2015-01-23
Explanation
The Joke
A group of cultists address Satan, offering a "sacrificial ram." Satan objects: "Aw dammit guys, that's a goat." The cultists insist they are different. Satan explains that a goat is any member of the genus Capra, whereas a ram is a male sheep (genus Ovis) that hasn't been castrated. The cultists, now deflated, ask if he still wants it. Satan refuses — "No animals!" — and asks "Why would I want one? Who told you that?" The comic ends with Satan sitting alone looking annoyed, muttering "heh heh heh."
The Humor
The comic plays on the pop-culture image of Satanic rituals involving animal sacrifice, specifically the common confusion between goats and rams in occult iconography. Satan is portrayed not as an evil overlord who delights in sacrifice, but as an exasperated pedant who is annoyed that his followers cannot even get basic animal taxonomy right. He never wanted animal sacrifices in the first place and is frustrated that this rumor persists.
The humor comes from the domestication of Satan into a figure who cares more about zoological accuracy than dark rituals, and from the implication that the entire tradition of Satanic animal sacrifice is based on a misunderstanding that Satan himself finds baffling and irritating. The final panel, with Satan laughing to himself, suggests he may find the whole situation darkly amusing despite his annoyance — or perhaps someone else started the rumor as a prank.
References
The genus Capra includes goats, while the genus Ovis includes sheep. A ram is specifically an uncastrated adult male sheep. The confusion between goats and rams in occult imagery is a real phenomenon — the Baphomet figure associated with Satanism is goat-headed, while biblical references to sacrifice often involve rams (as in the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22).