The punchline. posted by Richard Seymour

At the end of Portnoy's Complaint, the entire novel is reduced to an unheard and unheeded diatribe with the "punchline" from Mr Portnoy's analyst: Zoh! Now vee may to begin?

The best that New Orleans officials could do for the poor in the run up to the expected cataclysm was to create DVDs instructing those stranded for pecuniary reasons that they were on their own. "In the event of a hurricane, run away. No, the other way. No, there's a roadblock there. No, that sherrif is shooting, go the other way. Hey, there's a shelter, go in there and wait for someone to start giving a shit". That is assuming, of course, that the poor have DVD players or computers to watch them on.

Punchline: the DVDs weren't even delivered. Oh well. It was a nice thought.