christ-2
Explanation
The Joke
A professor (identified in the caption as Professor Ehrman) is giving a lecture in which he explains the etymology of "Christ": it comes from the Greek word "Christos," meaning "anointed one," and to be anointed is to be covered in oil. Therefore, "Jesus Christ" literally translates to "Jesus, the Oily One." He then asks the audience: "Is that what YOU would want to be called at age 14?"
The caption below reads: "Professor Ehrman proposed a novel theory for the 'missing years' of Jesus' life." The implication is that Jesus disappeared from the historical record during his teenage years not for any mystical reason, but simply because he was embarrassed by his nickname -- much like any teenager would be mortified by an uncool label.
The Humor
The comic gets its laughs by taking a perfectly accurate piece of etymology and recontextualizing it through the lens of teenage social anxiety. The idea that "the Oily One" would be a devastating nickname for a 14-year-old is immediately relatable, and applying that mundane adolescent concern to a major religious figure is inherently absurd. The "missing years" of Jesus (roughly ages 12-30, which are unaccounted for in the Gospels) are a genuine topic of scholarly and popular speculation, and the comic offers the funniest possible explanation: he was just hiding from bullies.
References
Professor Ehrman is a reference to Bart D. Ehrman, a real and prominent New Testament scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, known for his accessible books on early Christianity and biblical textual criticism. The "missing years" of Jesus refer to the gap in the Gospel narratives between Jesus's childhood appearance at the Temple (Luke 2:41-52, at age 12) and the beginning of his ministry (around age 30).