can you please help me understand this joke?

Question

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director what the criterion was which defined whether or not a patient should be institutionalized.
"Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub."

"Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup.

"No." said the Director, "A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?" (i have read it over and over and i still cant get it)

NOW I GET IT! THANKS PPLE....NOW I FEEL SOO STUPID....BY PLUG I THOUGHT THEY MENT LIKE ELECTRICAL PLUG

Answer 1

the dr was referring to pulling the plug at the bottom of the tub to drain the water...much faster than using any of the 3 items he earlier suggested

Answer 2

I work in the Psychology Field.

You shouldn't feel bad or stupid if you didn't get the joke. It's also a Brain Teaser.

It was written in such a way that it plays upon your unconscious mind by creating misdirection in the same way that Illusionists will distract someone so that your attention or focus is elsewhere.

The Teaspon, Teacup, and Bucket are all items that you fill. It doesn't say anywhere about what a tub is made of, which includes the part of having a drain. So your mind was focusing on the choices provided and overlooked the simple solution.

Most people have seen a tub and know that it has a drain. The misdirection or "Intellectual Illusion" was to distract your mind so that it would focus on comparing the sizes of the teaspoon, teacup, and the bucket.

So your mind was off calculating and comparing those three items rather than pondering the attributes of the tub.

Most people are set up that way where they'll only use the choices given to them rather than trying to come up with their own solution.

For example, someone asked the question on where they can find a web site on how to practice typing without looking down at the keyboard.

Everyone listed off addresses of where you can learn how to type. Some of them were even where you had to pay to use their services.

My solution was just to take a dish towel and lay it over her hands on the keyboard so that it would keep her from looking down. That's a simple solution.

Just like in the joke you posted, everyone was giving the Asker what she wanted, which was a web site on how to type better rather than examining the root of the problem and figuring out if there was a more simple solution.

Offering web sites to that person was the equivalent of people emptying the tub with a teaspoon, teacup, or bucket. The dish towel solution was using the plug for the drain.

The dish towel is something that she already has in her home and doesn't cost her anything and doesn't require any real work. The other solutions require her to visit web sites and read the material, follow and advice and tips from those instructors. That's the work that has to go into using the options of a teaspoon, teacup, or bucket unlike pulling the plug on the drain where something else does all the work for you.

That joke is really a great metaphor for life and how people make a lot of work for themselves and waste energy on things that have a simpler solution. That's where the saying, "Work smarter, not harder" comes from.

The other reason why this joke is misleading is because it was spoken. If you had actually been standing in front of a tub, you would've seen the drain and it would've registered.

It was explained orally, you had to imagine the tub and most people's minds don't go into detail when they imagine a tub. For example, when I imagine a tub, I just see the outside of a white tub. My image in my mind doesn't look inside the tub showing the drain.

Don't feel too bad if you got it wrong. There are so many things in this world very much like that example where people totally all the Signs and only think to use a teaspoon, teacup, or bucket when there's really a plug that people overlook.

This joke is a really great example of how illusionists will do something to cause your eyes to focus on one hand even though the real part of the trick or illusion is something their other hand is doing.

There was a comedy skit by Dane Cook where he was making fun of Illusionists and Magicians with how they wave their hands around. It's part of the act where your eyes are following their hands rather than where they should be looking.

Really good chess players are masters of deception. They'll draw the attention of their opponent to one section of the chess board when the real attack is happening somewhere else on the chess board.

Answer 3

The plug needs to be pulled and the water drains itself. Logically the bucket would offer the most water removal power if you had to empty a bath like that. But where do you put the water?
The abnormal person would drain a bath using a bucket, a normal person opens the drain.
Think of it this way. What do you do when you are done with a bath? Go look for a bucket?
Good luck understanding this answer.

Answer 4

Ok what there trying to say is they give you all these other options like a bucket and so forth.

and If you use the bucket to dump the water out your suppose to be insane. because a "normal" person wouldnt dump all that water out.

They would just pull the plug on the drain and let the water out.

but a very stupid person ould empty it out with a bucket not just a insane person..

Ive heard this one before its kinda funny, but I am horrible with some of them I have tot hink about them forever!

hope I make some what of sense to you :P

Answer 5

Just because they give you a teaspoon, teacup, and a bucket does not mean that they intend for you to use it to empty the bathtub. If you make that decision it's an illogical leap on your part.

It is the same as saying I have 2 American coins in my hand that equal 55 cents. One is not a nickel, what are they?

Answer 6

For real, you don't get it????? Even though they were given 3 items to empty the tub, a "normal" person would say "screw that, I'm just going to pull the plug. I don't have time to remove water with a cup. They never told me I had to use any of the 3 things they gave me, they just said "empty the tub"."

Answer 7

HELLO!! The drain plug!

Why use a bucket, cup or spoon when you can just empty the tub by pulling the drain plug...

Answer 8

That's a really funny joke. I don't know how to explain it. It's a guy that just got "proved" mentally unstable. Because he picked the wrong route to empty the bathtub. That's the best I can do.

Answer 9

Take the bed near the window

Answer 10

the doctor finds the reporter mentally ill because he doesn't know how to empty the tub.... so he offers the reporter to have a rehab.
got it???