chipmunks
Explanation
The Joke
Superman announces that he is putting tiny bells on every chipmunk in France. The other heroes react with confusion: "Close — you'll never, never, never do that, Superman." Wonder Woman asks why Lex Luthor would put bells on chipmunks — in France, of all places. Batman calls in, equally baffled. Aquaman, using his underwater communication, confirms his supercomputer has found no connection between bells, chipmunks, and France. Meanwhile, the final panel reveals that the whole chipmunk-bell scheme was a distraction — someone is robbing Fort Knox.
The Humor
The comic is a parody of supervillain distraction schemes, but taken to an absurd extreme. Typically in superhero stories, the villain creates a diversion that at least has some internal logic. Here, the "diversion" — putting bells on chipmunks in France — is so bafflingly random and pointless that every hero in the Justice League gets drawn into trying to understand it. The comedy comes from watching multiple superheroes, including one with a supercomputer, waste their time trying to find meaning in something that was designed to be meaningless.
The final panel reveals it worked perfectly: while every hero was occupied puzzling over chipmunk bells, the real crime (robbing Fort Knox) went unnoticed. The implication is that the best diversion isn't one that seems threatening — it's one that's so inexplicably weird that smart people can't stop themselves from trying to figure it out.
Broader Context
This comic plays with a classic trope in superhero fiction and also functions as a broader commentary on how intelligent people can be distracted by puzzles and mysteries, even nonsensical ones. The inability to ignore an unexplained phenomenon is both a strength (scientific curiosity) and a vulnerability (wasting resources on noise). Weinersmith often explores how rationality itself can be exploited.