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Dr. Octopus:

Ladies and gentlemen. My wife Rosie and I would like to welcome you this afternoon. But first before we start, has anybody lost a large roll of 20 dollar bills in a rubber band? Because we found the rubber band.

Are there any linguistic subtleties going on?

I'd love to hear back from you people.

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    I’m voting to close this question because it's about understanding a joke that doesn't bear any special relationship to the English language above others
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 14, 2020 at 15:30
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    How can a cryptic joke written in English, for which an explanation is required, not bear any relationship to the English language? Just asking. I´m new here so forgive me if I have stumbled upon a fiefdom.
    – Bruce Murray
    Commented Jun 14, 2020 at 17:29
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    @BruceMurray because there's no subtlety in the words here. There's nothing that you can have missed ... as a non-English speaker. The words mean exactly what they appear to mean. If you didn't understand the words at all, then you need a translation dictionary, not this forum. (I am also infrequent here, but I assume things like "what do the words rubber band mean?" are also off topic."
    – Brondahl
    Commented Jun 14, 2020 at 22:13
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    @FumbleFingersReinstateMonica As a non-English speaker, I am not familiar with American culture. I have never seen money carried in rolls of bills anywhere but in American movies. I do not know where else on the world this habit is considered normal.
    – Hermann
    Commented Jun 14, 2020 at 23:19
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    @FumbleFingersReinstateMonica I think this question is very much on topic. The OP presents a joke they didn't understand and asked if there's a subtlety in the language (that they don't get) which is behind the humor. The answer is no, there the humor is not based on the language. If the OP had just asked to explain the joke it would be off-topic. But currently it's phrased in a perfectly legitimate way IMO.
    – Binyomin
    Commented Jun 15, 2020 at 5:02

1 Answer 1

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If they had found only the rubber band, how would they know it was once around a roll of money? Evidently, they found the money with the rubber band, but decided to keep the money.

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    Good explanation. It might also be worth mentioning that the joke has the feel of vaudeville, or other comedians from the first half of the 20th century. I could easily imagine hearing it from the Marx Brothers or on The Goon Show (I'll leave it to you to read up on those if you're curious.) So as jokes go it's a bit corny and a bit dated -- kind of like what I see described these days as a "dad joke".
    – JonathanZ
    Commented Jun 14, 2020 at 22:10
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    @BruceMurray I agree. This is a perfect analysis of the joke. But it has nothing whatsoever to do with the english language. You can crudely translate it into any other language and it'll still work exactly the same way.
    – Brondahl
    Commented Jun 14, 2020 at 22:15
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    It's definitely pure corn.
    – Jack O'Flaherty
    Commented Jun 14, 2020 at 22:15
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    It's an old style of humor. It's a way to show that doc is old
    – candied_orange
    Commented Jun 14, 2020 at 22:34
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    Not just the rubber band, but also the information that they were 20 dollar bills.
    – PatrickT
    Commented Jun 15, 2020 at 7:00

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