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Question

I was at a birthday party for my elderly mother. At the end of dinner, cake was served by waiters with white gloves. I was about to ask my mother how she liked the dessert, but I made a "faux pas"! I turned to my mother and screamed "You rotton piece of garbage, you ruined my life!!!!!!!!!"

Additional Details

Added comment: a faux pas is a blunder. It is a foreign expression used sometimes by people in USA

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Are you people retarded or humor impaired? The joke uses a time-worn trope, understatement, as a humor device. You can also use overstatement. In this case, the person says, they made a "faux pas", which is commonly a small mistake in etiquette, like using the wrong fork for salad. Instead, the "faux pas" is that she vents a very personal and inappropriate grievance in a very boorish and vulgar way to a close relative on a very special occasion, at a very high-class get-together (as noted by the waiters with white gloves).

Now for god's sake do you get it? Its like, I did a little boo-boo at my sister's wedding, I shot the groom in the head with a shotgun. That's an extreme case of the same type of humor.

Its a somewhat subtle form of wordplay, where you expect one thing (a true, trivial faux pas) and instead you get a big, inappropriate outburst that would, in reality, probably wreck the entire event.

Its also referred to as "meiosis".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiosis_%28figure_of_speech%29

You don't necessarily have to know all the technical dissection of a joke to find it funny, these are tropes that have been around for centuries and this is a popular and common form of humor. I was at a loss as to why answer after answer was "I don't get it."

Have you never before heard a joke based on understatement?

Source(s):

Here's more if you still don't understand the type of humor (which seems to be why all of you are missing the humor in the joke, you don't even understand the TYPE of humor employed)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understatement

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

try to be a little less critical but you are right and it is the best answer. thanks

Answer 2

yea like seriously i don't get it. whats a faux pas?

OMG like i think i get it but idk. Like r u talking to the CAKE sayin u rotten.....u ruined my life? Like that is so funny LOL

Answer 3

:)
read mine
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;…

Answer 4

i think that was the moment,after you screaming, that your mother start laughing because she already knows that for years

Answer 5

It sounds like you have Tourette's Syndrome, & ADHD! Have yourself committed before the bad joke police pick you up!

Answer 6

I know what a faux pas is, but I don't understand the joke.

Answer 7

I don't really get the joke

Answer 8

i dont get it. sorry.

Answer 9

dumb

Answer 10

you should just go in the getto and rap

Answer 11

this is so funney

Answer 12

weird!!!

Answer 13

i like it

jk i just need ten points

Answer 14

it makes no sense

Answer 15

It took a while to get it but once I did I thought it is funny

Answer 16

...i dont get it.

Answer 17

i dont get it.

Answer 18

i dont get it.

Answer 19

wats a faux pas and i didnt get the joke it was stupid

Answer 20

whattttttttttttttttttttttt?

Answer 21

er....whad?

Answer 22

i still dont get it could u give a little m ore detail