dear-bees
Explanation
The Joke
A character begins writing a letter: "Dear Bees." Someone corrects them: "Don't you mean 'Dear Boss'?" The writer responds: "No. I keep proving to you I'm cool stuff and I get nothing. I'm switching to bees." The next panel shows the letter continuing: "Dear Bees, please consider helping flowers grow and providing candy-flavored goo and honey." Then a panel labeled "Later" shows the character outdoors at night with bees swarming, with the text: "Stevie, I am not answering your prayer to make all those home girls real. It's creepy." The final exclamation is: "Bee-G-damn you!"
The Humor
The comic plays on the frustration of feeling unappreciated and the absurd solution of redirecting one's pleas from a boss (or God) to bees. The character is fed up with proving themselves to authority figures who never reward them, so they decide to petition bees instead — treating them as a more responsive higher power.
The joke escalates when the bees (or some bee-deity) actually responds, but refuses the character's request because it's creepy. The punchline "Bee-G-damn you!" is a pun on "God damn you" with "Bee-G" (also evoking the Bee Gees). The comic suggests that even if you switch to worshipping bees, the results are about the same as praying to any other authority — your requests get denied.
Broader Context
SMBC often explores themes of prayer, appeals to authority, and the futility of supplication through absurdist scenarios. This comic fits into Weinersmith's tradition of taking a mundane frustration (being underappreciated at work) and spiraling it into theological absurdity.