2012-12-13
Explanation
This single-panel comic is titled "Life Tip: Don't Die in Debt to a Loved One." It shows a man delivering a eulogy at a funeral, saying: "He failed at every goal that ever mattered to him. This is one of the many ways he was like Hitler." The implication is that the deceased owed the eulogist something (emotional, financial, or otherwise), and the eulogist is using the funeral as an opportunity for petty revenge by delivering a devastatingly insulting tribute.
The humor works on multiple levels. First, there is the absurdity of comparing a presumably ordinary person to Hitler at their own funeral -- one of the most socially transgressive things imaginable. Second, the comparison itself is technically about failure rather than evil (Hitler failed at many of his goals too), which makes it a backhanded insult wrapped in a factual observation. The "Life Tip" framing implies this is a cautionary tale: if you die while owing someone a favor or a debt, they may use your funeral as the one occasion where you cannot defend yourself. It is a dark joke about the social conventions of eulogies, where we normally say only kind things about the deceased, and what happens when someone decides to break that unspoken rule.