hell
Explanation
The Joke
The comic takes place in Hell, where a newly arrived soul is shocked that the underworld still uses medieval imagery -- pitchforks and goat-men. A demon explains that Hell has modernized: during the person's life, they collected all of his online information and were able to digitally reconstruct his brain. The soul is relieved, saying he is "part of the digital afterlife," but the demon reveals a far more sinister scheme.
Hell now takes dead people on social media who would have softened their views over time, freezes their brains at their most extreme viewpoints, and puts them in charge of religious organizations. The final panel reveals the demon's enthusiasm for the new approach: they keep people's names in use on social media to stir up outrage, and someone is getting their "inauguration paperwork" -- implying that Hell is now actively placing its digital reconstructions into positions of real-world power and influence.
The Humor
The comedy works on multiple levels. First, there is the absurdity of Hell needing to modernize its torture methods to keep up with technology. But the deeper joke is a satire of how online discourse and social media actually function in real life -- people's most extreme, least nuanced views get amplified and preserved, while the gradual moderation that comes with age and experience is lost. The comic suggests that the worst version of internet culture -- where dead people's frozen opinions continue to influence the living and where outrage is perpetually manufactured -- is literally a project of Hell. It is a dark commentary on digital legacy, ideological rigidity, and how social media incentivizes extremism.