Didn't get this joke

[Dorsidwarf]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0675.html

Didn't get the joke from the last panel of the strip. Why is "buying local bridges" a punchline?

[HMS Invincible]

A common scam is to "sell" public bridges. The joke is you can't legally do so, and any money you spent on the bridge is forever gone.

[Porthos]

More specifically I would presume it's a riff on buying the (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070524140610AAlwSZ6) Brooklyn (http://www.blogtyrant.com/the-man-who-sold-the-brooklyn-bridge-twice-a-week-for-30-years/) Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_C._Parker). Which is, more or less, where the phrase, "If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you" comes from.

It's analogous to 'buying swampland in Florida' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swampland_in_Florida), to give another Americanism. :smallsmile:

[AKA_Bait]

Dates back to the con artist exploits of George C. Parker.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_C._Parker)
And what Porthos said.

[NerdyKris]

A common scam is to "sell" public bridges. The joke is you can't legally do so, and any money you spent on the bridge is forever gone.

I don't think it's actually a common scam. It's mostly just a joke, meaning to sell something that you can't actually buy. The joke is usually a variant of "If you believe that, I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you".

I'm not sure it was ever used as anything more than a joke about naive newcomers to New York City.

[Porthos]

I don't think it's actually a common scam. It's mostly just a joke, meaning to sell something that you can't actually buy. The joke is usually a variant of "If you believe that, I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you".

I'm not sure it was ever used as anything more than a joke about naive newcomers to New York City.

Maybe not anymore since that specific joke is so engrained into the American consciousness, but as AKA_Bait and I pointed out it was rampant at the beginning of the 20th century.

[Grogmir]

Now we just do it with different objects... Bit of Moon anyone!?

http://www.moonestates.com/

[TheWombatOfDoom]

This looks like a job for the Annotated Order of the Stick!

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16143841#post16143841

See the entry for update 675. :smallwink:

[ORione]

Also, there's not likely to be many bridges in the desert.

[NerdyKris]

Maybe not anymore since that specific joke is so engrained into the American consciousness, but as AKA_Bait and I pointed out it was rampant at the beginning of the 20th century.

Yup, I stand corrected. I didn't see your posts when I wrote mine.

[Xelbiuj]

Also, there's not likely to be many bridges in the desert.

This.
Simply referencing a saying isn't a joke. Especially not without context and especially still there's no reason to suggest that any OOTS nations would have similar laws.

[jere7my]

This.
Simply referencing a saying isn't a joke. Especially not without context and especially still there's no reason to suggest that any OOTS nations would have similar laws.

The joke was Haley commenting on Elan's naïveté. She was saying she expected him to fall for one of the oldest scams in the book; the fact that the scam doesn't actually make sense in the current setting just enhances the joke.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Also, there's not likely to be many bridges in the desert.

I'm sure there are plenty of canyons and rifts to be bridged.

[Porthos]

The joke was Haley commenting on Elan's naïveté. She was saying she expected him to fall for one of the oldest scams in the book; the fact that the scam doesn't actually make sense in the current setting just enhances the joke.

It's also a random Pop Culture reference, which Rich has been known to make. From time to time. :smallwink: That it has extra value just, as you say, adds to the joke.

It's also a Pop Culture reference because of the title of the strip: It Costs An Armor Leg. That is "It Costs An Arm And A Leg". With the double groan worthy aspect of this scene taking place in an Armory.

And if we want to flay every last piece of skin off of this horse, Rich spent a decent amount of time in Brooklyn. Thus yet another possible angle.

And so on and so on and so on. :smallwink:

[Anarion]

The joke was Haley commenting on Elan's naïveté. She was saying she expected him to fall for one of the oldest scams in the book; the fact that the scam doesn't actually make sense in the current setting just enhances the joke.

Not only that, she used the plural, implying he would continually trust everyone he met, even when being presented with the same scam.

...look, Haley didn't fall for the guy because of his brains. :smalltongue:

[Nimrod's Son]

I don't think it's actually a common scam. It's mostly just a joke, meaning to sell something that you can't actually buy. The joke is usually a variant of "If you believe that, I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you".
...a joke that Redcloak riffs on in this comic (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0548.html).

[AKA_Bait]

...a joke that Redcloak riffs on in this comic (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0548.html).

That one is actually a double riff. "A Bridge to Terabithia" is a reference to a children's book in which the main characters (who are children) create a fictional place, Terabithia. The "bridge" is itself a log over a creek, added at the end of the book after the original method of reaching Terabithia, a rope swing over the creek, snaps resulting in the death of one of the main characters.

[Evandar]

Hell, I've lived in Asia for my entire life and we still say "I've got a bridge to sell you."

[Hamiltonz]

Also, there's not likely to be many bridges in the desert.

London Bridge is in a desert.

All this talk of selling landmarks reminded me of how in 1967 Ivan Luckin sold the London Bridge to Robert P. McCulloch. He had it deconstructed and moved to Arizona.

It now spans a man made canal connecting a man made island to a "planned community" on the shore of a man made lake.

Oh, and they sold it because it was 'unfit to carry modern traffic.' I.e. it was falling down.

:)