2014-07-03
Explanation
The Joke
Three priests sit around a table looking deeply troubled. One of them says: "If God is omniscient and omnipotent... well... how could He let this happen?"
The caption below reads: "We lost a lot of good priests to the Ninja Turtles remake."
The Humor
The comic sets up what appears to be the classic theological Problem of Evil -- the philosophical question of how an all-knowing, all-powerful God could permit suffering in the world. This is one of the most serious debates in theology and philosophy. The punchline deflates this gravitas entirely by revealing that the "this" the priests are struggling to reconcile with God's existence is not war, famine, or natural disaster, but the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie remake. The joke works because it applies the weightiest theological framework imaginable to the most trivial complaint, implying the movie was so bad it constituted a genuine crisis of faith.
References
- The Problem of Evil (theodicy) is a longstanding philosophical and theological dilemma: if God is all-powerful and all-good, why does evil exist?
- The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action film directed by Jonathan Liebesman was released in August 2014 and received largely negative critical reviews. This comic was published just before its release, when trailers had already generated significant backlash.