2013-07-02
Explanation
This comic shows two people playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. One player announces "Paper wins," but then immediately follows up with an existential observation: "But, like all victories, this one is both temporary and pointless." His opponent stares at him with visible discomfort and crossed arms. The caption below reads: My favorite game is "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Creeping Sense of Emptiness."
The humor comes from injecting bleak existential philosophy into the most trivial of contexts. Rock, Paper, Scissors is about as low-stakes as a game can get, making the nihilistic commentary about the futility of all victories hilariously disproportionate. The man treats a simple hand game as an occasion for deep philosophical reflection on the meaninglessness of human achievement.
The title joke -- "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Creeping Sense of Emptiness" -- parodies the variant game "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock" (popularized by The Big Bang Theory) by adding existential dread as a fourth element. The implication is that the creeping sense of emptiness beats everything, since no victory can overcome the fundamental pointlessness of existence.
The votey panel shows the traditional Rock-Paper-Scissors cycle diagram (rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, paper beats rock) but with a sad face in the center, reinforcing the idea that no matter who wins, everyone loses in the grand scheme of things.