Refer of a "That"

Question

jon: how about going out with me, doctor?

liz: i wouldn't go out with you if you were the last man on earth

jon: then, how about sometime after that ?

garfield: that's a good one
------

now, what does that "that" refers to?

and what is the point of what jon says that garfield says something like that?

Avangi · Accepted Answer

After he has been the last man on Earth??

(He would be dead??) (He's so dumb he doesn't realize she's saying she doesn't want to go out with him??)

Mda_omega · Answer

ow, so he says : what if I die?

CalifJim · Answer

mda_omegajon: how about going out with me, doctor?

liz: i wouldn't go out with you if you were the last man on earth

jon: then, how about sometime after that ?

garfield: that's a good one

Jon: Then how about some time after I become the last man on earth -- all other men having died (probably in some cataclysmic event of which Jon is the sole heroic survivor).

That's a good one = That joke is a good (funny, clever) joke. (Garfield is being sarcastic, viewing Jon's wild imaginings, including his estimate of his chances of getting a date with Liz, as so totally implausible that they amount to a joke.)

CJ

Avangi · Answer

Hi, Jim. You have a better sense of humor than I. Your version is much funnier. (Mine wasn't funny at all.)

But my problem is more practical. How does "Sometime after you were the last man on Earth" get to equal "Sometime after you become the last man on Earth"?

I realize that her remark is subjunctive (I assume, not real time) and his remark is real time. I guess there's no legitimate way to make the transformation to either version. But it seems to me that she would need to have said,
"I wouldn't go out with you if you were to become the last man on Earth!" "After that" would be after the event of becoming, and he'd still be alive.

With "if you were the last man on Earth," the event is his being the last man on Earth. After that event, he is dead.
(were to be vs. were to become)

This may be convoluted, but my instinct really preceded my analysis on this one!

CalifJim · Answer

AvangiHow does "Sometime after you were the last man on Earth" get to equal "Sometime after you become the last man on Earth"?

By an act of the imagination, of course! He's not the last man on earth now; he is the last man on earth in the imagined future scenario. He must have become so at some point in between!

CJ

Avangi · Answer

I'm in favor of imagination!

- A.

Refer of a "That"

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