A blank clipboard stands beside a teal pencil with a tiny red rotary telephone perched above it.

Original artwork, not a still

Steven Wright

I filled out an application that said, "In Case Of Emergency Notify". I wrote "Doctor"...what's my mother going to do?

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker answers an emergency-contact question with the kind of person who might provide practical help. Asking what their mother would do sharpens that literal-minded response. The joke comes from treating the form as a problem to solve, rather than following its familiar social expectation.

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