As the saying goes, "Y is a crooked letter and can't be made straight.", although that has totally different meaning. Similarly, the y in 'finally' makes an i

As the saying goes, "Y is a crooked letter and can't be made straight.", although that has totally different meaning. Similarly, the y in 'finally' makes an i sound (as in the i in 'machine'), while the y in 'tyrant' makes a different i sound (as in the i in 'finally'), and of course the y in 'year' makes yet another totally different sound. And then of course you have 'lye' and 'lie', which sound the same but with very different meanings. That is what these jokes were about, simplifying so that each letter has only one sound and a spoken word can only be spelled one way while a written word can only be pronounced one way. It doesn't work and is silly because letters take their sounds from context, combination, and position, as does the y in 'year'. And there aren't enough letters for all the sounds in English.