To “Break” a horse is to get it accustomed to being saddled and ridden. The joke is that after all that effort, the horse wants to pursue a different career path. Subtle, but it is the New Yorker after all.
The horse didn’t want to be his partner because it was wild/uncivilized, so the cowboy broke it.
But now the horse is broken (i.e. civilized from the cowboy’s pov), it still doesn’t want to be his partner, preferring another career path / to work alone.
Slight political comment as well (colonialism viewed by itself as bringing civilization to foreign cultures)?
Standup comics ‘get a break’ that launches their career. So, now that the horse got his break/is broken, he’s going to pursue a career in standup. Also funny because horses don’t sit.
I think Brian is onto something. When a manager introduces a performer, it’s said that he or she “broke” the artist. But I still feel like we’re missing something here.
Comics I Don't Understand 
To “Break” a horse is to get it accustomed to being saddled and ridden. The joke is that after all that effort, the horse wants to pursue a different career path. Subtle, but it is the New Yorker after all.
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So…not broken after all? Still don’t get it.
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The horse didn’t want to be his partner because it was wild/uncivilized, so the cowboy broke it.
But now the horse is broken (i.e. civilized from the cowboy’s pov), it still doesn’t want to be his partner, preferring another career path / to work alone.
Slight political comment as well (colonialism viewed by itself as bringing civilization to foreign cultures)?
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@ CIDU Bill – I thought the signature looked familiar: the “Brendan Loper” tag should be added to the “Laundry” post, too.
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Standup comedians are broken people.
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@dvandom: subtle.
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What @dvandom said. I think it is a play on the idea that comics are broken and have traumatic backstories. Seinfeld says that isn’t true of him… FWIW
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Standup comics ‘get a break’ that launches their career. So, now that the horse got his break/is broken, he’s going to pursue a career in standup. Also funny because horses don’t sit.
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Shouldn’t he have done srandup, then, while he was STILL broken?
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It was a lol for me.
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” I think it is a play on the idea that comics are broken and have traumatic backstories. ”
Nah, just standup comics. My first wife was an improv comic and she had had a happy childhood (and even a pretty happy marriage, I think.)
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Didja ever notice that standup comics are, like, broken people? I mean, what’s up with that? For instance, take me … please! No but seriously folks….
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Regardless of whether most comics are broken, most of them are broke.
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I think Brian is onto something. When a manager introduces a performer, it’s said that he or she “broke” the artist. But I still feel like we’re missing something here.
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Possibly also a Bo-Jack Horseman reference? He did standup before becoming an actor and is pretty broken over most of the series.
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I think it is a play on the fact (or myth??) that horses stay standing up, even while sleeping, most of the time.
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