Gang Signs
Explanation
The Joke
A tough-looking man with a goatee is shown making an impossibly contorted hand gesture -- his hands and fingers interlock and overlap in a physically impossible way, like an M.C. Escher drawing. The caption reads: "The toughest thing about joining The Eschers was the gang sign."
The Humor
The comic plays on two meanings of "gang sign" -- the hand gestures used by real-world gangs to identify themselves -- combined with the art of M.C. Escher, who was famous for drawing physically impossible objects and optical illusions (such as staircases that loop back on themselves, hands drawing each other, and impossible geometric constructions). The gang is called "The Eschers," so naturally their gang sign would be an Escher-like impossible hand configuration where the fingers seem to loop through each other in ways that defy three-dimensional space. The humor lies in the absurdity of trying to physically perform an impossible gesture as a requirement for gang membership.
References
- M.C. Escher (1898-1972) was a Dutch graphic artist known for mathematically inspired works featuring impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, and tessellations. His most famous works include "Drawing Hands" (1948), "Relativity" (1953), and "Ascending and Descending" (1960).