What do you call a tired camel?

This joke is a delightful piece of wordplay, relying on a clever pun for its humor. The punchline "humped-out" sounds remarkably similar to "pumped out," a common idiom used to describe someone or something that is completely exhausted or depleted of energy. The comedy comes from applying this familiar phrase to a camel, an animal famously defined by its humps.

Camels are often called "ships of the desert" for good reason. They are incredible creatures built for endurance, capable of traversing vast, arid landscapes for long periods. Their distinctive humps, contrary to popular belief, don't store water, but rather fat, which serves as a vital energy reserve for these arduous journeys. When a camel expends this energy over an extended trip, its humps can actually decrease in size or even sag. The joke playfully brings these facts together, painting a funny picture of a truly tired camel whose very humps reflect its weary state after a long, demanding trek.