What's the joke here? (Question about the TV show Mom)

Cafe Society
1

I don’t watch the show Mom regularly-- albeit, I have been, recently, mostly, since Kristen Johnston joined the cast. But it’s a show I catch a lot in reruns, because it’s on a lot, and really pretty funny.

I mention that I don’t tend to catch it in sequence, because I’m not getting a joke, and I guess it’s possible I’m missing something they’re referring back to.

Thing is, I thought I got it, and that it was hilariously funny. Then I happened to catch the same episode again, and the captions were on, and they weren’t saying what I thought they were saying.

Here’s the set-up, and what I thought they were saying:

Christy has been dating a much younger man, practically young enough to be her son. They broke up, and he is not communicating with her after her numerous and varied attempts to apologize. This piece of dialogue takes place.

WENDY (a friend): Did you try an edible arrangement?
BONNIE (Christy’s mother): She’s apologizing for an Oedipal arrangement.

Pretty good joke, right? I didn’t think at the time that making a joke about Oedipus was a little out-of-character for Bonnie. But nevermind. When I caught it with captions on, it turns out that Bonnie says this:

She’s apologizing for an edible arrangement.

Same word. No pun. So, AFAIK, no joke. But the audience in-studio is laughing (yes, I know there’s a “Laughter” sign), but that means the writers think there’s a joke there.

What is it?

2

Probably what you thought it was.

The subtitles usually don’t come from a script. Someone has to type them. They listen to the dialogue and type what they hear. Sometimes they get it wrong.

I think this is a case where the subtitler didn’t get the joke, and typed the wrong word.

3

I wonder what the subtitler’s level of education/literacy was to miss so obvious a pun.

4

Is that true? I’m sure for things like live broadcasts and unscripted shows but…

I always watch with the captions on. Once there was some silly joke about a name being spelled with 4 Ns or the like. Later in the show, when the name is mentioned in dialogue, it is spelled in the captions the same silly way it was described earlier in the episode despite not changing the pronunciation. Was that in the script, or was it a captioner in joke?

WRT the OP though, it could be an error, that’s definitely a more clever joke. But it could also be a different sexual joke, referencing oral sex or edible undies.

5

Automatic transcription software has advanced to the magic point where it is really good 95% of the time and its no longer worth a human’s effort to proof-read it to pick up the remaining errors.

6

I think Jackdavinci got it. It’s more likely to be sexual innuendo. It *is *a clever joke but as mentioned, it would not be something that character would say.

7

I don’t know the show or the characters, but it’s not unusual for a character to make a joke that’s “inappropriate” for them if the joke is funny and they’re the only ones who can really deliver it. From the description I’d be pretty sure that’s what’s happening here.

8

A: I totally agree that the originally-perceived line was what was said.
B: I also totally believe that that joke is within Bonnie’s grasp. She’s the show’s designated Genius Ditz (I’ll spare your day by not linking to TVTropes). Because Allison Janney is such a gifted actress, they can pretty much write anything for Bonnie and she can pull it off.

9

I just saw this episode and I watched her lips. Wendy asked if she had tried an ‘edible arrangement’ (meaning did she try sending him a fruit bouquet)…IMO Bonnie then wisecracked Christy she apologize for ‘an edible arrangement’. Christy and her young piece were having a friend with benefits arrangement, and ‘edible arrangement’ in this context meant oral sex.

10

I agree, it was “edible,” meaning oral sex.