Bastardry
Explanation
The Joke
A professor-like figure is giving a lecture about the history of human civilization. He explains that during the last several centuries, humans have made remarkable progress in various metrics — life expectancy, per capita income, and the reduction of violence. He notes that despite being a particularly "bastardly" species prone to cruelty, humans have managed to steadily improve. He presents graphs showing upward trends in quality of life.
The professor then explains that the "quickest" way to undo all this progress would be to find a method of mass communication that promotes humanity's worst tendencies — something that highlights the most negative, tribal, and degraded aspects of human nature. At this point, someone in the audience asks, "Have you heard of Facebook?" The professor's lecture was building to a critique of social media, but the audience member beats him to the punchline. In the final panel, someone in the audience asks "Why do they keep sponsoring me?" — implying that despite the professor's damning critique, social media companies keep funding his talks, oblivious to (or unconcerned by) the criticism.
The Humor
The comic works on multiple levels. First, there is the dramatic irony of an academic carefully building a case against social media while being sponsored by that very platform. The setup is designed to sound like an optimistic talk about human progress before pivoting to reveal it was actually a warning about how easily that progress can be reversed by platforms designed to exploit our worst impulses. The punchline about Facebook lands because it names exactly the kind of platform the professor was describing — one that amplifies outrage, tribalism, and degradation of discourse. The final meta-joke about sponsorship adds an additional layer of satire about how even critics of big tech end up financially entangled with it.
References
The comic references the broadly documented trend of improving global metrics (life expectancy, wealth, reduction of violence) popularized by scholars like Steven Pinker in books like "The Better Angels of Our Nature" and "Enlightenment Now." The critique of social media reflects widespread concerns during 2020 about platforms like Facebook amplifying misinformation, political polarization, and harmful content.