2010-07-08
Explanation
This comic features God (depicted as a golden sun-like figure with a face) responding to a man who has asked the classic philosophical question "Why is there something instead of nothing?" The top panel shows God's sarcastic reply: "Oh gee, good question. Here, let me call the Nothingverse and see if nobody picks up. Hello? Hello? Well that's odd, no-" before being cut off by the exasperated man: "Okay. I get it. Jeez." The bottom panel, labeled "Moments prior...," reveals the man had sincerely asked God this deep metaphysical question.
The comic takes one of the most profound questions in philosophy -- Leibniz's famous "Why is there something rather than nothing?" -- and has God respond with withering sarcasm rather than a profound answer. God's mock attempt to "call the Nothingverse" highlights how absurd the question is from the perspective of an entity who actually created everything. If there were nothing, there would be no one to ask the question and no one to answer it. The joke is that even God finds this question annoying and responds not with divine wisdom but with the kind of passive-aggressive sarcasm a teenager might use.
The votey panel adds another layer: the man comments that God looks "like a golden pizza," and God responds, "I too have a creator, and he is a lazy bastard." This is a meta-joke where God breaks the fourth wall to complain about the cartoonist Zach Weinersmith's simple art style for the God character, which does indeed resemble a golden pizza shape.