Descent
Explanation
The Joke
A man angrily declares: "I didn't 'evolve' from no monkey! I descend from two people cursed for disobeying God, and the incestuous unions of their children!" The caption below reads: "I never understood the 'argument from dignity.'"
The Humor
The comic points out the irony in the creationist objection to evolution based on the idea that it is undignified or demeaning to be related to primates. The man proudly rejects evolution in favor of a literal reading of Genesis, but when you actually spell out what that origin story entails -- humanity descending from two people who were cursed by God for disobedience (Adam and Eve), followed by unavoidable incest among their children to populate the Earth -- it is arguably far less dignified than sharing common ancestry with other primates. The "argument from dignity" is the informal rhetorical stance that evolution must be wrong because it is insulting to human dignity, but the comic reveals that the alternative origin story the speaker prefers is, by any objective measure, considerably more embarrassing.
References
- The "argument from dignity" refers to the common creationist objection that humans are too special or dignified to have evolved from other animals.
- The comic references the Book of Genesis, specifically the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the logical implication that their children (Cain, Abel, Seth, and others) would have had to reproduce with each other or with their parents.