2011-10-18
Explanation
This single-panel comic depicts a man lying in bed at night, caught in the grip of an irrational late-night anxiety spiral. His thought bubble reads: "Wait a sec... did I close the windows so tightly that air can't get in? Oh God... I bet I did... and the whole family will suffocate by morning if I don't do something! ...but... it's so warm in these blankets..." The caption at the bottom reads: "The sleepy brain: Dangerous because stupid. Safe because lazy."
The joke captures a universally relatable experience: the bizarre, illogical fears that pop into your head when you're half-asleep. The man's worry that closed windows could cause his family to suffocate overnight is absurd (houses are not remotely airtight), but it feels terrifyingly plausible to a drowsy brain that has lost its capacity for rational thought. The punchline is that the same laziness that prevents him from getting up to "save" his family is also what keeps his irrational fears from causing any real harm.
The votey extends the joke perfectly: the man thinks "Well, they're probably all dead by now. No sense losing sleep over it." This shows the sleepy brain's logic taken to its darkly hilarious conclusion -- rather than getting up to check, the brain simply accepts the worst-case scenario and uses it as a reason to stay comfortable in bed.