You think I could get paid in advance?

I think about it every day. I'm the one that told him to join the Marines. "Be a man, son. The Corps made me who I am today." You know I keep a pistol next to my bed? I stare at it when I try to fall asleep and resist the temptation to use it on myself. "The challenge is falling asleep before I say "Fuck it" and do it...and every night it gets harder to fall asleep. It was an IED that killed him, but it was me who told him to enlist. I murdered my boy, Peter. You think I could get paid in advance?

A distressed older man confesses that he encouraged his son to enlist in the Marines and blames himself for his death. Peter responds by asking whether he could get paid in advance, creating an absurdly insensitive punchline. This reaction meme is used when someone makes a dark, emotionally devastating confession and the response is opportunistic or completely tone-deaf.

• @itvbia / 9079 2021-01-14