2013-09-11
Explanation
This comic is titled "Do you ever wonder what happened AFTER a famous quote was spoken?" It depicts Winston Churchill in a formal setting, delivering his famous retort. A woman says to him, "Mister Churchill, you'''re drunk." Churchill replies with the well-known quip: "Madam, you are ugly. But tomorrow, I will be sober." This is one of the most frequently cited Churchill anecdotes, usually presented as a devastating display of wit.
However, the comic imagines what happened next. The woman responds with genuine hurt: "Jesus! Why... why would you say that? Why would you say that in front of EVERYONE?" Churchill, suddenly mortified and apologetic, stammers: "I'''m sorry, Bessie. Please don'''t cry. God, I hope this doesn'''t make things weird between us." The joke is that famous quotations are always presented as perfect mic-drop moments, but in reality, calling someone ugly to their face at a party would be a horrifyingly awkward social catastrophe, regardless of how cleverly the insult was worded.
The votey panel delivers the perfect capper: the woman shouts "Fuck you, Winston!" This strips away all the historical glamour and shows the raw, unvarnished human reaction that would actually follow such an exchange. The comic punctures the mythology around famous witticisms by showing that being verbally brilliant does not exempt you from the social consequences of being cruel. It is a funny reminder that history tends to edit out the messy aftermath of its greatest one-liners.