2014-08-05
Explanation
The Joke
A man encounters a figure in a pink hooded robe and asks "Death?! What are you doing here?" The figure responds that he is not Death but rather Death's brother, Life, depicted with a cheerful smiley face. The man asks what Life is doing here. Life then asks the man how confident he is in the "structural integrity" of the expired condom he used that morning. In the final panel, the man is screaming "BRING BACK DEATH! WHERE'S DEATH?!"
The Humor
The comic plays on the personification of Death as a grim reaper figure who appears when someone is about to die. By introducing Death's brother "Life," the comic sets up the expectation that Life's visit would be good news -- the opposite of Death. Instead, Life's appearance means new life is about to be created, specifically through an unplanned pregnancy resulting from an expired condom.
The punchline is that the man finds the prospect of an unplanned baby so terrifying that he actually prefers Death to Life, inverting the normal assumption that life is always preferable to death. The man's panicked demand to "bring back Death" suggests he would literally rather die than face fatherhood under these circumstances.
The joke also works as a commentary on how the word "life" can be either a beautiful or terrifying concept depending on context -- particularly when it means an unplanned pregnancy.