the gap between the meaning of the sarcastic person and the interpretation of the person who didn't get it.
Carter served aboard a sub many years ago. Next thing you know he is a nuclear physicist and a submarine commander.
Compared to Quayle, who read the word spelled incorrectly (actually a seldom used variant spelling) OFF THE CARD GIVEN TO HIM.
At least he didn't say he invented the potato!
Carter served on surface ships and on diesel-electric submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. As a junior officer, he completed qualification for command of a diesel-electric submarine.
He applied for the US Navy's fledgling nuclear submarine program run by then Captain Hyman G. Rickover. Rickover's demands on his men and machines were legendary, and Carter later said that, next to his parents, Rickover had the greatest influence on him. Carter has said that he loved the Navy, and had planned to make it his career. His ultimate goal was to become Chief of Naval Operations.
Carter felt the best route for promotion was with submarine duty since he felt that nuclear power would be increasingly used in submarines. Upon the death of his father James Earl Carter, Sr., in July 1953, Lieutenant Carter resigned his commission after six years of military service, and he was discharged from the Navy on October 9, 1953.[11][12]