2014-03-27
Explanation
The Joke
A woman is giving a presentation about declining attendance, showing a graph and explaining that "our rate of observing is through the roof and it'''s rising. We need to change or people will stop coming here." A man in the audience asks, "What if we just put it in a different perspective?"
The next panel, labeled "Soon," shows the same presenter, but now the statistic on the board reads: "40% of babies born here can kill Macbeth!" The graph now shows an upward trend, and the audience looks impressed.
The Humor
The comic satirizes the common practice of reframing bad statistics to sound positive through misleading spin. Instead of addressing the actual problem (declining attendance or poor outcomes), the presenter simply rephrases the data in an absurdly positive-sounding way. The punchline references Shakespeare'''s Macbeth, in which a prophecy states that "none of woman born" can kill Macbeth -- meaning anyone born by Caesarean section (C-section) could potentially kill him. So "40% of babies born here can kill Macbeth" is actually just a roundabout way of saying the hospital has a 40% C-section rate, which is medically quite high and concerning. But framed this way, it sounds like an impressive achievement.
The humor lies in the absurdity of using a Shakespearean literary reference to spin what is likely a troubling medical statistic into something that sounds heroic and exciting.
References
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare: The prophecy from the three witches states that "none of woman born shall harm Macbeth." Macbeth is ultimately killed by Macduff, who was "from his mother'''s womb untimely ripped" (i.e., born via Caesarean section). The comic uses this to reframe a high C-section rate as the percentage of babies who "can kill Macbeth."