Apologies to Columbus, Ohio

The best one-liner I've read in quite some time comes from Thomas Pynchon's latest release, Against the Day. Now, I've never been to Columbus, Ohio, but trust me, character Merle Rideout has good reason for being fed up with Pynchon's fictional Columbus.

Here's the quote:

"If the U.S. was a person," he [Merle] later became fond of saying, "and it sat down, Columbus Ohio would instantly be plunged into darkness." -Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day

Hilarious. What makes it so funny?

1. The line draws a funny connect the dot picture, leaving the reader to connect the last dot. The fact that we complete the joke ourselves makes it really hit home.
2. The line is not only in character (it's hard to see that out of context) but it develops the character. Merle didn't just come out and say butt, keister, heiny, or ass. He found a roundabout way of making his crude observation without using impolite words. Interesting.

This one-liner has been tickling my brain since Thursday. Maybe now that I've written it down and figured out why it got stuck there, I can finally get it out of my head.