Ted Cruz said his opponent would ban the barbecue in Texas and that people can not say if he's joking.

Anatomy of a Ted Cruz joke

Setting up

Protesters with the people for the ethical treatment of animals fell on Saturday during a campaign organized by Senator Ted Cruz, distributing tofu on a barbecue in front of a restaurant in Columbus, Texas.

The punchline

"I must say, they summed up all the election," Cruz told the crowd inside the restaurant. "If Texas elects a Democrat, it will ban the barbecue through the state."

Badum-bum!

The second punchline

Oh, he was not finished.

"You want to talk about an issue to mobilize people, and I'm talking about everyone," Cruz continued, as reported by Austin-American Statesman. "So I want to thank PETA and I want to tell PETA that you're going to have to disclose to the [Federal Election Commission] that by coming in and protesting and distributing tofu, you made an in-kind contribution to my campaign by showing how bad things can be.

The crowd inside the restaurant laughed. Cruz smiled as he spoke.

Waiting we forgot some of the configuration

If you do not understand the implicit relationship between barbecue, tofu and representative Beto O. Rourke, the democrat who broke into Cruz's few points in the latest polls, please refer to a preliminary joke of Cruz made a week longer. early. , at a campaign event in Humble.

"The Liberals are desperate to turn blue Texas," said Cruz. "They want us to be like California, right down to tofu, silicon and dyed hair." He smiled, but also shouted and set the example as an example of the "dangerous" of the extreme left. . . level of fury and rage. "

In any event, Saturday's PETA members were not in the name of O'Rourke or Democrats. In the words of their press release, they just wanted to show Cruz "how tofu can be delicious".

The third, fourth and fifth punches

One day after his campaign stop, Cruz made another Beto / BBQ joke.

His spokesperson did another, inventing the hashtag "#AbolishBBQ", which did not become viral. Then she just started tweeting on the barbecue a lot.

Cruz continued, retweeting Other people jokes and articles on his own joke. The barbecue of the campaign lasted in monday, while everyone in the national audience did not laugh.

Does he even joke?

The statesman recalls that one of the last times Cruz mixed politics and humor, his campaign aired a radio jingle that falsely accused O'Rourke of hiding his real name. A furor over the ad finally drove Cruz to a controversial CNN interview where he explained, "It's just kind of a joke."

[Rafael ‘Ted’ Cruz accuses his Democratic opponent of changing his name to appeal to voters]

Similarly, a stateman's journalist suspected this joke or not, Cruz had perhaps tried to associate O'Rourke "with a tanan, a pro-tofu, a vegan wegano, an animus to BBQ" to his audience.

Whatever the humor that Cruz heard, she was lost in many titles.

"In search of a new question, Cruz says O'Rourke will ban the barbecue," said the Statesman's.

Newsweek: "TED CRUZ WILL CLAIM BETO O'ROURKE BANS BARBECUE IN TEXAS."

Esquire: "Ted Cruz has nothing more than the Gibberish war war."

And a good part of Twitter was just confusing:

The confirmation of the punchline

Three days after Cruz delivered his line to the Schobels restaurant in Columbus (which is not even a barbecue, by the way, it's a house), the Washington Post contacted the senator's campaign team to find out what he was trying to transmit. .

"After the tweet, he used three funny emoticons," said spokeswoman Catherine Frazier. "Of course it was a joke."

Badum-bum.

Read more:

O & # 39; Rourke's campaign accuses "the impostor" of the texts in search of undocumented voters

Willie Nelson gives a political concert for Beto O'Rourke. Some fans give it up.