Streets full of water. Please advise.

Benchley’s line reads like a clipped telegram or emergency bulletin: a deadpan report of a problem (“Streets full of water”) followed by an absurdly bureaucratic request for guidance (“Please advise”). The humor lies in the mismatch between the apparent urgency of flooding and the timid, office-memo tone—suggesting a speaker who can only process catastrophe through administrative procedure. It also satirizes modern communication habits: instead of acting, the narrator escalates, seeks instructions, and defers responsibility. In miniature, it captures Benchley’s comic persona—anxious, polite, and overwhelmed by practical reality—turning crisis into a parody of helpless professionalism.