Think of the plainest object in a kitchen: a long wooden spoon standing in a jar by the stove. It costs almost nothing, everybody has one, and nobody would ever show it off. Now picture a prize table at the end of a season, with silver cups at one end. If you put that spoon at the other end and hand it to whoever came last, the joke tells itself. Both uses of this phrase live on how ordinary the object is.
先想廚房裡最不起眼的那樣東西：一支長長的木湯匙，插在爐邊的罐子裡。它幾乎不值錢，每家都有，也沒有人會拿它炫耀。接著想像球季結束的頒獎桌，一頭擺著銀色獎盃。如果你把那支湯匙放在另一頭，頒給最後一名，笑話自己就成立了。這個詞的兩個用法，靠的都是同一件事：這東西有多普通。