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This seemed appropriate to include here because I like to think that at least one guy will read the title and then run down and make a joke about laughing at my article because it's not funny and then he'll feel clever that he turned my words against me without ever having read that I totally saw it coming right here and I also made love to his mother. Sweet, tender love. We didn't call each other names. We just grunted a little, and after, she made me eggs. And they were all right. They were all right sex eggs. From that guy's mom.

Anyways, have you ever heard this as a punchline to a joke -- "no soap, radio"? "No soap, radio" is the verbal embodiment of a pantsing. It mocks you in front of others and makes you look like a fool who forget to put on underpants today. Here, let's see it in action:

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Two bears are in the tub, doing friendly bear tub stuff. One bear says to the other, "Pass the soap." The other bear's monocle pops out and he says, "No soap, radio."

Are you laughing? So help me God, you better not be. But if you told this joke to two other people, and one of those people was in on it, your friend and you could laugh, and there's a good chance the third person, the "mark," if you will, will start laughing simply because you and the other guy are laughing.

The joke is a psychological experiment, sort of an Asch conformity experiment where people are basically tricked by being in a room full of people who all give the obviously wrong answer to a question to see if the marks will conform to the group and also give the wrong answer, even though they know it's wrong. Or, in this case, laugh at something that isn't even funny, just because everyone else laughs. It's mindfuckery at its finest.

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In terms of comedy, you can see it at work every day on TV. Laugh tracks in shows are there to let you know when to laugh. There's really no other reason. If something is funny, you'd probably know it on your own, right? But thanks to helpful laugh tracks, you're cued every time something is supposed to be funny in an effort to convince you that According to Jim is actually hilarious and not the sitcom equivalent of an anal speculum. It's tricking you into thinking you missed something if you didn't laugh, and no one ever wants to be the idiot who didn't get the joke. Like if someone told me that when Godot finally showed up he had to borrow cab fare and then they laughed, I'd totally laugh too so I don't look like a dummy, even though I've never heard of Waiting for Godot and have no idea what that joke means and I didn't make it on Twitter last week, either.