the-point
Explanation
The Joke
Two punctuation marks -- a comma and a period -- are arguing about how to raise their child, an exclamation point. The comma says, "I want him to be raised like I was -- pausing sentences but letting them proceed," which describes exactly what a comma does in grammar. The period insists, "No! Goddammit he's a period and he'll be end of sentence punctuation and that is that," reflecting the period's function of terminating sentences.
Years later, the exclamation point sits at a bar and laments, "Neither of my parents ever really got me." He then shouts "DAMN!!!!" -- because that is what exclamation points do: they add emphasis and emotional intensity, which is fundamentally different from both the comma's gentle pause and the period's definitive stop.
The Humor
The joke works by personifying punctuation marks and mapping family dynamics onto grammatical functions. The comma-parent wants the child to pause but continue (like a comma), and the period-parent wants the child to end things definitively (like a period). But their child is an exclamation point -- a mark defined by emotional intensity and emphasis, which neither parent understands. The punchline "Neither of my parents ever really got me" is a classic expression of feeling misunderstood, made literal here because the exclamation point's function genuinely is different from both parents. The visual of the exclamation point shouting "DAMN!!!!" at a bar perfectly demonstrates its nature -- loud, emphatic, and emotionally charged -- in contrast to its parents' more restrained grammatical roles.