2010-10-25
Explanation
This comic features two scientists discussing time travel. A woman asks a man how his first time travel experience went. He enthusiastically reports that he went back and changed things so that the word "eight" is now pronounced "sodomized." When his confused colleague says "I don't get it. Why?" she then asks the classic children's joke: "Why was six afraid of seven?"
The punchline relies on the audience completing the well-known joke "Because seven ate nine" in their heads -- but with the word "ate" (which sounds like "eight") now replaced by the new pronunciation. So the joke becomes "Because seven sodomized nine," which is why the man's face falls as he realizes the horrifying implication of what has been done. He concedes with a grim "Well played." The humor works on the meta-level of someone using the godlike power of time travel for nothing more than an elaborate, obscene setup to ruin a children's joke.
The votey panel extends the gag further, with the woman adding "And nine is now your mom" -- compounding the obscenity of the ruined joke by introducing a "your mom" element, making the already crude altered joke even worse. The comic is a typical SMBC riff on using extraordinary sci-fi premises (time travel) for the most trivial and juvenile purposes imaginable.