2012-11-18
Explanation
This single-panel comic shows two people in conversation. A person with glasses responds to the other person by saying "Ahh, so basically suicide in slow motion." The other person, wearing a vest and collared shirt, looks dejected and unhappy. The caption below reads: "This is the best possible response to someone describing his job."
The joke is a darkly humorous commentary on how many jobs feel like a slow, soul-crushing grind. When someone describes what they do for a living, characterizing it as "suicide in slow motion" is presented as the "best possible response" -- implying that all jobs, no matter how they are described, can be reduced to this bleak summary. The humor comes from the absurd bluntness of the response and the uncomfortable truth that many people feel their work is slowly draining the life out of them.
The votey panel extends the joke with a fake Python script called "sadness.py" that takes user input asking "What is your job?" and regardless of the answer, prints "So, basically suicide in slow motion." This automates the comic''s punchline, suggesting the response is so universally applicable it could be scripted -- no matter what job you enter, the output is the same grim assessment.