dinosaurs
Explanation
The Joke
The comic shows a scientist presenting updated knowledge about what dinosaurs actually looked like. She explains that many dinosaurs were covered with feathers, looked more like giant turkeys or lizards than the terrifying monsters of popular imagination. In the audience, someone asks "Are they buying it?" and another responds "I think they are buying it." The scientist continues explaining that dinosaurs had feathers, eye stalks, stilts, sombreros, and instead of roaring, they made sounds "like a fax machine." A colleague says "Let's keep going" and "They trust us."
The joke is that scientists, having successfully convinced the public that dinosaurs had feathers (which is true), realize they can keep pushing increasingly absurd "discoveries" because the public will believe anything scientists say about dinosaurs. The final panel shows a newspaper headline: "Scientists Defeated Dinosaurs (Oil, Again). Butter Now Healthy! Unicorns Probable" -- satirizing how scientific announcements are sensationalized and how public trust in science can be exploited.
The Humor
The humor operates on multiple levels. First, it plays on the genuine public surprise and resistance that occurred when paleontologists began revealing that many dinosaurs were feathered -- a finding that was true but felt disappointing to people who grew up imagining scaly, terrifying reptiles. The comic takes this real moment of "wait, really?" and imagines scientists exploiting that credulity to slip in increasingly ridiculous claims (sombreros, stilts, fax machine sounds). The escalation is perfectly paced, with each new absurd detail being accepted because the scientists have already established trust with the legitimate feather revelation.
The newspaper at the end broadens the satire to science journalism in general, where legitimate findings get mixed with reversals (butter being healthy again) and wild speculation, and the public has no way to tell the difference. The votey panel shows a scientist gleefully saying "Let's turn Pluto into a dwarf planet. And when they fail to act, we'll turn Uranus into a comet" -- referencing the real reclassification of Pluto in 2006 and suggesting scientists are on a power trip of reclassification.
References
- Feathered dinosaurs: Beginning in the 1990s, paleontological discoveries in China and elsewhere confirmed that many theropod dinosaurs had feathers, fundamentally changing our understanding of dinosaur appearance. This was met with some public resistance as it clashed with the scaly, lizard-like popular image.
- Pluto reclassification: In 2006, the International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto as a "dwarf planet," which was controversial and upset many members of the public.
- Butter/health reversals: A reference to the frequently shifting nutritional science advice, where foods like butter, eggs, and coffee are alternately declared healthy and unhealthy.