A man comes into America and knows very little English initially, and what English he does know, he learned from television shows. For example, a sitcom comes on and a character says, “Why yes, of course”.
A commercial for cutlery comes on where a host talks about “forks and knives”. Then a vacuum commercial comes on, and the host says, “Plug it in”.
One day, the man accidentally speeds away unknowingly from a crime scene. When he is pulled over, the police ask him if he is involved in the murder that he was speeding away from. They ask, “Did you kill this man”? He replies, using his knowledge of television, saying, “Why yes, of course”.
Next, they ask, “What did you kill him with”? He answers again using TV knowledge, saying, “Forks and knives, forks and knives”.
The police are startled and bring the man in. Obviously unable to defend himself in court, he is sentenced to death in the electric chair. There, the executioner asks, “Any last words”?
He replies with the last thing he has left in his English vocabulary, “Plug it in! Plug it in!”
Explanation: The joke plays on the absurdity of language barriers. The man, having learned only a few English phrases from TV, inadvertently confesses to murder by repeating them out of context. His inability to properly communicate escalates the situation, leading to a darkly comic ending where he unknowingly demands his own execution.
