Perhaps it just means I’m very tired, but I found this very funny.
Usually I’m kind eh about jokes on T-shirts. Like, okay, sure, maybe it’s sort of funny, but is it really funny enough that you want to be looking at it and having people look at it for hours on end? Whereas, I’ve now been going on about the depth and different elements to this joke for like half an hour now. Off and on. But still. I’m either very tired, or I genuinely think this is a joke of unusual caliber, or both.
This T-shirt joke feels more like my doormat that says “Ask not for whom the dog barks, it barks for thee,” which I have replaced at least once before and would definitely seek out if something happened to it again, because it’s a joke that I am always happy to see in front of my door.
Like I could write an essay about this joke.
See, the way the hoof is lifted up to point at the rain, as if you can point at rain in one place, even though it’s all around you — that’s amusing. The way of identifying rain, just outright stating, “That’s rain,” as if the other deer aren’t familiar with rain and need help noticing it, even though it’s falling right on them. You can see it splashing on the right-most antler of the green deer, but even so, the green seems to find it special and worth revering that Rudolph has properly labelled it. Then there’s the mere idea that being able to identify rain is in fact synonymous with “know[ing]” rain, like it’s more that mere identification, it’s a deep kind of knowledge about rain to be able to recognize it when you see it. Most people can identify rain. Does that mean we all KNOW rain? Or does Rudolph have a deeper, more profound understanding of rain than is simply implied by pointing upward while rain is falling? It’s not clear! This is interesting! There’s a kind of smug, proud look in the green deer’s expression — clearly, it’s a valuable thing to be able to identify rain! And the blue deer really looks like they’re learning something here — is it the first time they’ve encountered rain? Maybe they usually only encounter snow, and so knowing about rain really is a special thing! And then there’s the simple sweetness in calling the blue deer “dear,” which is also an extremely gentle pun, not the kind of pun that draws a lot of attention to itself and needs to be flashy, just like a nice, soft one tacked on to the end of a joke that knows it’s already done all the work it needs to do before getting there. It’s like a bonus extra punchline during the credits of a movie.
(I should be working on NaNo. I have twenty minutes to write 300 words on my novel…. instead… I wrote that.)
Daniel: THESE WORDS DON’T COUNT FOR NANOWRIMO, MARY
THERE’S JUST SO MUCH MATTER-OF-FACT PRIDE IN RUDOLPH’S EXPRESSION. IS HE BEING FUNNY? IS HE STATING THE OBVIOUS????? IS HE TRULY EDUCATING A CHILD WHO HAS NEVER ENCOUNTERED RAIN BEFORE?????????
Like this is a real think piece
This is high art
And I didn’t even get into how “Rudolph the Red” sounds like a pirate name which is AWESOME
It’s sure a good thing for the world that I have blog.