2015-01-01
Explanation
The Joke
A little girl prays to Zeus, asking him to help her daddy stop being sad. She explains she tried praying to other deities but nothing happened. Zeus appears and tells her that he basically has two powers: lightning and turning into plants and animals for "erotic purposes." He asks if either would help. The girl asks, "Daddy, do you like swans?" and the father says, "Sure." The girl tells Zeus to wait, and in the final panel Zeus (in swan form) approaches the father saying, "Heard you were looking for a good time."
The Humor
The comedy is built on the contrast between the innocent setup -- a child praying for her sad father -- and the mythologically accurate but deeply inappropriate response. Zeus in Greek mythology was indeed famous primarily for two things: throwing lightning bolts and seducing people while disguised as various animals (most famously a swan, in the myth of Leda). The child innocently asks if her dad likes swans, not understanding the sexual implications, and Zeus dutifully transforms into a swan to seduce the father. The joke is that Greek mythology, when taken literally, is wildly inappropriate by modern standards, and a child sincerely praying to Zeus would get exactly this kind of disturbing result.
References
The comic references Zeus, king of the Greek gods, and his well-known mythological habit of transforming into animals to pursue romantic conquests. The swan form specifically references the myth of Leda and the Swan, in which Zeus seduced (or assaulted) Leda, Queen of Sparta, while in the form of a swan.