2014-02-23
Explanation
The Joke
An alien reports back to his superiors about his visit to Earth. He describes humanity in the most unflattering terms possible: their oceans are polluted, their skies are smoggy, they have killed millions of species, and their own bodies are filthy with toxins. He concludes that "now would be a bad time to turn them into food." The final panel reveals a human giving a thumbs-up and saying "You survive another century, humans!" -- implying that humanity has unwittingly saved itself from being harvested by aliens precisely because it has made itself too toxic and polluted to eat.
The Humor
The comic takes a darkly ironic view of environmental destruction. Normally, pollution, species extinction, and environmental contamination are presented as existential threats to humanity. Here, the twist is that these same problems are actually protecting us -- from being eaten by aliens. The joke inverts the usual environmentalist message: instead of pollution being our downfall, it is our salvation. The final panel, with a human cheerfully celebrating survival, adds another layer of humor because the human seems to regard this as a win, blissfully unaware (or uncaring) that the "good news" is that they are too toxic to be considered food. It satirizes the human tendency to celebrate short-term survival while ignoring long-term self-destruction.