2015-01-02
Explanation
The Joke
The comic is titled "Funtime Activity: Outdorking Word-Dorks." A man says he really hates when people say "irregardless." A woman enthusiastically agrees, adding that "ir-" is just a corruption of an earlier prefix, and that it should properly be "inregardless."
The Humor
The comedy comes from a layered escalation of pedantry. Correcting someone who says "irregardless" is a classic example of being a language pedant or "word-dork," since "irregardless" is widely criticized as a nonstandard word (the standard form being simply "regardless"). The woman one-ups this by being even more pedantic, claiming "ir-" is wrong and it should be "inregardless" -- which is itself also not a real word. She is outdorking the dork by applying a fake, even-more-obscure etymological correction to an already incorrect word. The title "Outdorking Word-Dorks" frames this as a recreational activity, suggesting it is fun to defeat pedants with even more extreme pedantry, even when the correction is completely made up.