The joke here is that simple barbed wire is enough to totally frustrate cattle; any kind of intellectual puzzle, the challenge of a real escape room, is unnecessary.
Are you familiar with the concept of escape rooms?
I’m not sure how universally known they are but they are group activities where you and your friends a locked in a room full of puzzles and you have an hour to escape the room by solving the puzzles. If you get stuck you can hit a buzzer to get a hint.
And so this joke is… exactly what Minor Annoyance said.
Having worked construction around a lot of free roaming cattle. They would rub against a post (their favorite one all of them) until it was knocked over. Not through intelligence or malice just working it until it was down.
@ woozy – “Are you familiar with the concept…?”
Actually, no. Shielded by an ocean from some of the more idiotic aspects of American “culture”, I was only vaguely aware of what an “escape room”(*) is supposed to be. In addition, I tripped over the word “buzzer“, and thought it had some sort of connection to the noise produced by some electric fence wires.
P.S. (*) – I was very surprised to find that the was not just one horror movie with this title, but three, all released within two years of each other. Icky.
I guess I’m not sure of the disdain there. I haven’t tried one, but they sounds somewhat interesting. I enjoy puzzles. I wouldn’t organize one, but if someone did I would likely go along.
@ Grawlix – “…escape rooms are a worldwide phenomenon…”
Perhaps, but that doesn’t make them any less idiotic. Like Brian, I enjoy puzzles, but I have no need to add fear of entrapment to make a puzzle more enjoyable.
Kilby, how do you distinguish “idiotic” from “something I personally don’t enjoy”? It’s basically just adding a role-playing aspect, and making the puzzle more concrete – nothing wrong with that.
I was a big fan of text-adventure games in my younger days, in fact Zork was responsible for me eventually becoming a software engineer. The escape rooms seem like a LARP version of that. Picking up objects, examining them, finding clues, using the objects to solve the puzzles, etc. I don’t know what is “idiotic” about that. It might appeal to you, of course.
Yes, to each his own, but seeing that the concept was exploited for three separate horror flicks seemed to confirm that there was something strange about the whole idea.
@ Brian – I am blissfully ignorant of the typical settings employed by horror films. Just because other people are willing to expend frightful amounts of money on producing and/or watching them doesn’t mean that I have to.
You have gone off on a tangent. You brought up horror films. Now you want to complain that you aren’t familiar with them?
Let’s put it this way. There have been horror films set in restaurants. Are restaurants idiotic? There have been horror films set in hotels. Are hotels idiotic? What does the fact that horror films have used a setting have to do with anything? Remember, again, YOU brought it up as some sort of supporting evidence.
There was nothing wrong with, “I don’t think escape rooms would be for me.” You didn’t need any embellishment, especially that which insults people who are interested.
Would work better if it were an electric fence. You can’t see what’s going to hurt you with those. And yes, they hurt (as my 8-year-old self found out; no wonder the cows never got closer than 3 feet to the things).
My grandparents lived on a farm, and the first time I encountered an electric fence (really just a single wire about two feet off the ground) it was memorable.
Comics I Don't Understand 
The joke here is that simple barbed wire is enough to totally frustrate cattle; any kind of intellectual puzzle, the challenge of a real escape room, is unnecessary.
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I thought this one actually worked pretty well.
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Are you familiar with the concept of escape rooms?
I’m not sure how universally known they are but they are group activities where you and your friends a locked in a room full of puzzles and you have an hour to escape the room by solving the puzzles. If you get stuck you can hit a buzzer to get a hint.
And so this joke is… exactly what Minor Annoyance said.
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Cows are dumb. That’s the joke.
And if you’ve been around cattle, it’s pretty funny.
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Cows are also not terribly agile, and barbed wire hurts.
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They could likely push fence posts over, but that would take a fair amount of reasoning.
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Yes I am, Woozy. My brothers, my nephew and I failed to escape from one last year, in fact.
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Having worked construction around a lot of free roaming cattle. They would rub against a post (their favorite one all of them) until it was knocked over. Not through intelligence or malice just working it until it was down.
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@ woozy – “Are you familiar with the concept…?”
Actually, no. Shielded by an ocean from some of the more idiotic aspects of American “culture”, I was only vaguely aware of what an “escape room”(*) is supposed to be. In addition, I tripped over the word “buzzer“, and thought it had some sort of connection to the noise produced by some electric fence wires.
P.S. (*) – I was very surprised to find that the was not just one horror movie with this title, but three, all released within two years of each other. Icky.
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We have escape rooms here in Blighty, not that I have been in one. There’s one about four miles from me at the bottom of Cheddar Gorge.
https://www.cheddargorge.co.uk/rocksport/escape-rooms
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Kilby, escape rooms are a worldwide phenomenon, big in Asia and Europe as well.
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I guess I’m not sure of the disdain there. I haven’t tried one, but they sounds somewhat interesting. I enjoy puzzles. I wouldn’t organize one, but if someone did I would likely go along.
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@ Grawlix – “…escape rooms are a worldwide phenomenon…”
Perhaps, but that doesn’t make them any less idiotic. Like Brian, I enjoy puzzles, but I have no need to add fear of entrapment to make a puzzle more enjoyable.
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It’s not really a fear factor, but rather introduces a tangible “winning” move by being able to open the door before time expires.
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Chacun à son goût, Kilby.
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Kilby, how do you distinguish “idiotic” from “something I personally don’t enjoy”? It’s basically just adding a role-playing aspect, and making the puzzle more concrete – nothing wrong with that.
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Oh, Google translate tells me that I just duplicated Grawlix’s comment.
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I was a big fan of text-adventure games in my younger days, in fact Zork was responsible for me eventually becoming a software engineer. The escape rooms seem like a LARP version of that. Picking up objects, examining them, finding clues, using the objects to solve the puzzles, etc. I don’t know what is “idiotic” about that. It might appeal to you, of course.
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“Might NOT appeal to you.” Sheesh.
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Yes, to each his own, but seeing that the concept was exploited for three separate horror flicks seemed to confirm that there was something strange about the whole idea.
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Do you feel that way about summer camps too?
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@ Brian – I am blissfully ignorant of the typical settings employed by horror films. Just because other people are willing to expend frightful amounts of money on producing and/or watching them doesn’t mean that I have to.
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You have gone off on a tangent. You brought up horror films. Now you want to complain that you aren’t familiar with them?
Let’s put it this way. There have been horror films set in restaurants. Are restaurants idiotic? There have been horror films set in hotels. Are hotels idiotic? What does the fact that horror films have used a setting have to do with anything? Remember, again, YOU brought it up as some sort of supporting evidence.
There was nothing wrong with, “I don’t think escape rooms would be for me.” You didn’t need any embellishment, especially that which insults people who are interested.
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Would work better if it were an electric fence. You can’t see what’s going to hurt you with those. And yes, they hurt (as my 8-year-old self found out; no wonder the cows never got closer than 3 feet to the things).
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My grandparents lived on a farm, and the first time I encountered an electric fence (really just a single wire about two feet off the ground) it was memorable.
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