depressing
Explanation
The Joke
A person is watching the news and thinks "God, the news is depressing." They resolve to take action: "I can't just keep quiet! I've got to stand up and do something!" In the next panel, they make a dramatic vow: "Even that, I will not sleep until the world is a better place." The final panel shows a newspaper headline: "MAN DIES OF SLEEP DEPRIVATION," with a subheading noting that "Scientists say he lasted an oddly short while before dying, suggesting slightly poor health."
The comic sets up what appears to be a classic story of civic engagement and activism, where someone is moved by the state of the world to make a difference. The punchline completely deflates this noble arc -- the person's resolve not to sleep until the world improves simply results in their death, because of course one individual staying awake cannot fix systemic global problems.
The Humor
The humor comes from the brutal gap between the character's grandiose, heroic self-image and the utterly pointless outcome. The comic satirizes the kind of performative outrage where people make dramatic personal pledges in response to bad news without actually doing anything productive. The additional detail that he died "an oddly short while" before the expected timeline, "suggesting slightly poor health," adds an extra layer of sad comedy -- he was not even physically robust enough to sustain his own futile gesture for a respectable amount of time.