Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
Originally posted by: Heller
I don't get it
The starting phrase, "As a child, I was afraid of the dentist," is something many of us can relate to. It is an irrational fear stemming from the fear of the unknown, combined with the presumption that it may hurt. We figure from this opening line that he is going to tell us about how irrational his fear was.
However, in the turn, we hear that the dentist is a pedophile. In this case, his fear was not irrational, but largely justified based on his dentist's sexual advances. This is a situation most of us aren't familiar with, and we weren't expecting based on the setup of the joke. The humor stems from our own assumptions about his fear being irrational and the unexpected reality that his fear stemmed from an unlikely source.
Alternately, pedophilia is funny, so anytime someone says
pedophile, you should laugh. This is especially effective at group therapy sessions.