2012-09-29
Explanation
This comic is built around the word "prefenestrated." An English major tells someone, "Sir, at this moment, you should consider yourself prefenestrated!" The caption below reads: "It took about ten minutes to figure out that the English major was threatening me."
The joke hinges on the word "defenestration," which means the act of throwing someone out of a window (from the Latin de- meaning "out of" and fenestra meaning "window"). "Prefenestrated" would logically mean "about to be defenestrated" -- i.e., "I'm about to throw you out a window." The humor comes from the stereotype of English/humanities majors using such obscure and elaborate vocabulary that even their threats require decoding. It also plays on the real word "defenestration," which is itself a famously over-specific term beloved by word enthusiasts -- the Defenestrations of Prague being perhaps the most well-known historical examples. The comic suggests that an English major's aggression would naturally take the form of inventing precise but impenetrable neologisms.