2012-01-09
Explanation
This comic presents a humorous argument that the Tree of Knowledge from the Book of Genesis was actually a metaphor for bacon. A woman with glasses makes the case to a stunned man: "Think about it. It''s tempting, delicious, forbidden to God''s chosen people, AND it''s made of fat, which is used for neural insulation." The man responds with an amazed "Whooooaaa..." The caption at the bottom states: ''Fun fact: "Tree of Knowledge" was a metaphor for bacon.''
The joke works by drawing a series of surprisingly apt parallels between the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and bacon (pork). Bacon is widely considered irresistibly tempting and delicious. Pork is forbidden (not kosher) to Jewish people -- "God''s chosen people" in biblical terminology. And the connection to knowledge is made through the fact that bacon is made of fat, and fat (myelin) is indeed used as neural insulation in the brain, which is essential for cognitive function. Each individual point is factually defensible, but the conclusion -- that the biblical Tree of Knowledge literally represented bacon -- is of course absurd, making it a parody of conspiracy-theory logic where superficial connections are strung together to reach wild conclusions.
The votey shows two small silhouetted figures looking at a giant glowing circular object (perhaps the sun or an explosion), with one exclaiming "Dammit! I was gonna make a BLT!" This implies that God destroyed the bacon/Tree of Knowledge, and someone is upset about losing their chance to make a bacon sandwich -- tying the biblical destruction back to the mundane disappointment of a ruined lunch plan.