forest-friends
Explanation
The Joke
In the first panel, a woman in a flowing red dress stands in a forest clearing with her arms outstretched, calling "Come to me, forest friends!" in the style of a Disney princess. Birds fly toward her and a small animal approaches — the classic fairy-tale scene of a pure-hearted person communing with nature.
In the second panel, labeled "Later," a news anchor reports that scientists have announced ground squirrels are a reservoir for the Black Plague, and that the discovery was made "in a way you may find... enchanting." A squirrel sits next to the anchor, apparently now a news story.
The Humor
The joke subverts the Disney princess trope where woodland creatures are cute, harmless companions. In reality, wild animals — especially ground squirrels — carry dangerous diseases. The woman's fairy-tale commune with nature apparently led to the scientific discovery that ground squirrels harbor the plague, presumably because she contracted it.
The word "enchanting" does heavy comedic lifting, as the news anchor uses it to describe what was essentially a woman getting a medieval disease from cuddling wild rodents. The juxtaposition of the fairy-tale aesthetic with epidemiology is the core of the joke.
Broader Context
This is an example of SMBC's fondness for applying real-world biology to fictional or idealized scenarios. Ground squirrels (and other rodents) genuinely are reservoirs for Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague. The comic plays on the tension between our romanticized view of nature and the biological reality that wildlife can be genuinely dangerous.