gordak
Explanation
The Joke
The comic follows Gordak, a stereotypical barbarian conqueror, through a series of panels. In the first panels, Gordak conquers a kingdom, takes the bloody crown from the head of the old king, and declares himself king in classic barbarian fashion. Then a bureaucrat approaches Lord Gordak with the mundane reality of governance: they need him to consider a levy to fund farm subsidies and the status of linen for the new year.
Gordak tries to respond with his usual brute-force approach ("Gordak smash paperwork!") but the bureaucrat calmly explains that "work is the prosperity of the nation" and asks if Gordak has any relevant experience. Gordak, defeated, quietly responds "...Gordak sorry." The fearsome conqueror who toppled a king is completely undone by the administrative demands of actually running a government.
The Humor
The comic plays on the enormous gap between conquering a kingdom and governing one. Barbarian conquerors in fiction are portrayed as unstoppable forces, but the joke reveals that the real challenge is not seizing power -- it is the tedious bureaucratic work that comes after. Gordak can defeat armies and behead kings, but he is helpless against paperwork, farm subsidies, and linen quotas. The humor also comes from the tonal shift: Gordak goes from roaring battle cries to meekly apologizing to a clerk. It is a commentary on how the dramatic, violent side of leadership gets all the glory in stories, while the actual substance of governance is crushingly mundane. The comic suggests that the real reason barbarian kingdoms collapse is not military defeat but administrative incompetence.