2010-11-25
Explanation
This comic features two people discussing how every era of human civilization has unknowingly engaged in some harmful practice. The woman lists examples: Romans used lead pipes, medieval people dumped waste out of windows, and people in the 20th century played with mercury. She wonders what harmful thing we are currently doing without realizing it. The man responds that the only certainty is that whatever it is, it will be unexpected.
The comic then jumps to the year 2110 A.D. and shows a newspaper with the headline "A Mother's Love: Nature's Deadliest Poison." The joke is that the future's revelation about our era's hidden danger is something we currently consider entirely wholesome and beneficial -- a mother's love. The humor lies in the absurdity of the specific thing chosen, and it plays on the comic's recurring theme of subverting expectations. It also gently mocks the certainty with which we judge past civilizations' mistakes while remaining blind to our own.