A white curled wig rests on an upright silver coin beside an open empty brown wallet against slate blue.

Original artwork, not a still

Steven Wright

Do you think that when they asked George Washington for ID that he just whipped out a quarter?

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

A surreal bit of logic: a coin has a famous face on it, so if someone were asked for identification, could he just hand over a quarter? The joke plays with the idea of a portrait acting as ID, treating absurd literalism as if it were a serious question.

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