apocalack
Explanation
This comic explores the fantasy of apocalypse survival versus its grim reality. In the first panel, a man is asked "Whatcha doing?" and explains he is "digging a bunker to live in in case the apocalypse doesn't happen."
He then launches into an existential rant: his whole life he has been hoping the apocalypse would come, but it never does. The worst things in history keep happening, but history keeps shambling forward "like a zombie except made of smaller zombies." Even when terrible events occur, people eventually recover, and in a few centuries they read about it in history class while throwing paper airplanes or rebuilding their civilizations.
He laments that for him personally, life will likely involve working a series of mediocre jobs, living in a cramped space, eating cans of beans, experiencing slow physical decline, and then dying — with "everyone expecting a Jack-o-lantern smile."
His companion asks "You got books for this bunker?" The man replies "Sorry, trying to live the fantasy."
The joke is an inversion of the typical "doomsday prepper" trope. Instead of building a bunker to survive the apocalypse, this man is building one to survive the fact that the apocalypse will NOT happen. His "fantasy" is not post-apocalyptic adventure — it is just escaping the tedious grind of ordinary modern life. The final exchange about books suggests he wants to maintain the illusion that he is preparing for something dramatic, when really he is just hiding from mundane existence. The comic satirizes how apocalypse fantasies are often just escapism from the dreariness of normal life.