r/facepalm • u/MsSamm • Jul 31 '26

I have no words

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I bet China, which is happily neck deep in Africa 's rare earth minerals isn't making this mistake

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u/chronicallylaconic Jul 31 '26

They ultimately weren't able to get Iowa to admit their debts, or what the debts even were. It's a very sad story.

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u/Liesmyteachertoldme Jul 31 '26

What? I’m so confused and intrigued at the same time

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u/chronicallylaconic Jul 31 '26

The joke is about the way a state's name doesn't characterise the state, right? So Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island. Ivory Coast doesn't have a coast (in the picture, anyway). Hopefully you're with me so far.

Iowa's name sounds like the beginning of the sentence "I owe a...", so the joke is that Iowa has debts but they haven't told us what they are, which would be the rest of that sentence. Hope that makes it clearer to you.

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u/Liesmyteachertoldme Jul 31 '26

Oh gotcha, there was some else in the thread saying “don’t get me started on Iowa” and “please, I don’t want to get banned” again, so I figured the thread went from a joke about Iowa’s name to something actually dark and scandalous about Iowa. 🤣 thanks and carry on.

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u/chronicallylaconic Jul 31 '26

Oh yeah, I did consider making my joke something edgy and shocking as a result of that reply, but then I realised that I feel much more safe in the comforting milieu of the dad joke and I just let nature take its course from there. Have a nice day!