Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

heavenly

2017-07-16 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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heavenly
Votey panel for heavenly
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Explanation

The Joke

A person arrives in heaven and discovers that there is no pain -- physical or emotional. They are thrilled and immediately test this by announcing that their "very person was harsh or critical" and that they "stuck a thorn in there." Nobody notices, and they confirm they can also "lose a lot of money" and nobody cares. But then, in a twist, the person starts wondering whether the absence of negative feelings means there are also no meaningful positive emotions. They look at a clock and realize the afterlife is going to feel very, very long. The final panel shows the person saying "Cool... the... nothingness of emotions" and another character replying "Brilliant."

The Humor

The comic takes the common fantasy of heaven as a place free from all suffering and follows it to an uncomfortable logical conclusion. If you remove all pain and negative emotion, you also potentially remove the contrast that makes positive experiences meaningful. Without the ability to feel hurt by criticism, embarrassed by failure, or anxious about loss, the heavenly existence becomes emotionally flat -- a kind of blissful numbness that quickly starts to resemble boredom or existential emptiness. The punchline lands on the realization that an eternity without emotional stakes of any kind might be its own form of torment, turning the "paradise" premise neatly on its head.

View History (1) Original Comic