2011-11-15
Explanation
This comic offers a humorous origin story for why cats sit on important things. In the first panel, set in prehistoric times, cave people observe a cat sitting atop their king and declare, "Behold! It sits atop the king! We must let it breed as much as possible!" The implication is that ancient humans selectively bred cats that sat on important things, interpreting the behavior as a sign of the cat's special status or divine significance.
The second panel jumps forward 30,000 years to the present day, where a frustrated modern man looks at a cat sitting on his laptop and papers, exclaiming "Dammit! How does it know to sit on important things?" The joke is that cats were essentially bred over millennia for exactly this annoying trait, because early humans mistakenly saw it as something worthy of encouragement. It is a playful riff on artificial selection and the unintended long-term consequences of selective breeding.