Some guy broke into our house last week. He didn't even take the TV. He just took the remote control. Now he drives by and changes channels on us.

The joke escalates an ordinary fear—someone breaking into your home—into an absurdly petty, psychologically invasive crime: stealing only the remote. By leaving the valuable TV behind, the “thief” becomes less a conventional criminal than a mischievous tormentor who can still control the household from afar. The punchline (“drives by and changes channels on us”) turns the remote into a symbol of everyday power and irritation: the smallest tool can dominate a situation, and modern life makes us dependent on trivial conveniences. It’s also a comic inversion of expectations about motive, value, and what counts as a real loss.