2014-04-29
Explanation
The Joke
Someone asks a man what got him into D&D (Dungeons & Dragons). He replies, "It all started back when I was conceived..." The comic then cuts to a scene labeled "Earlier..." where an angel tells God, "Hey God. A zygote was created. Roll for charisma." God rolls a die (or spinner) and says, "Dammit."
The Humor
The joke works on two levels. First, it plays on the stereotype that D&D players tend to lack charisma (social skills), suggesting that a person was destined for tabletop roleplaying from the moment of conception because God rolled poorly on their charisma stat. Second, it applies the mechanics of D&D itself -- where character attributes like charisma are determined by dice rolls during character creation -- to the real-world process of being born. The man's origin story for getting into D&D is literally that God used D&D-style mechanics to create him and rolled badly on charisma, which humorously implies that his low social skills made D&D inevitable.
References
- Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a tabletop role-playing game where players create characters with attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma) typically determined by rolling dice.
- The stereotype that D&D players lack social skills or charisma is a longstanding cultural trope.