2014-01-21
Explanation
The Joke
A mysterious figure (depicted with glowing eyes in the dark) offers a woman a choice: take the yellow pill to know all things, or take the green pill to know nothing but happiness. The woman immediately chooses the yellow pill. She then gloats: "Ha! Sucker! Now that I have all knowledge, I know how to be happy. All I have to do is think it!" She closes her eyes contentedly, having outsmarted the offer. The mysterious figure, frustrated, mutters "Dammit!" and tells her to take the green pill anyway.
The Humor
The comic sets up a classic philosophical dilemma — knowledge versus happiness — and then has the protagonist find a clever loophole. If you know everything, you would also know how to achieve happiness, making the green pill redundant. The woman essentially gets both options by choosing just one. The joke subverts the expected tragic wisdom of "ignorance is bliss" by having the character logically outmaneuver the mystical being offering the choice. The figure's exasperated "Dammit!" implies they've been running this scheme for a while and nobody has exploited this loophole before.
References
The pill choice is a reference to the "red pill / blue pill" dilemma from The Matrix (1999), where Neo must choose between comfortable ignorance and harsh truth. The underlying philosophical question echoes the classic tension between knowledge and happiness explored in works like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.