communication
Explanation
The Joke
A man tells a woman, "I feel like we don't communicate well." She agrees, saying, "Yes, me more silme more sall." In an attempt to fix the problem, she announces she will be "borrowing a method from 19th-century naval signaling" -- using flags to communicate, where each flag indicates a specific emotion. She demonstrates: a fire flag indicates anger, a rain/drip flag indicates sorrow, and a wind/spiral flag indicates love.
The man then reports that his ship was caught on an obstruction, to which she responds with confusion. He says he probably won't use the system because "that last flag was very disturbing." The final panel shows the woman sitting alone, having driven away her partner with her overly complicated communication system -- the very thing she was trying to fix.
The comic satirizes the irony of trying to solve communication problems with more complex communication systems. The woman's solution -- replacing simple words with an elaborate flag-based semaphore system borrowed from naval history -- is itself a massive failure of communication. The man cannot even understand her initial agreement with his complaint ("me more silme more sall"), suggesting the problem is far more fundamental than a flag system could solve.
The Humor
The humor operates on multiple levels. First, the woman's opening dialogue is already garbled, immediately demonstrating the very problem being discussed. Second, her proposed solution -- 19th-century naval signal flags -- is hilariously over-engineered for a domestic relationship. Third, the system immediately fails when the man tries to use nautical language back ("my ship was caught on an obstruction"), and the resulting miscommunication about what the flags mean creates a situation that drives them further apart. The final lonely panel is the perfect visual punchline: the communication system designed to bring them together has instead pushed them apart entirely.