What's So Funny about the Absurd?

Read this poem:

Snake-Charming Secrets of the Indian Subcontinent
By James Tate

I was seated at the bar having my usual
five o’clock cocktail, a martini. It had been
a hellish day at the office and I was trying to
shake off some of the tension. “Can I have your
olive?” the stranger sitting next to me asked.
“Hell, no,” I answered testily. “Well, then, can
I have…