realize this during "the twenty steps from the bar's door to the glass of beer and whiskey," and it is very painful.
His listener, visibly shaken, asks "W-where was the joke?" The man apologizes and offers to "do the short version": "A man walks into a bar and says, 'Ouch.'"
The Humor
The comic subverts the classic "man walks into a bar" joke setup in two ways. First, instead of the expected punchline, the comedian delivers a genuinely sad, literary meditation on alcoholism and loneliness, making the audience uncomfortable rather than amused. The "joke" becomes a portrait of existential despair.
Then, in a second subversion, when he promises to do the "short version," he delivers the other classic variant of the "walks into a bar" joke — the one where "bar" is a physical bar (like a metal pole) and the man says "ouch" because he literally walked into it. This is the simplest, most groan-worthy version of the joke, creating a whiplash from deep philosophical sadness to the corniest possible punchline.
The humor lies in the extreme contrast between the two versions and the awkwardness of the situation.