A guy walks into a bar and orders a water.

This little gem works by taking a perfectly reasonable excuse and driving it straight off a cliff into absurdity. The setup presents a familiar puzzle: why is someone ordering water at a bar? The punchline delivers an answer that is both logical on the surface—he's a designated driver—and completely unhinged in its details. It’s the perfect collision of responsible adulting and pure, unadulterated silliness that catches you completely off guard.

The whole idea of a "designated driver" is a fairly modern and noble part of bar culture, born from public safety campaigns in the 1980s. It’s the one role that gets you a free pass for ordering soda or water without getting any grief from your friends (Review) or the bartender. This joke cleverly hijacks that universally understood, respectable role and assigns it to the most ridiculous group of passengers imaginable, making the sober choice seem even stranger than being the only drunk one.

Ultimately, the joke paints an instant, hilarious portrait of a character. Is he profoundly lonely, or just the most dedicated friend in a world of his own making? Either way, he's committed to the bit. It’s a fantastic example of a joke that builds on a shared social understanding and then gives it a sharp, surreal twist, leaving you to picture this guy carefully buckling in his invisible buddies for the ride home.