2015-02-24
Explanation
The Joke
In the first panel, a scientist announces in alarm that the whole universe is imploding, with gamma ray bursts coming from every direction at once and no one knows why. In the second panel, a woman cheerfully explains: "And if you shake the universe, it heats up." She and another person respond with an excited "NEEAAAT!" as colorful glowing orbs float around them.
The implication is that the universe is actually a giant glow stick. Someone (or something) has cracked and shaken the universe, causing it to light up and heat up — which from the inside looks like a catastrophic cosmic event with gamma ray bursts from all directions.
The Humor
The comic takes a terrifying cosmological scenario — the universe being destroyed by simultaneous gamma ray bursts from every direction — and reframes it as something mundane and fun: the universe is just a glow stick being activated. The contrast between the scientist's panic and the woman's cheerful fascination provides the comedic tension. The characters inside the glow-stick universe are delighted by the pretty lights and the neat physics, completely unbothered by the fact that they are presumably about to die. It's a classic SMBC move of taking a cosmic horror and making it whimsical, while also playing on the idea that what seems incomprehensibly terrifying from one perspective might be perfectly ordinary from another.
References
- Gamma ray bursts (GRBs): Among the most energetic events in the universe, gamma ray bursts are intense flashes of gamma radiation typically associated with supernovae or neutron star mergers. Bursts coming from every direction simultaneously would be unprecedented and catastrophic.
- Glow sticks: Glow sticks work by cracking an internal glass vial, allowing two chemicals to mix and produce light through chemiluminescence. Shaking the stick helps distribute the chemicals and can make the light brighter. They also produce a small amount of heat.