I heard a joke the other night and, when it was over, no-one laughed except the person who told the joke. I would like the tarot to tell me if this joke is, in fact, funny:
A bartender leans over the bar and says, "I'm sorry, sir, we don't serve time travelers in here." A little while later a man walks into a bar.
The card on the left will explain why the time traveler is funny; the card on the right will explain why the bartender is funny; and the card in the middle will explain why the joke is funny. The deck I am using is The Beatles Tarot (2018). If you put the corresponding RWS cards beneath the BT cards, you can appreciate how cleverly the deck creator reworks the imagery of the classic originals.
Time traveler: The World (XXI)
The joke: 7 of Cups (suit of George)
Bartender: 2 of Sticks (suit of Ringo)
Ringo is leaning across his drum-kit waiting for the music to begin, looking exactly like a bored bartender waiting for customers. Cigarette in one hand, and a club - in this case drumsticks - kept under the counter to deal with trouble. And the bartender does, in fact, "drum" the time traveler out of the bar. For some strange reason this bartender has a prejudice against time-travelers in the same way that someone black or gay might once have been asked to leave an establishment.
What on earth could anyone find offensive about a time traveler? And how does the bartender know his customer is a time traveler? The time traveler himself must have told him, letting it slip in conversation. Or maybe his appearance gives away his identity. Perhaps, like the crew of Star Trek when they travel back in time, the time traveler has neglected to dress appropriately for this time period. Dr. Who, who we remember is a Time Lord, often runs into the same problem. That show has been running so long on English TV that 13 different actors have played the role since the first episode in 1963. It's the same doctor but he keeps changing his appearance.
The 2 of Sticks (or Wands) traditionally features someone holding a globe in the palm of his hand. How strange that the card representing the time traveler should be The World (XXI). The bartender appears to be the one with the power in this story, even though he is in a menial job and always stuck in the same place. On the other hand the time traveler is someone with almost godlike power, free to roam all time and space. This god must be thinking, "What do I have to do to get a damn drink around here?"
The oval wreath on the World card (XXI) resembles an ouroboros, a snake with its tail in its mouth, unable to swallow itself, and so a symbol of infinity. The three goddesses in the centre of the World card represent the time traveler's mastery of past/present/future. They hold musical notes, turning past/present/future into a single song, and making the world dance to their tune. The bare bottom in the centre of the card is directed at the bartender because the time traveler has worked out a way to trick the jerk into serving him a drink.
"A little while later", that is, after the time traveler has reluctantly left the bar, he uses his special powers to go back in time to a moment before the initial encounter. The bartender will not remember the time traveler because, in this new timeline, they have never met before. Notice that the second time around "a man walks into a bar." This time the time traveler appears to the bartender to be just an ordinary man. He does not repeat his previous mistake of telling the bartender he is a time traveler, and he alters his appearance to hide his true identity.
Perhaps the simplest aspect of the joke is that the joke itself is reversed in the same way that the time traveler turns back time. "A man walks into a bar" is the first line of a million different jokes, a genre of its own, but here that phrase is not the first line of the joke but the last. What should be the opening line has been magically transformed into the punchline!
But the central card identifies what is really funny about this thing. So many conundrums are packed into such a small space. A bewildered George is contemplating seven waxen likenesses of himself, which look like the electrons, or quanta, of a comedic atom. We feel that the humour will emerge if we split this atom; that is to say, if we get the joke. George, the audience, is what is funny about this joke. That is why the only person who laughed when I heard the joke for the first time was the person who told it. He was enjoying the puzzled look on our faces.
The joke is so short and yet these few words contain so many implications about the story of a personal confrontation, the nature of time, the absurdity of prejudice, the notion of identity, and much more. We are told it is a joke so we are searching for the humour, but all that greets the punchline is stunned silence. In a joke that features so many reversals, this absence of laughter is the funniest thing of all.
