BROKEN UP

What’s so funny about this? It’s definitely possible to understand this joke without the accompanying photo, but the picture does make it a lot more accessible. Taken literally, this is a pretty gross joke. The photo also tones it down because it’s of an action figure of the Hulk, the green Marvel cartoon character. Even though his body parts are strewn on the ground, it’s just pieces of plastic. Let’s face it; I hope you really weren’t expecting me to find a photo of actual human parts. As long as we keep it light, we can even joke about dismemberment. Let’s look at the word; first we have the prefix “dis-”. It connotes or leads you to the meaning of moving apart, away from. “Member” in this case is a euphemism for “body part”. All our body parts are members of, or belong to, our body, as a whole. If and when these parts come apart, they are dismembered. A more common meaning for member is a person who belongs to a club or organization. In the joke that organization is a CSI team, CS