2012-01-06
Explanation
This single-panel comic depicts a group of Jesus look-alikes -- all with long brown hair, beards, and robes -- butting heads aggressively like rams or bighorn sheep. Two of them growl "HAR-R-RGH!" and "GRARR-RGH!" at each other while others look on. The caption reads: "Ultimately, the Jesus with the largest crown of thorns will win the right to mate."
The joke frames Jesus figures as if they were animals in a nature documentary, competing for mating rights through physical displays of dominance. In nature, male bighorn sheep and deer clash horns or antlers to establish dominance and win mates; here, the "horns" are replaced with crowns of thorns, the iconic symbol of Jesus''s suffering. The humor lies in applying cold, Darwinian natural selection language to a religious figure typically associated with peace, sacrifice, and celibacy. It also plays on the idea that if there were multiple Jesuses, they would compete in the most on-brand way possible -- through crown-of-thorns size.
The votey extends the nature-documentary parody by showing a single Jesus with an enormous, spiky crown of thorns and sharp teeth, looking fierce and aggressive, with a banner reading "King of the Jews, King of the Jungle!" This merges Jesus''s biblical title with the "King of the Jungle" epithet typically associated with lions, completing the animal kingdom metaphor.