What’s the joke here?
Is there a pun in the name Arlo Hoyt?
This is common financial advice (e.g. in the book The Psychology of Money, by Morgan Housel, which I just finished), or, famously, in Dickens novel, David Copperfield.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.
Or, could the joke be that Arlo Hoyt has claimed that he coined this common maxim himself, and has erected a status of himself in his honor?
For less helpful advice, certainly not what Dickens’ Mr. Micawber would have advised, we have this from Randy Glasbergen:
Comics I Don't Understand 
Perhaps the reason the gentleman wasn’t that successful is that he only coined the phrase. If he really wanted to make some money out of it, he should have printed it on some paper currency.
P.S. Searching the Internet for “Arlo Hoyt” produces a number of references to “Arlo Guthrie & Hoyt Axton“, which isn’t really relevant, but it was more interesting than the comic.
The quote reminds me of the one from Emil Faber in *Animal House*, “Knowledge Is Good”.
I’m reminded of the year when Mike Tyson made $30 million and filed for bankruptcy. Turns out he spent $33 million. (Maintaining several large residences, each with their own tiger, eats up a lot of loose cash.) Do NOT be like Mike.
Arlo Hoyt founded a research tank that spent 10 years and millions of dollars before publishing their findings on water being wet. So far that paper has stood many subsequent tests by other scientists but as with any science, new research could eventually disprove this. There are rumors they currently have bears and their activities in the woods under study along with the religious leanings of a particular resident of the Vatican.
A penny earned over expenses happyness
A penny spent over income, disaster.
Water by the way is the epitome of “wet”.
Could it be taken as sarcasm? Lots of people would like to have something left over at the end of the month, if they could. Going into debt is not always a choice.
Speaking of Dickens, did anybody else catch the adaptation last year of Great Expectations? Considerable re-writing! But I thought it worked okay.
Back when Van Halen was big, David Lee Roth was told, “Dave, money can’t buy happiness.”
He said, “No, but you can buy a boat big enough to sail right up next to it.”
@ TedD – Funny!
“water being wet”
I’ve had discussions with people about this before. Is water itself wet, or does it just cause things to be wet? Pepper makes you sneeze but it’s not a sneeze, if you see what I mean.
This argument raged long into the night. Any thoughts?
@Stan: No real thoughts except that it sounds like a fun evening! O to be young again.
Should be more principled than “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” though maybe less empirical.
@ phsiii – Hey, you can be old and have stimulating conversations into the night!
My brother told me that when he was a college student, he would fill balloons with wet water as a prank.
What is “wet water”, I asked.
“Wet water” is water to which a “wetting agent” has been added. Water will wet some items, but not others, such as water-resistant fabrics, because of surface tension or something. Water with a wetting agent will wet those items that plain water won’t.
So just as some animals are more equal than others, some waters are wetter than others.
TedD – just the sort of thing some of those in my teddy bear (and friends) collection would say.
BTW the head of their “den” is Theodore David Bear aka Ted D. Bear, he was the start of the collection. He does have 3 sons – Theodore David Bear Jr., Theodore David Bear – the third, and Theodore David Bear – the fourth.
Currently have my eye on a few different bears that Ikea has and are set up outside of their restaurant with other plush toys. Robert keeps pushing me to adopt (buy) one of each – he does this as I rarely get any gifts due to not wanting anything. And yes, we are back to having dinner there once a week.