2012-02-26
Explanation
This comic offers a crude, irreverent imagining of the origin of the Pope'''s tall pointed hat (the mitre). In the first panel, an older man (implied to be the Pope or a high-ranking clergyman) is shown shirtless, exclaiming, "Dammit! I'''ve had another erection! Bring me a giant hat so it'''ll take all my blood just to hold it up." The second panel, labeled "Later...," shows him appearing on a balcony wearing the tall papal mitre, waving to a crowd below with his arms raised -- his problem apparently solved.
The joke is a deliberately absurd pseudo-historical explanation for why the Pope wears such an enormous hat. The comic imagines that the mitre was not designed for religious symbolism but as a practical solution to redirect blood flow away from the lower body. The humor relies on the juxtaposition of the sacred and the profane: taking one of the most recognizable symbols of Catholic religious authority and giving it a ridiculous, bawdy origin story.
The votey continues the gag with the Pope saying, "My hands won'''t behave. Bring me my scepter!" -- implying that other papal accessories and regalia were similarly invented as improvisational solutions to embarrassing bodily issues, extending the comic'''s premise that the entire pageantry of the papacy originated from attempts to manage inappropriate physical responses.