About
“That’s the Joke” is a catchphrase uttered by the fictional character Rainier Wolfcastle in a stand-up comedy scene from a 1995 episode of The Simpsons. Online, the quote is used to condescendingly explain the punchline of a joke, or as the deadpan punchline to an otherwise-unfunny remark. It can be also iterated in filename extension format, such as “thatsthejoke.jpg.”
Origin
The quote first appeared in an episode of The Simpsons “A Star is Burns”[3] which aired on March 5th, 1995. In the scene, an excerpt clip is shown from character Rainier Wolfcastle’s (voiced by Harry Shearer) new stand-up comedy movie. After missing the punchline, Wolfcastle plainly says “that’s the joke.”
Spread
On July 18th, 2006, YTMND user sebastienricher created a site[2] replaying “That’s the joke” on loop over a still image of Rainier Wolfcastle. On 4chan, the filename extended version has been in use as early as January 22nd, 2008, when a user on /v/[4] (Video Games) posted “thatsthejoke.jpg” in response to another user unnecessarily pointing out the joke in a thread where every Pokemon character was re-designed in the style of Gardevoir. Throughout 2008, the phrase continued to appear on /co/[5] (Comics and Cartoons), /a/[6] (Anime and Manga) and /tg/[7] (Traditional Games). The same year, the webcomic Gunshow[10] began using the phrase as a trope in several comic strips.
In July 2009, “thatsthejoke.jpg” came up in a thread on the IGN Forums[9] discussing the spread of 4chan memes outside of the imageboard. This reference to the image has also been used on Fark[13], Twitter[12] and message boards including GameFAQs[14] and the Roblox forum.[15] On Tumblr, “That’s the Joke” has evolved into a tag[1] that is often paired with the tag “that’s it”[8], as to emphasize the lack of humor contained in the post. The idea behind the original Simpsons skit is explored on TV Tropes on the page “Don’t Explain the Joke.”[11]
Search Interest
External References
[1]Tumblr – Posts tagged “that’s the joke”
[2]YTMND– That’s the joke
[3]Wikipedia – A Star Is Burns
[4]Chanarchive – /v/ thatsthejoke.jpg
[5]Chanarchive – /co/ thatsthejoke.jpg
[6]Foolz Archive – /a/ thatsthejoke.jpg
[7]This Is Not A True Ending – /tg/ thatsthejoke.jpg
[8]Tumblr – Posts tagged “that’s it”
[9]IGN Forums – thatsthejoke.jpg
[10]Gun Show – Comics tagged “that’s the joke”
[11]TV Tropes – Don’t Explain the Joke
[12]Twitter – Search results for “thatsthejoke.jpg”
[13]Fark – Many lols were had. (insert thatsthejoke.jpg here)
[14]GameFAQs – Assassin’s Creed III
[15]Roblox Forum – Tribute To The HardWorking Mini Mods