# I don't get the joke on this T-Shirt? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 22, 2014, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659 "2014-04-22T05:09:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/41 "2014-04-22T17:39:14Z")
We use the phrase ‘come for the crack’ in England on occasion, often in association with a trip to an Irish-themed pub. I assumed that the term was known in Philadephian Irish bars too; is this not correct? It does at least make sense as a ‘joke’, while the cocaine reference does not seem funny at all. (I used the faux-Irish spelling to distinguish it from the cocaine-linked slang term). ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/42 "2014-04-22T17:44:05Z")
Then there’s “Jimmy Crack Corn.” Get it? Get it? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/43 "2014-04-22T17:45:03Z")
Someone should forward a link to this thread to the writers, to see if they can work the argument into the show. This sounds like a bar argument. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/44 "2014-04-22T17:46:00Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Someone should forward a link to this thread to the writers, to see if they can work the argument into the show. This sounds like a bar argument. That would be awesome. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/45 "2014-04-22T17:49:44Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > I assumed that the term was known in Philadephian Irish bars too; is this not correct? It does at least make sense as a ‘joke’, while the cocaine reference does not seem funny at all. (I used the faux-Irish spelling to distinguish it from the cocaine-linked slang term). It’s not hilarious but it plays on the “Come to New Orleans For The Seafood”/“Come To Boston For The History” type of tourism slogans. It’s a crass allusion but I’ve seen t-shirts in fishing shops with “Master Baiter” type slogans and it is ever so slightly higher brow than that. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/46 "2014-04-22T18:11:10Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yes, I’ve seen every single episode. So, as someone who knows the show fairly well, would you say that they have dozens of small, subtle jokes, like a show like “The Venture Brothers” might contain? In my own limited exposure to this (very funny) show, I would say that they do not. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/47 "2014-04-22T18:11:31Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > We use the phrase ‘come for the crack’ in England on occasion, often in association with a trip to an Irish-themed pub. > > I assumed that the term was known in Philadephian Irish bars too; is this not correct? It does at least make sense as a ‘joke’, while the cocaine reference does not seem funny at all. (I used the faux-Irish spelling to distinguish it from the cocaine-linked slang term). There is absolutely no doubt that the Liberty Bell/crack cocaine connection is the primary one, and possibly the only intended one. That’s all the pun means to 99% of Americans. Now, the craic/Liberty Bell pun has been [made before](http://philadelphia.cities2night.com/places/details/76) (“craic that puts the Bell to shame!”), and given that “for the crack/craic” is an established phrase, although not so much in US English (although it does appear in some dialects in at least Chicago, it seems), I personally don’t think that the phrase being the genesis of the pun is so far-fetched, especially if the original designer is a Philadelphian Irish-American. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/48 "2014-04-22T18:17:50Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Hah. That kind of stuff happens to me all the time. Also in the reverse: I’ll read something here that I’ve never heard of–whether it be a word, a phrase, a song, a fad, etc.–and then I encounter it seemingly everywhere I go. There’s a [quiz on Buzzfeed from today](http://www.buzzfeed.com/jennaguillaume/how-many-australian-movies-have-you-actually-seen) about Australian movies and one of them is titled _The Craic_. If I hadn’t have read this thread I wouldn’t have known what it meant or how to pronounce it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/49 "2014-04-22T18:18:39Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](#): > > So, as someone who knows the show fairly well, would you say that they have dozens of small, subtle jokes, like a show like “The Venture Brothers” might contain? In my own limited exposure to this (very funny) show, I would say that they do not. Well, the joke they were going for there is the Liberty Bell/crack cocaine one. I’ve said repeatedly this is the case. I just personally think there is a reasonable chance that the inspiration for it came from the phrase “for the crack” and that means with the original creator of that slogan, as it seems it may predate the show. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/50 "2014-04-22T18:23:58Z")
I’m in Boston, a city with a large Irish population. We have lots of Irish pubs and I go to them frequently. I don’t think the phrase “for the craic” has anything at all to do with the t-shirt. It’s not commonly used here, and it’s not a phrase that registers with many people. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/51 "2014-04-22T19:02:38Z")
Mac doesn’t wear t-shirts that have anything to do with the fact that they own an Irish pub, he just wears various jokey shirts, usually with a different location/tourist trap type place involved, like the kind you’d get at a gift shop or a local novelty shirt shop. [Here’s a pic of him wearing a Detroit shirt.](http://detroithappens.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/mac-detroit-shirt-5-edited1.jpg) The “craic” idea MIGHT have been thought of by the shirt designer. MAYBE. Even that I doubt. But regardless, nobody on the staff at Sunny thought of it. No way. From the Always Sunny [wiki](http://itsalwayssunny.wikia.com/wiki/Mac): “Mac usually wears sleeveless shirts or tight tees to draw attention to his glamour muscles and to exhibit his “tribal” tattoos. (“Charlie Wants An Abortion”) Mac’s T-shirts usually have an ironic slogan on the front.” ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/52 "2014-04-22T19:09:54Z")
And Paddy’s Irish Pub isn’t an Irish pub, in any meaningful sense of the word. It’s a shithole where drunks go to die. [Literally](http://itsalwayssunny.wikia.com/wiki/The_Gang_Finds_a_Dead_Guy). You’d have to be a Jabroni to believe they’d make a subtle play on words based on an Irish expression. ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/53 "2014-04-22T19:14:06Z")
I think the OP is just trying to sell T-shirts. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/54 "2014-04-22T19:21:31Z")
> [@randompattern](#): > > I think the OP is just trying to sell T-shirts. Hahaha oh god, you might be right. Some crack we had in this thread even if it was a spam post. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/55 "2014-04-22T19:25:46Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > The “craic” idea MIGHT have been thought of by the shirt designer. MAYBE. Even that I doubt. But regardless, nobody on the staff at Sunny thought of it. No way. I can buy that, although not with that level of certainty. At any rate, the tertiary meaning has [not been lost on everyone](http://6dollarshirts.com/t-shirts/Come-To-Philly-For-The-Crack-p-11133.html). > [@](#): > > the word is spelled right ,it is an Irish word for fun,also spelled, Craic as gaeilge!!! ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/56 "2014-04-22T19:29:27Z")
And as stated before, there was an where [Dennis and Dee get addicted to crack](http://itsalwayssunny.wikia.com/wiki/Dennis_and_Dee_Go_on_Welfare), and an episode where [the gang cracks the Liberty Bell](http://itsalwayssunny.wikia.com/wiki/The_Gang_Cracks_the_Liberty_Bell). No episode where the gang visits some mythical Irish town. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/57 "2014-04-22T19:45:21Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > And as stated before, there was an where [Dennis and Dee get addicted to crack](http://itsalwayssunny.wikia.com/wiki/Dennis_and_Dee_Go_on_Welfare), and an episode where [the gang cracks the Liberty Bell](http://itsalwayssunny.wikia.com/wiki/The_Gang_Cracks_the_Liberty_Bell). No episode where the gang visits some mythical Irish town. Not sure what point is being made here. It seems the t-shirt/slogan predates the show. My contention is that it’s not far-fetched to think the originator of the slogan was inspired by the phrase “for the crack” in the Irish or UK English sense. You seem to think it is. Unfortunately, unless we can track down the originator, we have no way of knowing, but it’s a bet I’d take at even odds. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/58 "2014-04-22T19:54:43Z")
Ok, but there’s no way Mac wore it on the show as some kind of craic/crack pun, even though Paddy’s is theoretically an “Irish” pub. And Philadelphia, especially North Philly, was notorious during the crack scare of the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/59 "2014-04-22T19:56:47Z")
[WHAT’S NOT TO GET?](http://2damnfunny.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Come-To-Philly-For-The-Crack-And-Ironic-T-Shirts-In-Its-Always-Sunny-In-Philadelphia.png) Appropriate screen cap from the show. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659/60 "2014-04-22T20:03:17Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Ok, but there’s no way Mac wore it on the show as some kind of craic/crack pun, even though Paddy’s is theoretically an “Irish” pub. And Philadelphia, especially North Philly, was notorious during the crack scare of the 80s. Yes, I’ll agree with that. > [@Bob Ducca](#): > > WHAT’S NOT TO GET? > > Appropriate screen cap from the show. I’m getting some “B.U.T.T.” cartoon thing when I click on that. ETA: Weird, now it’s the original joke in context. Before, when I clicked on it, I got [this](http://i.imgur.com/zhq0jXs.gif). And you haven’t edited your post, from what I see, so I have no idea what’s going on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-the-joke-on-this-t-shirt/686659.md?page=4)