2010-10-28
Explanation
This single-panel comic is captioned "God creates the sperm whale." It depicts a radiant, godlike sun figure hovering above the ocean, addressing a whale below with the proclamation: "You shall flourish all across the seas until it turns out some goo in your brain is really good for making candles!" The humor comes from the absurd juxtaposition of a grand, biblical-style creation blessing with the mundane and tragic historical reality of whaling.
The joke references the fact that spermaceti, a waxy substance found in the heads of sperm whales, was historically harvested and widely used in candles, oil lamps, and lubricants, which drove massive whale hunting in the 18th and 19th centuries. God's "blessing" is really a curse in disguise: the whale is given dominion over the seas, but with the darkly ironic caveat that humans will eventually hunt it nearly to extinction for a candle-making ingredient.
The votey panel continues the divine pronouncement with "Then later the Japanese will decide you're tasty," adding a second layer referencing Japan's controversial whaling practices. The comic is a characteristic SMBC blend of theology humor with real-world science and history, presenting God as a figure who either cannot foresee the consequences of creation or who delivers blessings with cruel fine print.