2006-07-21
Explanation
This comic uses a reverse-chronological structure, showing three moments labeled "5 seconds ago," "10 seconds ago," and "15 seconds ago." In the first panel (5 seconds ago), someone is reading a card that says "Sorry! This was the only type of card they had left. Anyway, happy 30th!" In the second panel (10 seconds ago), a man is shown crying. In the third panel (15 seconds ago), the man is holding a card that reads "Your wife is dead."
The joke works by revealing the context in reverse order. At first, the apology about the card type seems like a minor inconvenience. But as we go further back in time, we see the man was already crying before he even opened the birthday card, and then the final panel reveals why: the only cards available at the store were death notification cards. Someone used a "your wife is dead" sympathy card to deliver a birthday greeting because it was literally all they had left.
The votey panel extends the joke by showing a greeting card store display with sections labeled "Birthday," "Bar Mitzvah," and "Unsentimental Declarations of Death," confirming that this store does indeed stock such an absurd card category. The humor lies in the idea that a card shop would carry blunt death announcements as a standard product line alongside cheerful occasion cards.