2012-11-14
Explanation
This two-panel comic contrasts how the narrator feels about two very different categories of wrongdoing. The top panel, labeled "How I feel about serial killers," shows a woman calmly reading a book and thinking: "Well, he probably had a rough childhood and isn''t in control of his actions. Ethics and psychology are uncomfortable bedfellows." She is being thoughtful, measured, and empathetic -- considering the complex psychological factors behind extreme criminal behavior.
The bottom panel, labeled "How I feel about people who don''t pick up after their dogs," shows the same woman in a rage, screaming "I hope you die of sadness in a heap of your family''s bodies!" at someone. The contrast is the entire joke: she extends nuanced philosophical compassion to literal serial killers but reacts with unhinged, disproportionate fury to a relatively minor social offense. The comic satirizes the common human tendency to be more emotionally generous toward abstract or distant wrongdoing while being irrationally enraged by petty everyday annoyances that personally affect us.
The votey panel continues the escalation, adding "Also, people who toss away cigarette butts" with the woman shouting "You are this generation''s Hitler!" This extends the joke by showing yet another trivial offense being met with absurdly hyperbolic condemnation, reinforcing the comic''s observation about our skewed moral proportionality.