2014-03-24
Explanation
The Joke
The comic reimagines the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah as a modern business negotiation. In the first panel, God (depicted with a golden disc/halo) tells Abraham that if he can find just fifty righteous people in Sodom, He will spare the city from destruction. Abraham says "On it!"
In the next panels, Abraham is shown on the phone, treating the deal like a business transaction. He calls the "King of Sodom" offering to save the city for "a thousand camels" and noting it'''s "like a 44% discount on projected losses." He then calls someone in "the Orient" trying to get a volume discount on fifty righteous individuals, asking if he can buy them in bulk.
The comic then reveals that "Brak was raised in a round white room with a single book containing only the most banal passages of scripture" -- suggesting someone was specifically raised to game the system and find loopholes. The final panel shows a building labeled "Eden Enterprises," and God saying "I feel like you didn'''t abide by the spirit of the bet," with Abraham offering a "free time share" and calling God "another f***er" (a potential customer).
The Humor
The comic takes the solemn biblical narrative of Abraham negotiating with God to save Sodom and reframes it as a ruthless corporate arbitrage scheme. In the original Bible story, Abraham'''s bargaining with God (from fifty righteous people down to ten) is portrayed as an act of compassion and moral courage. Here, Abraham is instead portrayed as a sleazy entrepreneur who sees God'''s moral test as a business opportunity -- trying to buy righteous people wholesale, offering the King of Sodom a discount, and even trying to sell God a timeshare.
The "Brak" subplot adds another layer: Abraham has apparently raised someone from birth in controlled conditions to be "righteous" on a technicality, manufacturing compliance with God'''s terms rather than finding genuinely good people. This satirizes how legalistic thinking can undermine the spirit of moral or religious principles.
The comic is also a commentary on how modern capitalist thinking can reduce any situation -- even divine judgment -- to a transaction.
References
- Genesis 18:16-33: The biblical account of Abraham bargaining with God over the fate of Sodom. Abraham negotiates God down from needing fifty righteous people to spare the city, to forty-five, then forty, thirty, twenty, and finally ten.
- Sodom and Gomorrah: Biblical cities destroyed by God for their wickedness (Genesis 19).
- Timeshare sales: The final gag references the notoriously aggressive sales tactics of timeshare vacation property salespeople.