The Ongoing Explain a Joke Thread

[B]

I've noticed a lot of people either in the Dugout feedback thread or e-mails mentioning that they didn't understand a joke, or they didn't understand a passage, or reference, or whatever.

As an experiment, I thought I'd start an "explain a joke" thread to help readers get a better understanding of our sense of humor or the articles they're reading, because sometimes you read something and it just doesn't click. Most of the time it's my esoteric wrestling jokes. But hey, if you want one of them explained, post it here. We'll all try to get in here and explain things to you.

And yes, I'm just doing this as an excuse to get you all to go back into the archives and read around.
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[Justin]

Oh yeah, nobody is going to be made fun of in this thread for not getting a joke NO MATTER HOW STUPID YOU MAY BE! GOD I HATE YOU!

Seriously though. I'm a writer for the site and I only end up getting about 40% of the other writer's jokes. Don't be afraid to ask any questions you may have.
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[quote="Bismark"]Didn't you know? Having uncontrollable shits is wicked scene.[/quote]

[B]

I'll start.

This isn't really an explain the joke, but I'd like to have the gaps in the story filled in.

https://www.progressiveboink.com/comics/hangin/sandwich.jpg

How exactly does Rodney save the day with his Sandwich Shuffle?

Alternate question: How does one do the Sandwich Shuffle
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[Justin]

The joke is that the narrator was really stressed out to the point where he was sweating bullets. The gist was that Rodney's dance not only distracted the line of impatient patrons, but also helped ease the narrator's tension, allowing him to focus on his job and serve everyone the quality sandwiches they'd come to expect of him.
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[quote="Bismark"]Didn't you know? Having uncontrollable shits is wicked scene.[/quote]

[DGMacphee]

Really? I thought the sandwich shuffle was like this magical, choreographed dance routine that Rodney did to quickly make and serve sandwiches, kinda like Tom Cruise in Cocktail. Like Rodney would grab a bit of tomato, throw it past his back and over his shoulder, it would land on the sandwich perfectly, he'd spin around, pluck a piece of cheese almost out of nowhere, place it on the bun then moonwalk to the sauce selection to grab a zesty vinegarette.
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A suitable ending, I think!

[Mugsy]

I thought it was just a zany dance Rodney did while helping make sammitches and make the narrator laugh. I have a specail sammitch makin dance. I think everyone should. It makes them so much better.
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WAAAOOOOOOOWWWW!

[Adam]

Q: Every single Eli Wallach except like, two.
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[Randy]

[Wes]

I imagined the Sandwich Shuffle involved going to the Fridge for the hand-off of cooled meats and assorted fixin's.

[DGMacphee]

It reminded me of an ad I saw in an Archie comic where Archie and his band were doing a gig and, during a break, drinking Fruit Crush drinks brought by Veronica's butler. That's when they decided to do the "Fruit Shuffle".
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A suitable ending, I think!

[B]

[Bill]

For a start: Are all the lines at the end of Eli Wallach quotes from movies he's been in, or from the man himself, or what?

And for that matter, are the setups references to something else too?

[pholby]

With the exception of the one I did that was just a scene from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" I don't think I've ever used a quote from a movie he was in. I have used quotes, from Waiting for Godot, The Sandlot, Napoleon, Ted Dibiase, Amiri Baraka (loosely), Charles Bukowski, Skee Lo, Les Miserables, and the movie Hook. None of them are quotes from Eli Wallach the man. I'll probably use one from him eventually, but it hasn't come up yet. Same with quotes from his movies. The rest are just bits from essentially me. Wallach is esentially there as a prop, with little relation to the actual person or characters he's played. I don't use the picture of Dancer because of Wallach's role in The Lineup, I use the picture of Dancer because he's glaring and looking like a hard-ass.

As for the setups, a lot of them come from advertisements or fashion photography. I'd say at least a third of them, possibly more. That's what I refer to as 'type 1,' mockery or commentary of ads/fashion. It often ends in jokes about drugs or abuse. Type 1 crosses paths with 'type 2' which is basically just a crude joke. Masturbating with fireworks, for example. Type 3 is when I use the strip to make a personal statement, often about how I feel like a fucking mess.

Some of the strips build towards a 'punchline' in the third frame and then again in the fourth, while others build just to one in the fourth.

I hope this clears some things up. If you cite a specific strip I'd be able to explain the whole thing with examples and whatnot.
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"You're a pussy, Strong!"

"Woah woah woah."

[Josh]

[Nick]

"The banishment for life of Pete Rose from baseball is a sad end if a sorry episode. One of the game's greatest players has engaged in a variety of acts which have stained the game, and he must now live with the consequences of those acts. There is absolutely no deal for reinstatement."

-Former commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, at the August 24, 2025 press conference banning Pete Rose from baseball
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[webber]

Ok so I dont understand A Softer Worldmap or Batista Era this week.

[B]

[webber]

Thank you

[dlomyhero]

Also Viscera likes Nachos and they turn him on.
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Asked yesterday whether it would eventually release a revised edition of "Opal Mehta," a little brown spokesman declined to comment.

[S C Smith]

Ok one thing I've never quite understood was 'the freewheeling Tom Cruise', if anyone could explain it would be