adverbially-2
Explanation
This comic is about the absurdity of modifying words with adverbs to the point of meaninglessness.
A student asks: "Professor, can I put an adverb here?" The professor responds: "Good question. Let's consult the ghost of every grammarian who ever lived and who oversees all writing."
A massive ghostly green face appears and bellows: "NO!"
A beat panel follows with the student saying "...Is that it?" Then: "You've been strikingly unhelpful." The ghost snaps back: "Shh! We can hear you!"
The joke operates on multiple levels. First, there's the absurdity of the premise — that all dead grammarians have merged into a single omniscient spectral authority on language usage. Second, there's the humor of this vast supernatural being offering nothing more than a blunt, unhelpful "NO" without any explanation or nuance — which is a pointed satire of how prescriptive grammar rules are often taught as absolute commandments rather than contextual guidelines. The student's complaint that this is "strikingly unhelpful" is itself deliberately ironic, as "strikingly" is an adverb — the student is using the very part of speech that was just forbidden, in the act of complaining about the prohibition. The ghost's final "we can hear you" adds a paranoid flavor, as if the grammarian hivemind is always listening and judging your word choices.