advanced-veganism
Explanation
The Joke
A person at a dinner table announces: "I am a sado-vegan. I only eat plants that have been proven to actively signal other plants when being killed." This inverts the entire premise of veganism. While veganism is motivated by a desire to minimize suffering, this character has taken the scientific fact that some plants emit chemical distress signals when damaged and turned it into a criterion for maximum cruelty -- specifically seeking out the plants that suffer most.
The term "sado-vegan" is a portmanteau of "sadist" and "vegan," describing someone who maintains a plant-only diet but for the opposite moral reason: not to avoid suffering, but to maximize it.
The Humor
The joke works by taking a real scientific finding -- that certain plants release volatile organic compounds to warn neighboring plants of danger -- and pushing it to an absurd ethical extreme. It also plays on the common anti-vegan argument that "plants have feelings too," but instead of using it to dismiss veganism, the comic creates a character who embraces that premise enthusiastically and sadistically. The humor comes from the complete inversion of the moral framework: same diet, diametrically opposite motivation.
The votey shows the character saying "I like to imagine Maple Trees begging to keep their sap," extending the sadistic fantasy to maple syrup production and further cementing the character as someone who delights in the imagined suffering of plants.
References
The comic references real research in plant signaling and communication. When damaged, many plants release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can trigger defensive responses in neighboring plants. This phenomenon has been documented in species such as lima beans, sagebrush, and tobacco plants. While this chemical signaling is not "pain" in any neurological sense, it is a genuine biological defense mechanism that has been studied extensively in plant ecology.