scrooge
Explanation
The Joke
Scrooge from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" thanks the three spirits of Christmas for visiting him and says he has one question. He asks: "What do you do when poor people need help making a life choice?" The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (the dark, hooded figure) responds: "Fuck those people!"
The Humor
In the original story, Scrooge is transformed by the three spirits from a cold-hearted miser into a generous, compassionate man who learns to care about the poor and disadvantaged. The comic subverts this by imagining that the spirits themselves are terrible moral guides. Instead of teaching Scrooge empathy, they reveal that they have the same contempt for poor people that Scrooge started with. The joke suggests that Scrooge's famous transformation was not a heartwarming redemption but rather that he was being coached by equally callous supernatural beings who simply had a different agenda. It also works as a commentary on how society often pays lip service to helping the poor while institutional systems remain indifferent or hostile to them.
References
"A Christmas Carol" (1843) by Charles Dickens features Ebenezer Scrooge being visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, who show him visions that convince him to change his miserly ways. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is traditionally depicted as a dark, silent, hooded figure resembling the Grim Reaper.