Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

used-panties

2016-07-11 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
used-panties
Votey panel for used-panties
This explanation is incomplete or may contain errors. It was generated by AI and has not yet been reviewed by a human editor.

Explanation

The Joke

A woman at her computer is apparently selling used panties online. A buyer asks what they would use them for, and the seller responds: "A drive belt for a threshing machine." In the final panel, the seller is shown holding up a pair of worn-out panties, confused about why buyers want these things since "the elastic is practically gone."

The Humor

The comedy comes from the total mismatch in assumptions. The online sale of "used panties" is widely understood to be a sexual fetish market, but this seller is completely oblivious to that context. She genuinely believes she is selling used underwear for practical, industrial reuse — specifically as replacement drive belts for agricultural equipment. Her complaint that the elastic is "practically gone" shows she thinks buyers want them for their material properties and is baffled why anyone would want underwear in poor condition. The joke works because the seller's innocent, practical perspective is so far removed from the actual reason people buy used panties online that it creates a comical disconnect.

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