• idunnololz@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    IIRC that was all there was to the post. Anyways this joke is similar to the joke OP shared.

    It combines a joke and a well known logical contradiction.

    The original joke referenced is “the great clown Pagliacci”. It goes

    A man goes to a doctor—that’s how the story always begins. “Doctor, I’m depressed,” the man says; life is harsh, unforgiving, cruel. The doctor lights up. The treatment, after all, is simple. “The great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight,” the doctor says, “Go and see him! That should sort you out.” The man bursts into tears. “But doctor,” he says, “I am Pagliacci.”

    And the logical contradiction referenced is “the barber paradox”. It goes

    There is a barber who lives on an island. The barber shaves all those men who live on the island who do not shave themselves, and only those men. Does the barber shave himself?

    Thus the punchline of that joke is that the troubled man is the barber. Furthermore it also explained why the barber is troubled as he is a paradox.

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      No I got that it ending like that was intentional, I was just wondering if “shaving off the ending” was the joke because the person was a barber. I hadn’t heard of that barber paradox. It’s pretty funny now that I get it