2012-12-28
Explanation
The comic shows two hunters hiding in bushes near a trap set in a forest. The trap is a classic snare -- a rope noose on the ground with bait in the center. The bait is a box labeled "You're Free Thesaurus Is Hear." The caption below reads: "We didn't know which trap would catch the English majors, but we knew they would come."
The humor operates on the irresistible compulsion that English majors (and grammar enthusiasts in general) feel to correct language errors. The sign contains two deliberate mistakes: "You're" instead of "Your" (a possessive vs. contraction error) and "Hear" instead of "Here" (a homophone error). Additionally, "Free Thesaurus" serves as doubly effective bait -- not only is the sign linguistically wrong in ways that would drive an English major crazy, but the promised reward is itself a reference book that English majors would find appealing. The joke imagines these language-focused academics as a kind of wildlife that can be lured and trapped using their own irresistible urge to correct mistakes. It plays on the well-known stereotype of English majors and grammar pedants as people who simply cannot resist pointing out errors, even when doing so might not be in their best interest.