2012-01-07
Explanation
This comic draws a parallel between the Fermi Paradox and an absent father. A couple lies in bed looking at the stars, and the woman poses the classic Fermi Paradox question: "If life is elsewhere in the universe, how come we never hear from aliens?" The man responds with a personal analogy: "My dad is elsewhere in the universe, and I haven''t heard from him." The woman then notes that we occasionally get asteroids from space that contain the components of life, and the man counters that his dad sometimes sends a ten dollar bill with no return address -- establishing a darkly comic parallel between deadbeat dads and silent alien civilizations.
When the woman asks why his dad won''t visit, the man simply answers "Shame." This gives the woman an epiphany: "Huh... I think I just solved the Fermi Paradox" -- implying that aliens don''t contact us because they are embarrassed or ashamed, much like the man''s absent father. The final panel jumps to "65 million years ago" where one alien asks another how the dinosaurs liked the "giant rock collection" (i.e., the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs). The other alien sheepishly replies "About that..." -- suggesting that aliens accidentally wiped out the dinosaurs and have been too ashamed to make contact with Earth ever since.
The votey shows a dinosaur holding something and saying "These suck," presumably reacting to the aliens'' "giant rock collection" (the asteroids) just before they proved fatal. It adds a final layer to the joke by giving the dinosaurs'' perspective on the alien gift that destroyed them.