Jake Thompson | Tumblr

Transcript

[A man in a mask holds up a bank]

The caption reads: “Money? No, I just want the code for the bathroom.”

Signature: Thompson

  • Zorque@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    6 days ago

    Honestly I don’t think it really spoils the joke, there’s only one line of text for the comic that gives the necessary context. Sure, you could try and infer a punchline from the title and picture alone, but it’s far easier to just read it. It’s really not even particularly funny, just satirical and topical.

    • toast@retrolemmy.com
      46·
      6 days ago

      It spoils the joke. Do you think that it is a coincidence that ‘bathroom’ is the last word that the artist uses in the caption? The joke works (as much as it does) by subverting expectations. The artist sets up our expectations with the image, and puts the key word to the whole subversion as late as possible in the caption (in this case the last word). The comic is ‘spoiled’ when this key word appears in the title, before the reader has even seen the image or caption. Simple exposure to the idea of a bathroom being important to the context of the situation of the comic is enough to lessen the impact of the subversion of expectation, or even make the intended subversion seem trite or obvious.