2010-10-21
Explanation
This comic presents an alternate history of the Space Race, arguing through absurd pseudo-logic that the key to long-duration space travel is sending non-monogamous gay astronauts. The reasoning chain begins with the premise that sending monogamous couples on long space trips is psychologically dangerous, and that heterosexual couples always carry the risk of pregnancy. Therefore, the comic concludes, "the only possible solution for long space voyages was to find non-monogamous gay astronauts."
The comic then reimagines Kennedy's famous Moon speech with the altered line: "We will find the gayest crew possible... We choose to send a gay spaceship to the moon this decade... not because it is gay, but because it is hard." This is a parody of Kennedy's actual 1962 Rice University speech. Khrushchev's response is similarly rewritten: "Our cosmonauts are the gayest in the world! They will ride into space like big gay Cossacks gaying their way across the eastern steppes. We will bury you! Bury you in gayness!" -- a play on Khrushchev's famous "We will bury you" declaration. The comic even extends the joke to modern NASA, which says it hopes to reach Mars in 20 years "if we can find astronauts gay enough for such a perilous journey."
The final panel reveals the framing device: a father is reading a book called "Space History" to his son while the mother objects, "Please teach our son actual history." The father responds, "First he has to know how it should have been." The votey panel shows someone asking the father "Are you fantasizing about big gay Cossacks?" to which he stammers "N-no..." The comic's humor derives from taking a quasi-logical premise and following it to increasingly absurd conclusions, reimagining the entire Cold War space competition through this single ridiculous lens.