My father invented a cure for which there was no disease and unfortunately my mother caught it and died of it.

Borge’s line is a compact example of his deadpan, logic-twisting humor. It parodies the language of medical progress—“invented a cure”—by attaching it to an absurd premise: a cure for a disease that doesn’t exist. The punchline then escalates the absurdity by treating the “cure” as if it were itself contagious and fatal, turning a supposed benefit into a cause of harm. The joke plays on misplaced scientific confidence and the unintended consequences of tinkering, while also using the shock of “my mother…died” to heighten the comic incongruity. Its effect depends on the listener recognizing the deliberate impossibility and the mock-serious delivery.