2014-07-18
Explanation
The Joke
A child asks "Where do babies come from?" and the parents explain: "The stork!" But rather than the traditional wholesome stork myth, they describe a grotesque parasitological process — when mommies and daddies want a baby, they inject a stork with their parasitic larva. The stork's body nourishes the larva as it matures, until one day a baby bursts forth from the stork's distended abdomen. In the final panel, one parent says to the other, "Just tell him the truth, Agnes," and she replies, "He's too young to learn about sex."
The Humor
The comic takes the classic parental dodge — "babies come from the stork" — and replaces it with an explanation that is arguably far more disturbing than the truth about reproduction. Instead of a stork gently delivering a baby, the parents describe what sounds like a parasitic chest-burster scenario reminiscent of the movie Alien. The joke is that the parent considers this horrifying biological nightmare to be more age-appropriate than simply explaining sex. The absurd disconnect between wanting to protect a child's innocence and the nightmarish alternative explanation is the core of the humor.
References
The "stork brings babies" myth is a longstanding Western folk explanation for where babies come from. The parasitic larva bursting from a host organism is reminiscent of the Xenomorph lifecycle from the "Alien" film franchise (1979 onwards).