I absolutely love when people fall on swords for the bit. Joel Smallishbeans is such a good example of it too.
He puffs himself up all annoyed and outraged and says "Of course I wouldn't fall for that obvious trap! You're stupid! I'm not stupid!" And then immediately goes off and does it because the rule of the bit says that's the funniest outcome and he has to do it no matter how much it inconveniences him
I can't get over he perfectly follows that formula in the latest EGG saga to the most extreme comedic way possible. EGG invites him and Cleo over to their secret base with a proposal: They'll prank someone for them for 1000 diamonds. This is an absurd offer, one that they never intended to have anyone actually take them up on. Joel even laughs in disbelief at it how few diamonds he has in comparison and Etho helpfully points out that Scar runs a bank. Immediately you see the gears turning in Joel's head that now he has to figure out a way to do it once he realizes that it is possible. He sees the invisible thread of the bit and he has to follow it.
Then Grian pulls the trigger for the actual reason Cleo and Joel were invited over because who would pay them 1000 diamonds for a prank? This whole meeting was just a setup to get Joel and/or Cleo into position to launch them thousands of blocks into the sky with windcharges again. And because of Joel's hilarious luck and the world loving to watch him suffer, he's the only one who gets launched and he's pissed because he's already done this before and it's so annoying to him. He comes back and makes a whole show of letting them know how annoyed and mad he was and even half-heartedly threatens to blow the place up just to play it up. He asks how to leave and Grian attempts to trick him into launching him again but Joel manages to weasel out of it and they all laugh it off and Joel goes on his way. They got a funny Joel reaction, prank completed.
Except Joel can't stop thinking about the thread of the bit. It's there and he can see it and it's calling him. He can't just let it go unanswered.
He immediately returns back to clarify that EGG would prank False for him for 1000 diamonds. With confirmation and encouragement that yes, the bit is still alive and well, Joel immediately goes to get a loan from Scar. And to the shock of everyone he comes back 20 minutes later with 1000 diamonds. Grian openly admits he didn't think anyone would do it. Then Joel admits that he has 15% interest on the loan and you can hear it in his voice that he's only now starting to comprehend just how bad of a financial idea that was. Of course now he's in too deep and he's at risk of regretting committing to this so he starts playing up how much he wants False to suffer and how serious he is about this because holy shit he just gave them one thousand diamonds on impulse for a bit and it's just hitting him. He's going to have to do so much mining to pay off that debt. And then he realizes that if he doesn't pay it off within a month, he agreed to give up his base???? I think him saying all of that out loud made him realize he yes-anded too close to the sun and oh god what has he done???? No one asked him to do this but he saw the bit and he just couldn't let it go. There was a sword to fall on by god he had to do it! He just had to! Now he has to worry about the bank owning his base if he doesn't come into possession of 1150 diamonds by the end of the month.
I love Joel so fucking much
