2014-03-08
Explanation
The Joke
The comic depicts sperm cells inside a condom having a philosophical conversation about what lies "beyond the latex." One sperm asks what might be beyond the boundary of their universe (the condom), and another dismisses the question as absurd, declaring that "by definition, there can be nothing" beyond it. The caption reads: "Sperm cosmology progressed slowly."
The Humor
The humor comes from a multi-layered analogy between human cosmology and the imagined intellectual life of sperm cells. Just as human cosmologists debate what lies "beyond" the observable universe -- with some arguing the question is meaningless since the universe is, by definition, everything that exists -- these sperm are having the exact same philosophical debate about the walls of their condom. The joke works because the sperm are technically wrong (there is obviously a vast world beyond the latex), which invites the reader to wonder whether human cosmologists dismissing questions about what lies beyond our universe might be similarly limited in perspective. The caption noting that "sperm cosmology progressed slowly" adds a final layer of absurdity by implying this is an ongoing field of study among sperm.
References
- The comic references debates in cosmology about the nature of the universe and whether questions about what exists "beyond" or "before" the universe are meaningful. This parallels positions held by some physicists who argue that asking what came before the Big Bang is nonsensical because time itself began with the Big Bang.