Theme Week, Part Engvall

Jeremy’s Sametime Status Proudly Presents:
Joke Autopsy Week!

It’s funny because “Bob” is both a name and a verb describing something in water

Today, we wrap up our Theme Week of comedy education, with a detailed explanation of the humor from another classic joke.  Please be warned, though, that some people may find today's joke offensive, so proceed at your own risk.  We apologize in advance, but sometimes, to be successful in comedy, you have to live on the edge of tastefulness.  Of course, after today, this joke will never again be able to be described as "comedy."  

Today, we look at a series of jokes depicting a hypothetical person who, through no fault of his own, does not have arms or legs.  The joke comes in where the audience is asked to guess the name of the aforementioned person, given no information other than the fact that the person has no arms or legs, and is in a specific predicament.  

In this particular instance, the joke is as follows: "What do you call a man with no arms and no legs who is in a swimming pool?"  The audience, understanding that a person, regardless of number of arms and/or legs can have whatever name was given to him by either his parents, the Court System, or the Nation of Islam, can not, with any degree of accuracy, deduce the man's name.  

The punchline comes, "Bob!"

This series of jokes relies entirely on the dual meaning of certain names, which can also be commonly used to describe or name objects.  In this case, "Bob" is a shortened version of the name "Robert."  The name Robert is of Germanic descent from the original Hrodebert, meaning "Bright with Glory."  Rhyming variants began to appear in the Medieval period, such as "Hob" and "Dob."  Bob is seemingly the only remaining of those, though variants such as "Bobby" and "Robin" still exist today.  

The word "bob" can also be used as a verb meaning "to move about with jerky, usually rising and falling motions."  Such motions are very commonly associated with floating in a body of water, such as a swimming pool.  

So, what's happening here, is that a man with no arms and no legs would have little recourse, if found floating in a swimming pool, than to remain largely motionless, moved only by the motion of the waves in the water.  Such movement would take the form of a bobbing up and down motion, thus earning our unfortunate victim the nickname "Bob."  It's at least somewhat offensive, but entirely hilarious.