2013-03-06
Explanation
This comic features aliens who have been keeping captive humans as part of an experiment, providing them with every comfort -- entertainment, expensive food, sex toys, comfortable surroundings -- but are frustrated that the humans refuse to breed. The net new humans produced: zero. In exasperation, the alien decides to pull the plug on the experiment and let the humans "rot."
The final panel shows the punchline: once the TV is removed, two humans immediately agree to have unprotected sex, with a casual "Sure, why not?" The joke works on multiple levels. It's a commentary on how modern comforts and entertainment -- particularly television and screens -- may be contributing to declining birth rates in developed nations. When people have abundant entertainment and comfortable lives, reproduction becomes less of a priority. The comic draws a parallel to observations in zoology, where animals in captivity often fail to breed despite ideal physical conditions, suggesting that humans are subject to similar behavioral patterns. It also plays on the well-known demographic trend of falling fertility rates in wealthy, comfortable societies, humorously suggesting the solution is simply to make life slightly less entertaining.