Glad to know that I'm not the only one
My family thinks I'm overexaggerating or overdramatic, but I just get so darn worked up and anxious. I just do my best to keep it on my end so that the person over the phone can't tell.
Willard wrote:
I completely understand anxiety issues with phones and phone calls.
I do not get how the caption is appropriate to the GIF or what's supposed to be funny about it. Neither character seems to be the least bit anxious about the phone, or anything else, for that matter. If no one appears to be experiencing torture of any kind, why ask the question? That phone appears non-threatening and nobody is actively using it to communicate. The caption is therefore non-sequitur, thus unfunny, so not technically a joke.
It would be funny if the phone were giving someone an electric shock, or affixed to someone's head as a device of torture, ala A Clockwork Orange; then the caption would make sense, vis a vis the GIF.
Oh, I took it as the woman was either: 1) trying to figure out how to use the phone, but it was too complex of a device (judging by her antiquated dress and the rotary phone, it may have been back at the innovation of the telephone, so she may not have had previous experience using it) or 2) trying to talk to someone and the conversation wasn't going well because she couldn't understand them or some similar over-the-phone issue. One is more likely, though two is what I relate more to

It's not necessarily the GIF as much as it is the potential funny story behind the gif.