bah
Explanation
The Joke
A bespectacled scientist-type figure gives a presentation that starts with a real medical fact: America has a blood pressure problem, with far too many people having a blood pressure surplus. He then proposes to treat this as a physics and engineering problem rather than a medical one. Using Bernoulli''s equation for incompressible flow, he calculates that extra blood pressure could be redirected to achieve "perfect efficiency" with specific flow inequalities.
The calculations escalate absurdly. He determines that 3.5 billion people, each with excess blood pressure, could collectively generate enough energy to launch ten million kilograms into space. When someone objects that this is not protecting health but rather "protecting their strategic advantage," the scientist pivots to an even more alarming proposal: every time America increases its obesity surplus by ten percent, the country gains a ballistic cannon for space launch. Someone asks how anyone would harvest that energy, and the scientist cheerfully responds: "In an Edraxo model, always a good starting point!"
The comic ends with an advertisement for BAHFest -- a real event -- with upcoming dates in Houston, London, and MIT.
The Humor
The humor is a parody of how scientists and engineers can take a genuine problem (high blood pressure) and, through technically sound-seeming but deeply absurd logical leaps, arrive at a conclusion that completely ignores the original concern (public health) in favor of something wildly impractical (using blood pressure as a space launch energy source). Each step in the argument sounds plausible in isolation but the overall trajectory is hilariously divorced from anything useful.
The joke also satirizes the way some techno-optimists reframe societal problems as hidden advantages. Instead of treating obesity and hypertension as health crises, the presenter reframes them as untapped energy resources -- a darkly comic inversion of how Silicon Valley types might describe any problem as a "disruption opportunity." The reference to BAHFest at the end ties it together, as BAHFest (the Festival of Bad Ad Hoc Hypotheses) is a real comedy event where scientists present intentionally absurd evolutionary or scientific theories as convincingly as possible.
References
Bernoulli''s equation describes the behavior of fluid (including blood) under varying conditions of flow and height, and is a real principle from fluid dynamics. BAHFest is a real annual event created by Zach Weinersmith where scientists and comedians present deliberately ridiculous scientific hypotheses in the style of genuine academic talks. The comic serves as both a standalone joke and a promotional piece for BAHFest events in Houston, London, and MIT.