Leonardo6/ny_cartoon_1k huggingface dataset:
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: Stay with me, sir. It's almost recess. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: A joke about a childish politicians with short attention spans. The two advisors are explaining something very important (it looks like a pandemic spreading), and apparently the politician is inattentive, simply hoping to go outside to play like a child. It's funny in part because it plays on the idea that politicians are not actually smart and don't actually care about people.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: This suit looked way better in the store. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: Sometimes, clothes you try on in a store look better when you are deciding to buy them or not. Here, the idea is taken to the extreme: the person in the diving suit bought the "suit" without even noticing it was a diving suit (and looks out of place for the party)/
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: Well, if it isn't the Gym Reaper. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: A play on the term "grim reaper" --- who is an iconic character with robes and a scythe representing death. Here, "gym" sounds like "grim", and the "gym reaper" at the door has similar characteristics to the grim reaper (sythe, robes), but is dressed in workout clothing like tennis shoes and sweat pants that one might wear at a gym.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: I heard today I'm getting canned. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: A play on words: "getting canned" might be a worry of a human drinking at a bar who is about to be fired from work. But for a fish at a bar, "getting canned" is a literal worry because fish like tuna are put in cans as food.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: I guarantee he brings up the whole discovering-fire thing within the first five minutes. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: A joke about how couples sometimes gossip. While the wives are friends, the men in these two couples are apparently in a bit of a feud -- one built an impressive tower, whereas, the other invented fire. The tower builder is jealous of the fire inventor, and worries he'll bring up his invention immediately. It's funny in part because spouses sometimes have to put up with their partner's friends, even though they don't like them.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: Frank called to say he'll be late, he's stuck at the office. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: A play on the term "stuck in traffic" --- when people commute, they will sometimes miss meetings because they are stuck in traffic. But here, the meeting is taking place on transit, and the location the missing person is is flipped: in a funny twist, they are stuck at the office (where meetings would usually take place), and will miss the transit meeting.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: The revolution has begun! Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: The communist revolution is an overthrow of the capitalist class by the working class, as theorized by Marx. Here, the window washer and the businessman have swapped jobs, i.e., the businessman was overthrown from his post. The man in the desk on the phone is purportedly informing his comrades that this is the first step of the revolution, and they can all begin to do the same. The revolution usually is portrayed as more violent, so it would be surprising if this really was the first step.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: Now who's laughing all the way. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: A reference to the song "Jingle Bells" --- in that song, humans are riding in a sleigh being pulled by animals, "laughing all the way" to their destination as the animals work to pull them. This cartoon flips the holiday song on it's head: the reindeer have taken over and are now the ones laughing, instead of santa, the human.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: Meet Trump's nominee for the Centers for Disease Control. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: A joke about donald trump's cabinet appointments. Usually, government bodies are for oversight in the public interest, and should be headed by people operating in good faith, e.g., an oil company CEO shouldn't be the head of the EPA, but trump appointed lots of people with such conflicts of interest. The joke takes it one step further: that the head of the CDC is a literal mosquito --- mosquitoes are famous for spreading many diseases like malaria, and it would be a big conflict of interest if one was the head of the CDC, which aims to stop disease spreading.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: Oh, now you want to talk, when all week it was all 'Do Not Disturb.’ Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: A joke about a surprisingly combative relationship between a housekeeper at a hotel and a guest. The secretive guest very much does not want to be disturbed, and left the small sign on the doorknob indicating as such for the week of their stay. But now, they are on the other side of the door engaging with the housekeeper, who cautiously approaches with a gun. It's funny in part because the potential reasons for this escalation are humorous, e.g., perhaps the guest is a criminal, and the housekeeper is an undercover agent who has been trying to covertly stop them.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: Your meal came with a toy? Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: For humans, popular fast food chains often give children toys with their meals, e.g., the Happy Meal from McDonalds. But for dinosaurs, the meals are humans --- and the dinosaur on the right ate a human with a hat (i.e., the "toy"), whereas the human the dinosaur on the left ate didn't come with a toy (i.e., wasn't wearing a hat).
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: Geez, it's twenty-five to life already. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: People often lose track of time at social gatherings with friends, which is depicted by the person checking his watch in the living room scene. The time he sees on his watch explains the prison: instead of seeing a usual time like "five", he humorously sees that the criminal sentence "twenty-five to life" has passed.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: Six rounds. Nine lives. You do the math. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: Revolvers have 6 bullet capacity, and there's a proverb that states that cats have 9 lives. The cat is humorously nonchalant about being shot by the mouse because it believes it literally has 9 lives --- even if it was killed 6 times, it would still have extras to win the fight versus the mouse.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: Weren't there three of you? Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: A joke about the third diner falling off the roof. This odd restaurant has very few safety constraints, and has tables on the roof with no guards against falling. A waiter asking where a member of a dining party is is not unusual (e.g., if they want to wait to make sure everyone is there before taking orders), but here, it's because they fell to their death, as their dining partners looked on.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: Forget Oregon. I'm going to Vegas. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: A joke about the Oregon trail being diverted to Las Vegas. Settlers moving from the east to the west coast on wagons usually ended in Oregon, but these settlers are distracted by the lights and glamour of Las Vegas. The depicted spotlights depicted are commonly found in Vegas, which has lots of tourist activities and amenities, and is along the way. The joke is funny in part because modern Las Vegas didn't exist at the time of the Oregon Trail, and so this couldn't have happened.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: Your overhead is going to kill you. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: Overhead costs eat away at profits in companies/organizations, which can lead to their downfall. Here, however, the overhead is literally a giant sword which can literally kill the king.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: I don't mind but Harald's allergic. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: A joke that contrasts the purported toughness of warrior vikings with their desire to accommodate the cute, small dog coming along with their unit. While vikings are seen as tough, it's funny that one wants to bring his tiny dog along, and also funny that the concern with the dog isn't that having it will make them look not tough, but instead, that one of the other vikings has a minor allergy.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: Five hundred billion galaxies and nothing’s on. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: A joke about not being able to find a TV show to watch. Sometimes, people will complain that there's nothing interesting on TV, despite there being many channels available. But here, the entire galaxy is in their living room (as a stand-in for the multitude of channels). It's funny because the scale of the options they have is the entire universe, and yet, they are bored by it all.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: Yes, but just a couple of meads, probably more than an hour ago. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: After a car accident, police officers might ask whether or not people involved in the accident had been drinking alcohol. Here, the jouster is being questioned about his potential alcohol impairment because he accidentally jousted a car (as evidenced by the car door). But because he's a jouster from medieval times, he has been drinking mead instead of a more modern beverage.
user: Given a cartoon image and a caption. Caption: No, just hear him out. Maybe we are being too defensive. Question: Generating an explanation of why this image/caption combination is funny. Answer: 

assistant: A play on the word "defensive" --- in the football context, playing "too defensive" might mean a team might not be trying to take control and push offensively on the field. But, for a therapist, being "too defensive" refers to a psychological frame of denial, which can stop people from mentally moving past their problems. It's funny partly because strong, manly football players are the sort of people one might expect to be too emotionally defensive.