Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

This single-panel comic is presented as a "Death Tip," offering advice on how to make the most of your final moments if you know you are about to die. A man on his deathbed, surrounded by what appears to be his family including a young child, uses his dying breath to play the classic "got your nose" game with the kid -- but with a sinister twist.

Instead of the usual playful gesture, the dying man gleefully announces he is taking the child's nose "to the nether world," laughing maniacally. The child looks horrified. The humor comes from the subversion of the solemn deathbed scene: rather than offering final words of wisdom or tender goodbyes, the dying man uses his unique position (being beyond consequences) to psychologically torment a small child with an unfalsifiable threat. Since he is about to die, the kid can never get the "nose" back, and the claim about the netherworld can never be disproven.