A folded map has a short red yarn line across it, with a small yarn ball and a wooden ruler beside it.

Original artwork, not a still

Harry

According to the map, we've only gone four inches.

— Dumb and Dumber  ·  1994

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker reports a distance measured on a map as though it directly described the journey itself. The joke turns on that confusion of scale: four inches of paper can represent much more ground. The apparently precise measurement therefore makes the report sound especially foolish.

Context reviewed

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