Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

happy-endings

2018-07-30 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
happy-endings
Votey panel for happy-endings
This explanation is incomplete or may contain errors. It was generated by AI and has not yet been reviewed by a human editor.

Explanation

This comic takes place in a massage parlor, where a client is receiving a massage. Someone asks if they can interest the client in a "happy ending." The client awkwardly agrees, and the masseuse launches into a philosophical monologue: "There are no happy endings. There are bad endings and there are stories that haven't finished yet. Everything ends in either existential oblivion or an eternity haunted by death."

The caption reveals that the masseuse is actually an undercover cop who, along with their partner, "aren't great solicitors." The joke works by subverting the expected sleazy scenario in two directions: first, by turning the "happy ending" solicitation into a bleak existential lecture, and second, by revealing that these are undercover cops who are so bad at their job that instead of successfully entrapping the client, they just depress everyone with nihilistic philosophy. The final panel's "I don't even care now" captures the deflating absurdity of the whole encounter.

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