Inspired by @Kolanaki@pawb.social's riff on my spelling error.
Edit 2: Nobody saw that.
Should be "Bee, Earl Grey, hot."
this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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I suppose if a bee collects nectar exclusively from camellia sinensis and bergamot blossoms, it would be an Earl Grey bee.
Zut alors!
What is supposed to be funny here?
Captain Picard usually tells the replicator “Tea. Earl grey. Hot.” At which point the replicator produces a cup of hot earl grey tea.
However, in this meme, Captain Picard says “bees” instead of “tea”. Bees are a swarming, flying insect. As a result, instead of tea appearing in the replicator, a swarm of bees appears.
The humour lies in the fact that a minor substitution in the language of the request drastically changed the resulting situation.
Oh. Yeah. Explaining it like that DEFINITELY made it funny.
Humor is usually, but not always, derived from a surprise from contrasting an expected follow-up with an unexpected situation. Once the joke has been exposed, there is no explanation that would restitute the surprise, hence it's impossible both explain a joke and maintain its humor at the same time, unless the explanation itself is unexpected and therefore part of the joke.
I hope this helps in your journey to understand humans, Data.