dreams-of-flight
Explanation
The Joke
The comic depicts a man dressed as an early aviation pioneer -- complete with a military-style uniform, goggles, and a grand mustache -- standing on a hilltop and delivering an inspirational speech about the future of flight. He declares that humanity's power will be "so great" that they will "not only be able to send man above mountains at speeds beyond the dreams of eagles" -- but will also "find a way to make the experience shitty." The caption below reads: "The ambition of aviation pioneers was almost boundless."
The Humor
The joke plays on the contrast between the magnificent, romantic vision of early aviation pioneers and the grim reality of modern commercial air travel. The pioneers imagined flight as transcendent and awe-inspiring, but the modern experience of flying involves cramped seats, long security lines, baggage fees, crying babies, and tiny bags of pretzels. The punchline works because it reframes the misery of commercial aviation not as an unfortunate side effect but as an active ambition -- as though making flight unpleasant was itself a heroic engineering challenge that took as much ingenuity as achieving flight in the first place. The word "almost" in the caption adds a final layer of irony, implying that even the pioneers could not have imagined just how thoroughly we would succeed at ruining the experience.